I presented the following at Sunday’s Virtual Thanksgiving Celebration. Gary Schoenberg asked me to post it to the Pebble email list, so here it is!
Wishing all a HAPPY (AND SAFE) THANKSGIVING!
Rev. Larry
Setting Intention for a Virtual Thanksgiving
It would be so easy to be cynical and sour about Thanksgiving. But the very nature of Thanksgiving calls us to look beyond the strife and selfishness and see the vision. Divine purpose calls from the shining future, beckoning us with everlasting hope toward the beautiful city. This is a holy quest that I believe animates the soul of every human being, no matter how repressed and denied it may be—and its name—the name of the quest—is a single word: Oneness. A day set aside solely to give thanks to the creator can only be inclusive; can open our eyes only to all creation. So let us celebrate that holiday by praying for oneness and opening our hearts to all. Amen.
What All Can Be Thankful For
A lot’s going on and the world may seem pretty nasty. But we have modern medicine to be thankful for. We can be thankful for modern science that can develop a new vaccine in less than a year. To put it in Obama terms, the arc of history is long, but it bends toward progress, lifting people toward happier, safer lives. And for that we should be most grateful.
From time to time I’ve heard pundits doubt that truth. Maybe I’ve doubted it myself, especially during the last four years. A survey in 2019 asked if people thought the world was getting better or worse. In Sweden only 10% thought they were getting better. In the US it was only 6%. But, we’re too close to the problem. It’s like putting your nose up to a billboard. You can’t see the big picture.
The big picture tells us a different story. You have to look at then and now. Take a longer perspective and it becomes very clear that the world is not static. The countries that are rich today were very poor just recently and were in fact worse off than some poor countries today.
There’s a website called OurWorldinData.Org that compares where humanity was 200 years ago with where we are today. It’s pretty thrilling, actually. It gives us a lot to be thankful for, despite our immediate challenges.
For instance, in 1820 only a tiny elite enjoyed higher standards of living, while the vast majority of people lived in conditions that we would now call extreme poverty. More and more, the world industrialized, which made it possible to lift more people out of poverty. In 1950 two-thirds of the world were living in extreme poverty; in 1981 it was still 42%. By 2015 – the last year for which we currently have data – the share of the world population in extreme poverty had fallen below 10%.
They compared 1820 with 2015 for every 100 persons, worldwide.
In those 195 years, the number of people without a basic education fell from 83 to 14.
Those living in democracy went up from 1 to 56
In 1820 vaccinations hadn’t been invented, so nobody was vaccinated. In 2015, 86 out of every 100 people had been vaccinated for something.
In 1820, 43 children out of every 100 died by the age of 5. That has been reduced to 4 per 100.
The number of people able to read in 1820 was only 12 out of every 100. In 2015, it was 85 out of 100.
Economic growth in the last two centuries may be the biggest achievement of all. The world population has increased 7-fold since 1820. In a world without economic growth, a 7-fold increase would have driven everyone into extreme poverty.
A Prayer for a Virtual Thanksgiving
Now, close your eyes and imagine a Thanksgiving dinner spread out before you with all your favorite dishes. See the dishes. Cranberry salad with walnuts would be on my table. Smell the aromas. Around the table are your favorite people, including perhaps some visiting from the other side. Take a moment to savor the love.
Granddad Hall will start the dishes around the table, and he begins by giving thanks for this company, this love feast, this agape meal, then he begins the litany:
-He says, “We give a portion to Creator, the provider of the great spiritual love feast, and to the guides and angels that see us through our life journey—and to the little pets who bring us love and joy. Our cosmos, with all its luster and love is but an infinitesimal point in boundless infinity, a celebration of light to which our souls return again and again. Thank you, God, for your creation and boundless love. We give thanks for love.”
-He says, “We give a portion to the poor. To those who do without food so they can pay for shelter; those who must do without medical care in order to clothe their children; those who wear down their bodies and their hopes working to exhaustion to support their family. We give a portion to the poor. May they be blessed. We give thanks for compassion and charity.”
-He says, “We give a portion to the dispossessed, those without adequate shelter; those dispossessed of friends or family, without anyone to love or care about them; those alone, in an alien land; those adrift helplessly, dispossessed of a homeland. May their spirit be here, among us, as we acknowledge them at the agape feast. May they be blessed and raised up. We give thanks for the blessing of shelter.”
-He says, “We give a portion to future generations, our children and grandchildren, our nieces and nephews, as they grapple with climate meltdown and global sea-rise; as they contend against the forces of war and chaos as populations flee tyranny, flee vanishing resources and encroaching deserts. Future generations face a future that can be as dark as the blackest ignorance, or as harmonious and bright as the first day of creation. We ask for harmony for them. We give a portion to the light carriers of the future; may their legacy be peace and joy. We give thanks for the beacon shining from the future.”
-He says, “We give a portion to the oppressed wherever they may be: May truth rule and the tyrant be brought low. May the dragon known as the big lie die out and be no more. We hold in our hearts the truth that will make the oppressed free. We give a portion of our agape meal to those who have to fear torture and warrantless arrest, who fear disappearance and extra-judicial execution. May they be free. We give thanks for freedom.”
-He says, “We give a portion to Gaia, Mother Earth, who has only 25 percent of pristine wilderness left: May she be released from the exploiters. May she be restored. May she be whole and healthy so that all her children, the people, the birds and fishes and the animals and crawling ones may also be happy and healthy. May life be in balance once more. We are thankful for Mother Earth; may she be honored as in days of old.”
-He says, “We give a portion to so many friends and loved ones who come to this virtual table not in person but in our hearts, and to all the ancestors who are ranged about our holiday table. We are grateful for our families and our extended families.”
-He says, “Thank you God. Amen”
Closing song: I Thank You by Johnny Cash
