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Thanksgiving Message

In our home, Sunday dinner was always served at lunch time. That's the way it was when I was growing up and it was the big meal of the week with roast beef, mashed potatoes, vegetables and gravy, with a fresh pie topped with a bit of ice cream for dessert. You could count on it. You could also count on my dad inviting a few folks from church to share the meal and sometimes he'd lose track and invite a few too many. Whenever this was the case, my four siblings and I could expect to hear mother whisper the instructive code, FHB, which meant Family Hold Back. It meant we were all to take smaller portions to ensure the guests had enough to eat.

There are still times when I hear a voice inside me using the same code to suggest I hold back. With Thanksgiving approaching in this world the mere mention of tariffs, wars, climate change, pandemics, crime, and AI can have us holding our collective breath. The accompanying voices of worry, blame and anger can so easily drown out any thoughts of giving thanks. And as for the giving part of thanksgiving, in a world of such uncertainty it seems more appropriate to batten down the hatches and hold tight. But is this really a time to hold back?

Martin Rinkart was a Lutheran pastor who served in Saxony during not only the Thirty Years War, (1618-1635), but the plague that followed in 1637. The disease claimed his wife as well as the lives of all the other pastors in his town. At one point during the epidemic, it is said he was conducting fifty burials a day. If ever there was a time for FHB it was then yet instead, Rinkart wrote a poetic prayer of thanksgiving for his children to offer to God before every meal. The prayer was later set to music and has been sung as a hymn ever since.

In this beloved hymn, Now Thank We All Our God, Martin Rinkart was not oblivious to the troubles of his day, but rather driven by a gratitude to the God who holds nothing back in pouring out his love for this world. We continue to experience God's generous love in the bounty and beauty of creation, but above all in the gift of God's Son, Jesus Christ, who offered his life on the cross that we might know life eternal.

Family Hold Back never meant that we are to tighten our purse strings for self-preservation's sake, but rather it was a call to make sacrifices to ensure that there was room at the table for one and all and that everyone was fed and cared for. Jesus has welcomed us to his table and fed and nourished us with love divine. Let us with thankful hearts hold nothing back in offering our gifts this Thanksgiving and lifting our voices in hymns of praise.

Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hand and voices,
who wondrous things hath done, in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mother's arms, hath blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Due to the Canada Post strike, we have not been able to mail Thanksgiving envelopes, however they are available in the pews and from the Church Office. Alternatively, you can make a gift online.

In Christ,
Peter Holmes

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