Seeker

Because it is  Thanksgiving Day  in the USA and although it's just another gloomy November Thursday here in the UK I've been thinking about thanksgiving in general. There are times when it is hard to feel grateful, whether as a result of personal circumstances or unwelcome events around the world just now. There's certainly no shortage of the latter. In her blog Over the Water in a 2012 post entitled  'Thankful Thursday/Fearful Friday' Rosalind Hughes asks "is thankfulness a feeling, an action or an outcome?" She suggests that Thanksgiving Day (in the USA) is "...about action rather than feelings. Will we act out of fear, that all may at any time be lost, or thankfulness that hope endures regardless? Will we share the relief and the contentment that some of us enjoyed today, or grasp it in case it is in short supply? Either is a rational response to a cathartic gratitude; but faith is not always about the most rational response. Sometime...

Many schools and churches celebrate a Harvest Thanksgiving service around this time. In current form this tradition was started by an eccentric Vicar in Cornwall , England in the 19th century, but its roots go back thousands of years.  From the time that stone-age hunter-gatherers changed from a nomadic to an agrarian way of life and cultivated plants for food on a regular basis and domesticated animals, the beginnings and end of harvest seasons became hugely important - a cause for celebration and establishment of associated rituals. When the ancient Hebrews began to settle in the rich and fertile land of Canaan they adapted their worship of God to the seasons of the farming year. In this new land God promised that they would enjoy: "...a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, a of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread ...

I've missed a couple of days of Lent thankfulness posts - good intentions not fulfilled. Today is not for something ordinary, but for someone very special. Today I am thankful for the life of Keith Weston, a faithful and prayerful preacher and minister of the gospel and a friend. I have had reason to thank God for him on many previous occasions, especially when he acted in his retirement as locum training incumbent during my husband's curacy. He was such an encouragement to him and also to me.  He graciously agreed to preach on the occasion of my first Holy Communion as a newly ordained priest. That was 14 years ago and I still remember his sermon. The sermon at his thanksgiving service this afternoon was also a great one. Including a masterful romp through most of the the first 10 chapters of Romans, Tom Wright preached on Romans 8: 28b "...those whom he called he also justified;   and those whom he justified he also glorified." I especially like the way...

What if the whole world overflowed with gratefulness?  I love this serene and hopeful prayer of thanksgiving by Br. David Steindl-Rast. It has beautiful images and music and a vision of a world overflowing with gratefulness.