What are we saying Thank you for ?

       In less than a month many people will be rejoicing, countless children will be excited beyond comprehension, all at the bounty of gifts and presents bestowed on them. Adults are not, and will not be immune even if their hysteria is marked in calmer tones as they try to figure out all the new things a new phone or laptop can do ( and figuring out how to do it! ). Perhaps there will be a new car in the mix for a few. This seems a quintessentially American version of a holiday that is named for a holyday that derives from pagan celebrations. Perhaps then it is all too reasonable then that such a holyday is butchered into a cosmic day of unbridled materialism. Will we be thankful then? Will we be thankful and appreciate all the 'stuff' we have received, that we may have even asked for or humorously, bought our most deserving selves? Will we even contemplate the awesomeness and be thankful for God taking on our humanity to the full, from it's most vulnerable state as a newborn ( and then onto manhood )?

         Perhaps "it's a good thing" ( as Martha Stewart would say ) that we have this day today to be appreciative of all that we have in this life and to not yet ave it associated with all the things we want or feel we need or clamor for.  Today may be a day of unbridled eating and sadly perhaps, recuperating and  preparing for mad shopping dashes at ungodly hours this evening or before the buttcrack of dawn tomorrow, but our hearts are in thankful moods.

        In most churches, Thanksgiving is perhaps oddly not a "Holy Day of Obligation" but Thanksgiving is a day when many of the faithful and faithful oriented know enough to say thanks for all the graces we have and none of them are the material things we so often find ourselves thanking God for. The idea that God gives us "stuff' is the errant theology of Paula White's  "prosperity Gospel". Today's reading would lead us ( and any Christian truly worth their salt ), to a different conclusion while still knowing that it is God, the Creator, that we have to give thanks to.

      The only possible scintilla of redemption for a 'prosperity gospel' is that any of the things we do wind up with are to be used for the glory of God and the mission of our Creator. That is not to say something as stupid as 'see how well I am doing, blessed by God, you too can have a private jet for your own use if you just have faith!  That is total BS.  However it is that we do wind up with good 'things' , it is not because God loves us more than someone else. God loves "them" at least as much as God loves me. That is the truth. If you have twenty pair of shoes, besides the question of how you got them or why you feel you needed them, the true question is "how can I help someone who has no shoes?"

         While we carefully digest this passage from Joel today, let us consider what we really have to be thankful for. Waking up might be number one. Number two is easily, the smile and warmth from knowing just how much God loves us. We cannot forget that God loves us all and will always provide for us.  That is something to be thankful for.  Just let us ask ourselves this day and in the coming weeks what is is that will actually make us happy and fulfilled as believers, as people, as beloved brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. 

Joel 2:21-27

Do not fear, O soil;
   be glad and rejoice,
   for the Lord has done great things! 
Do not fear, you animals of the field,
   for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit,
   the fig tree and vine give their full yield. 

O children of Zion, be glad
   and rejoice in the Lord your God;
for he has given the early rain for your vindication,
   he has poured down for you abundant rain,
   the early and the later rain, as before. 
The threshing-floors shall be full of grain,
   the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 

I will repay you for the years
   that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
   my great army, which I sent against you. 

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
   and praise the name of the Lord your God,
   who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 
You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
   and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other.
And my people shall never again
   be put to shame.