Calvin Synod Herald, 2016 (117. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2016-11-01 / 11-12. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

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six or seven of the Pilgrims were sick. Eighteen women denied themselves food so that their children could eat. Thirteen of them died. Half of the 102 Pilgrims died of malnourishment, disease, and exposure. Only about 30 of those who survived were over the age of 16. Those who died were buried in unmarked graves because the pilgrims did not want the natives to know how small their numbers had become.

In the spring they planted three crops; English Peas, Barley, and Indian Com. The peas were planted too late - though they came up beautifully, the hot sun parched the blossoms and the plants died. One of the Pilgrims described their barley crops as "indifferent." Apparently the barley was not worth harvesting either. Only the com survived. Of course, not the com we are used to with big, plump yellow kernels; this was "Indian Com" with ears only two to three inches long and kernels of different colors. The Pilgrims harvested only twenty acres. And to top it all off, a second shipload of thirty-five settlers arrived without any provisions because they expected to live off the crops the first settlers had raised. By the end of their second winter in Plymouth, food had to be rationed again: five kernels of com for each person per day.(3)

A hard life. In fact, some proposed a Day of Mourning to honor all those who had perished. But the others said no, a Day of Thanksgiving would be more appropriate. After all, even though half had died, half had NOT. Reason to give thanks. Good for them.

As time went on, a Day of national Thanksgiving was occasionally observed. In 1789, President George Washington declared in the flourishing idiom of his day, "Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be, that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection ”

For whatever reason, a Thanksgiving observance in our nation did not become an annual event until a most persistent lady, Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of a prominent magazine for women, the author of the poem, "Mary Had a Little Lamb, a widow with five children, began a campaign in 1846. It took seventeen years for her dream to be realized, but in 1863, in the midst of the most devastating war our nation has ever encountered, President Abraham Lincoln issued the following:

".../ do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who

dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds ofthe nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union..."

Perhaps there is something providential at this time of the year occurring as it does. On our national calendar, this is Thanksgiving Sunday. Other nations have Thanksgiving Days at other times. But all around in world, in churches everywhere, the liturgical calendar notes this as Christ the King Sunday. It is the climax of the church year, the culmination of all we have learned in the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension to glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Today we remind ourselves that JESUS IS LORD, in charge, in control, and a day will come when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess it. That is why Paul could write to the church at Colossae, and through them to you and me and all those devastated by tragedy or disaster anywhere, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...And be THANKFUL. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with GRATITUDE in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving THANKS to God the Father through him.

Gratitude. Not for all the awfulness in the world, but for the fact that we know in our heart of hearts that awfulness is not the end of the story. Much is wrong with the world, the mystery of evil is great, terrible accidents happen, NEVERTHELESS let us have faith, NEVERTHELESS let us praise God, NEVERTHELESS, let us give thanks. Perhaps we can better deal with the miseries of life if we remember NEVERTHELESS.

Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is in control. We continue to preach it and teach it.

Thanksgiving Day, 2016, is coming on the last Thursday in November. I am thankful for so much; there is so much for which to be thankful. And I am thankful most of all, in the face of all that life can throw at us, for the faith that sustains us. I am thankful that, despite all the evidence to the contrary and everything that would seem to deny it...I am thankful that I know who is ultimately in charge; I am thankful that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD! Happy Thanksgiving