Thanksgiving 2015

1. Instead of complaining about the sink of dirty dishes, we should be thankful that we have plenty of food to eat.

2. Instead of complaining about the piles of laundry that need to be washed, folded and put away, we should be thankful that we have clothing to wear.

3. Instead of complaining about making beds, we should be thankful that we are warm and comfortable at night.

4. Instead of complaining about the kids’ bathroom – with its mess, towels all over the place and toothpaste on the mirror – we should be thankful for the conveniences of bathrooms.

5. Instead of complaining about finger smudges all over the refrigerator, we should be thankful that we can afford to fill it with food.

6. Instead of complaining about the ever-slamming screen door we should be thankful that we have children who are healthy and able to run and play. We have so many things to be grateful for. We give thanks for the abundance of food we enjoy, and for those who grow it. We give thanks for the health of our bodies, which enable us to be here this morning to participate in this service, for our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual well-being.   We gives thanks for the undeserved gift of being born in these United States of America, for the many freedoms we enjoy and especially for those who stand guard to protect those freedoms. We give thanks to our employers who provide us with sustenance and meaning in our lives. We give thanks to God for the blessing of our religious communities which sustain us through times both good and bad, and for our religious teachings that inspire us to live righteous and worthy lives. And we give thanks for our families and those with whom we share this sacred occasion. The commentator Ellen Goodman reminds us as follows:   “. . . as I survey the future foodscape, it isn’t the feast that impresses me.  A middle-class child of 20th century America, I am no longer amazed by a 25-pound turkey.  What seems more rare is the family that will come to share it.  After all, this is what we have learned about our country, isn’t it?  That in America, food is plentiful but family is scarce.  That in America, Thanksgiving was once a day to be grateful for the good luck of the land.  That now we celebrate something that seems every bit as subject to weather patterns and disasters:  our endangered families.  That the holiday is less about food and more about that scarcer source of human sustenance.” May we be blessed each day to find something for which we can be thankful, and in this way every day can be for us a day of Thanksgiving.