Luke 10:38-42 “Thankful for Each Other”
Some of you may be thinking that it is a strange feeling to be in church on a Thursday morning rather than Sunday. It may throw off your internal calendar a bit. You might think that this is like a regular Sunday and do your regular Sunday things. You know, take a nap, read a magazine, go for a stroll on the beach! You might forget that there is still a lot of work to do today! You may have to rush out of here to clean the house for guests, bake some pies, fry some turkeys.
What many people do not realize is that Thursday was a regular day of worship for the Pilgrims. It was known as mid-week service to God. It was a full worship service with a regular sermon! This is why Thanksgiving is put on a Thursday as a day of Thanksgiving to God rather than Sunday—which in some ways today would be more logical.
The other thing that may not be known so much today is that there were many “Thanksgiving Days” in the year 1621 at Plymouth, not just the one famous one. Indeed, the records show for instance that there was period of drought for several weeks in the summer prior to that big feast that we remember as Thanksgiving number one. The people prayed hard to God for rain. The harvest was about to whither completely in the heat when it did finally rain. Naturally, there was a thanksgiving worship service after that. This is a good reminder that we should always be thankful to God for every blessing, not just count those blessings once a year at the Thanksgiving table.
First point: Thanksgiving is about giving thanks to God. We must be mindful that in this day and age, some are gathering today around the table, eating turkey, but not recognizing God. Those might just call it “turkey day.”
On that special day (it was actually four days long) that the Pilgrims decided to celebrate the Harvest Home festival in 1621, they had so much to be thankful for. The previous winter they had lost more than half of their people to hunger and illness. In fact, by Fall of 1621, there were only four adult women left in Plymouth. So, if you have an image of all the women working all day to feed the men, wipe that out of your mind. The men cooked the meal. They had to. Not enough women left.
And actually, get out of your head the idea that it was only the New Englanders who were engaged in the cooking. You see, Governor William Bradford had invited the chief of the Wampanoags to come to celebrate as a gesture for all of their help in teaching how to grow corn and other native plants. His name was Masasoit. Well, Masasoit came with ninety other Wampanoags. Just imagine that you invite over your brother to Thanksgiving and he brings about a hundred in-laws with him! What would you do? The chief ordered his people to go out and shoot some deer and bring in other foods. At that time there were 52 Pilgrims and over 90 Wampanoags! In other words, the Wampanoags made the meal! The feast actually went on for four days because they were feasting and cooking at the same time. In many ways, I look at this and see that it was a celebration of the relationship that had been made between the Pilgrims and Wampanoags as much as a celebration of the harvest!
And, that will be my second point this morning. When looking at the story from the Bible about Mary and Martha, I see the same thing happening. Unexpected guests come. Food needs to be prepared. Yet, the relationships need to be affirmed, too. This is just as important. When we think of Thanksgiving, we don’t just think about the food, we think about the people.
I remember when I was quite young one particular Thanksgiving at which that point was really impressed upon me. The rule in our house was that my mother would spend about two days making the Thanksgiving meal from scratch. Nothing pre-prepared would be used. The pies were all fresh. The cranberries were soaked for days and boiled with sugar. Short of churning her own butter and plucking the bird, my mother did it all.
Of course, this meant the kitchen was effectively closed for two days. For all the greatness and wonder of the final prepared feast, we will have fasted in equal portion. So, the night before Thanksgiving all of the kids, and there were four of us, were hungry and wondering when the dinner was going to be served. My mother was grumbling as she always did whenever she had to cook anything—amplified for the Thanksgiving meal. (I have inherited that family tradition of grumbling while I cook—even though I enjoy it.) So, my mother whipped out a package of hotdogs and a loaf of Wonder Bread and threw the hot dogs into a pot of boiling water (These were the days before microwaves). Out came the ketchup, and we were all happy little campers again.
As I recall, it was my twin brother Erik who first fell to the effects of food poisoning. Then my older sister. Then my younger sister. Finally I had my turn at driving the porcelain bus—as I once heard it referred to in polite company. There my mother had worked for two days to prepare the meal, but alas none of us could eat it. My mother and father had not eaten the hotdogs, so they were not taken ill, but as for the rest of us, we felt very little like sitting at table much less eating. Actually I recall the smell of the roasting turkey making me feel nauseas.
In spite of not being able to eat, I recall that being one of the best Thanksgivings ever. We were all really happy to still be alive, not in hospital. We all had a story to tell. We all had compassion for the other. And, the Thanksgiving feast actually lasted several days as one by one we would regain our appetites and consume from the leftovers. The family as a unit was greatly reaffirmed that year! The relationship among us was made greater!
One more thing that is not generally envisioned when we think about the first Thanksgiving is that at Plymouth colony the rule was that everyman who was in the militia, which was every man, had to bring a loaded musket to worship. This was because this is when the group was the most vulnerable as they were all in one place and otherwise distracted. The actual historical account of the first Thanksgiving by Governor Bradford also mentions that when the Wampanoag Tribe arrived for the feast, there was a display of musketry. We do not shoot off guns at the Thanksgiving meal to impress our guests anymore! To be sure, the guns were not to shoot the Wampanoag, but to be at the ready if the enemies of the Wampanoag (and there were many) were to come and attack. So, there was a kind of a mutual protection pact in place. The display of force was for the Wampanoag to feel assured that their alliance with the Pilgrims was of benefit for mutual protection and peace. In other words, they knew who their neighbors were!
In our Bible reading from Luke, I find it interesting that the part of the Bible that comes right before the text about Mary and Martha is when a lawyer asks Jesus “Who then is my neighbor?” Jesus responds with the story of the Good Samaritan. Right after those words form the parable, Martha invites Jesus to her home. She is trying to be a good neighbor to the Lord. She is trying to offer him a roof over his head and a good meal. And, we have to see that it would have been all but unheard of that a woman would have asked a man she had not known before to come into her house like that! Martha is really trying to go the extra meal in being the good neighbor to Jesus, putting her social status in jeopardy to do so.
This reminds me of how we here on the Westside of Kauai also really go out of our way to help out our neighbors. The good Christians on this side of island this last week have put out hundreds of meals to help their neighbors in need. And, that is a rightful part of the Thanksgiving holiday. In our giving of thanks we help our neighbor, too. Relationships are affirmed when giving thanks.
My last point as it relates back to our text from Luke is that we must be satisfied in order to be truly thankful. Mary was completely satisfied just sitting there loving on her Lord. Martha was not going to be satisfied until her sister Mary was made to be just as anxious as she was. Yes, satisfaction is important. I want you to leave here this morning with that same sense of satisfaction that Mary had in the Lord. It is enough to have sat in the presence of Jesus! In fact Jesus tells us that Mary has chosen the better part.
What happens to a person if they come to a Thanksgiving meal and are never satisfied? Well, we must imagine that they will go back for seconds, then thirds, then fourths, and so on. Soon they will feel sick and bloated. They will be in discomfort. They will never come to my favorite part of the meal where you stretch out on the floor and doze in a tryptophan induced stupor, completely satisfied and comforted by good food and relaxed company.
If you are not satisfied, then you are not fully thankful! Be satisfied with being in the presence of the Lord this Thanksgiving. Let all the anxiety you may have this day about all that you still have to do be given over to Jesus.
Three points again: Give thanks to God in heaven who is deserving of your thanks. Celebrate your relationship with God and with others this day. And lastly, be satisfied that you are in the presence of God this Day. Relax. Enjoy Christ in your life.
Amen.