St. John
Lutheran Church

Autumn is, indeed, finally making itself known once again here in Western New York, preparing us
for the Winter. Who knows what Winter will bring this year? Nevertheless, Autumn here is like the revelation of a tiny slice of paradise, beginning with big slices of pie and turkey. In that order, I don’t care, I love pie. And I love turkey. I can see no possibility of spoiling my appetite for Thanksgiving Dinner with a big slice of pie before the turkey is carved. I’ll do just fine with a plate of turkey even though the pie may be in my tummy already.

But that would be out of order, wouldn’t it? Pie before the turkey? Bad form is bad form, and it’s a sign that we’ve lost a little slice of our civilization. I guess I’ll discipline myself and have the pie after Thanksgiving Dinner, in deference to good manners. After all, we are not barbarians, bent on satisfying our bases appetites with utmost immediacy. No pie! Not till after supper.

This time.

It is the one true American holiday, and it is a neat trick that God pulled off in the founding of our country, that it would be a purely American holiday, imitated in other places, but unmatched in its grandeur, yet, as others have noted, there are no real songs for thanksgiving, no gifts given, no specific occasion remembered; it is turkey and dressing and a blessing for God. Therefore, as long as there is an American, there will be a Thanksgiving, an American Thanksgiving, to which even the most hard-hearted and militant atheist must put his mind for just a millisecond: God gave these gifts…

…and you’re off and running, either considering God and his majesty and his kindness and willingness to deliver the fat of the land even to sinful people, or you’re in denial, proving with whatever methods you can lay your hands on that there is no God. Yes, Thanksgiving is unmatched in its grandeur, in that a nation has encoded in it a special day just to stop and consider the possibility that, maybe, perhaps, just maybe there is a good and gracious divine person who loves us all very dearly. Those of us who embrace the possibility with faith, namely that there is a God, and he reveals himself to us in His Son Jesus, our Lord and Savior, eat that big slice of turkey and that big slice of pie with greater joy and greater pomp. All during the days of our prosperity, we remember that it comes to us in a morsel of bread and a sip of wine, the austerity measure preceding all our prosperity. It is the death of Christ which gives us true freedom, and it is his blood which bought us into a true kingdom which has no end.

Enjoy America while you can, and praise Him who continues to smile upon us as a nation.

Happy Thanksgiving

Pastor Duke