A Harvest Of Thanksgiving

November 24, 2021 - Thanksgiving Eve

Hope Lutheran Church

Rev. Mary Erickson

Joel 2:21-27; Matthew 6:25-33

A Harvest of Thanksgiving

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanksgiving is a holiday of intentionality. We pause our normal daily rhythms to center specifically on gratitude. It’s a day when we count our blessings.

On this Thanksgiving Eve we hear scriptural passages appointed for this evening. The Old Testament reading is from the book of Joel. What prompted Joel to write his prophecy was a plague of locusts. A great army of locusts descended on Israel and utterly consumed every plant. Even the bark of trees was stripped. The land was left devastated. It was a national disaster of catastrophic proportion.

It may seem absurd to select our Thanksgiving Eve reading from a book describing such a sweeping destruction. Surely there would be another passage somewhere within the pages of this good, good book for an evening such as this, a passage not associated with devastation and ruin!

But maybe that’s the challenge for us. It’s easy to lift our hearts and voices in praise when life is good. We can be rejoicing when there are sheaves aplenty to be brought in. When we see the harvest of sown fields, fruits of the orchard, we readily offer our praise and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving comes easy in times of plenty. But where are our praises during seasons of want?

Maybe Joel is calling us to a harvest of thanksgiving even when there is no harvest to be had. How do we find gratitude and praise after the locusts have struck?

Every Thanksgiving we bring more than bounty to our tables. Yes, the table is laden with turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and candied yams. But is there also room at the table for emotional dishes more of the variety present at a Seder meal? Can we bring the bitter herbs and the salt water of our tears? Is there a space for the apple charoset of our exhaustion, the unleavened bread of our unfulfilled yearnings?

Like the empty chair for Elijah, Joel calls us to make room for our sorrows at the Thanksgiving table. Comingled with our thanksgiving, we also acknowledge our fear, confusion, worry, and sorrow. Tragedy and suffering and want are present in every one of our lives.

Joel calls us to bring all of our complexities and the full range of our concerns to the Thanksgiving table. This holiday is intended to go deeper than just a thin veneer of artificial happiness and cheer. Whether we mark the day by ourselves or with a large gathering, all who come to the table of thanks come with their own set of concerns and fears. Our intention to give thanks will be incomplete unless it also welcomes and embraces these burdens.

From the barrenness of their devastation, Joel calls Israel to hope. “Do not fear,” he says. “Do not fear, O soil, do not fear, you animals of the field!” Joel points them to the steadfast love of God who renews the face of the earth. “Your threshing floors shall be full of grain, your vats shall overflow with wine and oil.”

Jesus says the same thing in our reading from Matthew: do not fear. He asks, “Can worrying add a single hour to the span of your life?” Jesus calls us to trust in our God who provides for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. God will provide, even when the future seems uncertain. Even when evil looms large, God is faithful.

In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom wrote of her experience in the death camp Ravensbruck during World War II. Corrie’s family in Holland had hid Jews from the Nazis. The day came when their actions were exposed. The ten Booms were arrested.

Corrie and her sister Betsie were sent to Ravensbruck. They were able to secret in a Bible with them. That Bible uplifted their hearts and allowed them to inspire their fellow prisoners.

But their situation was dire. On top of the continual threat of punishment and the gnawing hunger, their barracks was filled with fleas. They drove Corrie batty. She complained to Betsie.

Betsie recalled their devotional reading that morning from First Thessalonians: give thanks in all circumstances.

Giving thanks in all circumstances wasn’t intended to sugar coat their suffering. It didn’t diminish the reality of their hardships. It was a command to hope. Betsy called on Corrie to give thanks.

Corrie wrote: “We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!’ I stared at her; then around me at the dark, foul-aired room.

“‘Such as?’ I said.

“‘Such as being assigned here together.’