National Day of Thanksgiving
Thursday, November 24, 2011
“Unexpected Thanksgiving” (Luke 17:11-19)
It was an unexpected thanksgiving. I mean the thanksgiving recorded in today’s reading from Luke 17, the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. The thanksgiving that we find there was quite unexpected. And that may give us some guidance and inspiration for the rest of our day today, that we too may do some “Unexpected Thanksgiving.”
Day of National Thanksgiving
Thursday, November 25, 2010
“A Day of Publick Thanksgiving and Prayer” (Psalm 67)
“Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.” Including this nation, the United States of America! And so this day is a Day of National Thanksgiving, a day set aside to do just what the psalmist declares. On this day the people of our nation gladly and joyfully praise God for his many blessings on this good land he has given us.
Well, at least that’s the idea. How many still bother to thank God on Thanksgiving Day is a question I’d rather not know the answer to! I’m sure the number would be distressingly small. But if other folks are failing to fulfill the purpose of Thanksgiving Day, that’s their problem, they’re the ones who are missing out. In any case, we are here, you are here, and you have come to give thanks to God. So please, let’s do!
The practice in America of setting aside a day to thank God for his goodness to us–this goes back to the days of the Pilgrims in the early 1620s. But as far as a National Day of Thanksgiving, the first one we had as the United States of America was in 1789, just shortly after our Constitution went into effect. The proclamation was issued by President George Washington during his first year in office.
I want to read this proclamation to you, because it makes pretty much the same points I was planning to make today anyways. And that’s because the things called for in this proclamation are basically what the Bible calls us to do. These are laudable goals we find here. So now I’ll read the proclamation–you have it there on your bulletin insert–and then I’ll expand on it. This is to proclaim, as President Washington calls it, “A Day of Publick Thanksgiving and Prayer”:
St. Matthew Lutheran Church 