Thanksgiving Homily
For All That is Our Life
by
Rev. Joy Atkinson
Presented to the Unitarian
Society of Santa Barbara
November 18, 2007
©2007 by Rev. Joy Atkinson
Santa Barbara, California
The hymn we just joined in singing
expresses gratitude for the gift of life--and for all that occurs in life--even
the heartbreaks, the tragedies, the rough times. How is it possible to offer
praise and thanks for all that is
our life--the good, the not so good, and the downright awful?
Well, since this is our Thanksgiving
service, let's take a look at the Pilgrims. We learn in school that the first
Thanksgiving took place in October, 1621, when the Pilgrims sat down to a
sumptuous feast with the Native Americans. Actually the first official
Thanksgiving, by presidential proclamation, was declared in 1863 by President
Lincoln. But the Pilgrims did have a special feast in 1621, to celebrate the
plentiful harvest of their first year in the New World. They offered prayers of
thanks, they broke bread, they ate, they celebrated, and the Native Americans,
much to the surprise of the reserved Puritans, danced. But the events leading
up to this feast were anything but joyful.
In their native land, England, these
Puritan separatists were hounded because of their religious beliefs, their
refusal to accept the authority of the Church of England. They were thrown in
prison, had their homes taken away, and were watched and harassed day and
night. Finally, they left all behind and fled to Holland, where there was more
tolerance for their views.
After a few years, they decided that
to preserve their religion and way of life, they needed to set up their own
community, so, financed by a small English company to which the Puritans would
give art of their earnings, they and about 50 others recruited by the company
set sail on the Mayflower for the New World. They expected to end up in
Northern Virginia, but they wound up 300 miles to the north at Cape Cod, and
from there they made their way to Plymouth The two-month ride across the ocean
was no pleasure cruise. In fact, the ship almost disintegrated in heavy gales,
and though it was repaired, they lost their mast and rudder and had to resort
to oars. Worse hardship came when they landed, in the dead of winter, and tried
to eke out a living. They had little to eat, mostly dried meat saved from their
journey, and many developed scurvy from a lack of fruits and vegetables. By the
end of a very rough winter, half of them died, and most of the others were ill.
Had it not been for an Indian brave named Squanto, who met the Pilgrims that
spring and showed them how to plant corn and track game, and what plants were
safe to eat, the Pilgrims might have been wiped out altogether.
The story of Squanto, a forgotten hero
in this real life drama, also has its hardships. By the time Squanto greeted
the Pilgrims that spring, saying "Welcome Englishmen" in perfect
English, he had been across the Atlantic four times, and could speak English
and Spanish fluently. He was from the Pawtuxet tribe, which lived in the Cape
Cod area. When he was young he was captured and taken to England, as were other
Native Americans at the time--they were curiosities that wealthy British would
employ. Squanto was well treated for the seven years he lived in England, but
he longed to return to his tribe, so finally he was sent back on a ship bound
for Massachusetts, which was under the command of John Smith--the same Captain
whose life was saved by Pocahontas. Squanto rejoined his tribe, but soon he and
27 other Pawtuxet braves were captured, put in chains and brought to Spain to
be sold as slaves. Fortunately, Squanto was bought by a monk who hated slavery.
The monk brought him to his monastery where he was nursed to health, and then
released. Squanto made his way to England, where he met a humane merchant who
sent him home again. But this time he returned to an empty village. His entire
tribe was wiped out by a plague.
Squanto was heartbroken. He was the
last Pawtuxet. He was taken in by the nearby Wampanoags, who were the other
guests at the Thanksgiving feast. It was Squanto who had arranged a peace
treaty with the Wampanoag chief Massasoit, who would have wiped out this little
band of Pilgrims. So Squanto saved their lives twice: by showing them how to
grow and find food, and by averting a massacre. The Pilgrims called him a
saint, and believed that God had sent him to aid them.
Now, in October of 1621, when the
Pilgrims sat down to dinner together with Squanto, Chief Massasoit and the
Wampanoag tribe, they all could have had one heck of a gripe session. The
pilgrims could easily have said: “Boy, last winter was a disaster. We lost half
our number, and almost all the rest of us got so sick we couldn't do much. Now,
here we are in this wilderness, and not all of the tribes around here are as
friendly as you guys.” Squanto certainly had his personal reasons to complain:
“you think that's bad. Well, not only have I lost some precious time in
my life being unwillingly transported far from my homeland and sold as a slave,
but I finally returned to find my whole tribe, my family dead of some horrid
disease-I'm the only one left!” Even Chief Massasoit could have voiced a beef.
After all, the Pilgrims just came over and took a part of their territory, and,
as history records it, the Chief agreed to a treaty with the Pilgrims that he
didn't really understand. But this assembled crowd did not whine and fuss about
their very real hardships. They expressed deep thanks to their respective gods,
and they celebrated!
This is what giving thanks for all
that is our lives is about. It involves an acknowledgement that life is a gift,
even if we don't get all we want. Life is a gift even when there are hardships,
if fact, adversity itself can be a gift.
Most of us have times in our lives when we keenly feel our disappointments, the things we lost out on, the difficulties we've suffered. And most of us at least sometimes get cranky and maybe a bit whiny about those losses and hardships. And I'll bet we also know people who, unfortunately, make something of a profession out of lamenting their losses and missed chances.
It's easy to forget that life is a gift, one we did not earn and could not ask for. To remember the giftedness of life is to be truly thankful. I'm not talking about the old habit of counting our blessings and being thankful for them alone. The problem with doing that is that you can always come up with some things that feel like curses on the minus side of life's balance sheet. “Let's see. That was a blessing, but this was a curse, I'm grateful for this, but that was a nuisance.” I'm speaking about an overall attitude that looks in gratitude upon life as a gift---all that is our life, the good and the bad.
And this incredible gift, as Squanto and the Puritans, and the Wampanoags knew, this gift is worthy of our praise and our gratitude. With an attitude of gratitude toward the giftedness of life, we can learn not only to embrace all that is our lives, we can also better combat the forces of negativity and cynicism in the world, and our good and noble efforts to improve the world will take on the added power of our genuine hope, and our faith. This Thanksgiving, may our hearts be filled with deep gratitude and praise.