With all this heat how about a lesson from that great winter sport of hockey?

Jacques Plante was an amazing man. His career as a goalie for the National Hockey League Montreal Canadians, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, The Toronto Maple Leafs and finally the Boston Bruins included the invention of the goalie face mask (this made mother’s very happy and dentists very sad), and involving the goalie out of the net to help the defense (revolutionary when Plante began them, but now pretty much standard practice). He won the Vezina trophy (this is a BIG deal) seven times for highest achievement in goal, and was named to the all NHL star team seven times. He had 79 career shut-outs.

What most people don’t know, however, was that it was adversity that moved the man into the goal net. Jacques Plante was a severe asthmatic. As a child, when he would play defense on the ice-pond in sub-zero weather, he had difficulty breathing whenever the game would require him to skate fast. As a result, he moved into goal where he wouldn’t have to do much high-speed skating. When Plante was interviewed about his illustrious career, he frankly confessed, “If it hadn’t been for my asthma, I probably would have stayed on defense and never progressed beyond pond hockey.”

What may seem an obstacle may in fact be the stepping stone, the loss may in fact be the gain.

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Job 23:10

Think about it.

See you Sunday,

Tom

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

Like millions of Americans this week, my mind is on the Fourth of July holiday and what it represents: our freedom as a people. This freedom is a precious thing, bought with the sweat, toil and blood of countless Americans who initially fought to obtain it (Revolutionary War), as well as those who have fought to secure it in the centuries since that fateful day in 1776.

Gratitude without measure wells up in my heart when I consider the brave men and women of the American military who, this Fourth of July, will be fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan to combat the ongoing tyranny of terrorism. These soldiers stand in the train of valiant warriors who fought in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the first Gulf War. Each of these conflicts—while unique in themselves—shared the common goal of protecting American freedom. Today’s battles are no different.

But even as I prize my freedom as an American, I am moved to consider a greater freedom—my freedom in Christ. It is the freedom that comes with being a disciple of Jesus Christ. “If you abide in my word,” our Lord declares, “you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

This statement was simply shocking to Jesus’ audience. These proud men thought they already had all the freedom they needed by virtue of being “offspring of Abraham” (8:33). Jesus proceeds to point them beyond any national, social or religious freedom they might enjoy to the freedom that comes through His person and work: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin … So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (8:34,36). Contrary to what Jesus’ listeners thought, they were in bondage to sin and subject to the tyranny of it.

Commenting on this passage of scripture Leon Morris writes, “People do not always, or even usually, realize that they are in bondage. They tend to rest in some fancied position of privilege, national, social or religious. So these Jews, proud of their religion, did not even know their need to be free.”

Even as Christians we can fall prey to the temptation to trust in other things for our freedom from the tyranny of sin: status, money, good works, associations, etc. But the true disciple finds freedom in Christ and Christ alone.
What am I trusting in today?

The Fourth of July is a wonderful time to consider our freedom—as Americans and as Christians. Our national freedom is precious, but our freedom in Christ is of infinite worth.
The great hymn writer Charles Wesley was undoubtedly moved by his freedom in Christ when in 1738 he penned this stanza:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

The saving truth that Jesus speaks of in John 8:32 brings ultimate freedom—freedom from sin and death and the devil; freedom from a life of futility and an eternity of wrath. It is freedom from the tyranny of hate and bitterness and cruelty. It is the freedom to love God and neighbor.

May this “Declaration of Independence” be on my lips and in my heart this Fourth of July holiday
So as you celebrate the Fourth of July this Friday, think of creative ways to make the “Declaration” of freedom in Christ to family and friends. How can this holiday be a bridge to our friends and loved ones to share the freedom you have in Christ?

Think about it.

See you Sunday,

Tom

The Awesome Power of Friendship

As a part of an assignment for a doctoral thesis, a graduate student spent a year with a group of Navajo Indians on a reservation in the Southwest. As he did his research he lived with one family, sleeping in their hut, eating their food, working with them, and generally living the life of a twentieth-century Indian.

The old grandmother of the family spoke no English at all, yet a very close friendship formed between the two. They spent a great deal of time sharing a friendship that was meaningful to each, yet unexplainable to anyone else. In spite of the language difference, they shared the common language of love and understood each other.

Over the months he learned a few phrases of Navajo, and she picked up a little of the English language. When it was time for him to return to the campus and write his thesis, the tribe held a going-away celebration. It was marked by sadness since the young man had become close to the whole village and all would miss him.

As he prepared to get up into the pickup truck and leave, the old grandmother came to tell him good-bye. With tears streaming from her eyes, she placed her hands on either side of his face, looked directly into his eyes and said, “I like me best when I’m with you.” Isn’t that the way we feel in the presence of Jesus? He brings out the best in us. We learn to see ourselves as worthy and valuable when we are in His presence. The hurts, the cares, the disappointments of our lives are behind us when we look in His eyes and realize the depth of His love. Our self-esteem no longer depends on what we have done or failed to do; it depends only on the value that He places on us. To be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ is to generate in other people the Indian grandmother’s simple statement: “I like me best when I’m with you.”

Think about it.

See you Sunday,

Tom

Is it a Holiday or Holy Day?

Clearly, Ash Wednesday is not a holiday.  None of us got the day off.  I doubt anyone around the country planned a party with an Ash Wednesday theme.  No Ash Wednesday BBQs, swim parties or pub crawls.  No Ash Wednesday three day weekends and probably very few Ash Wednesday gifts have been given.

So Holiday? No, but Holy Day, yes.

For this day marks the beginning of the season of Lent, the 40 days, not counting Sundays that precede Easter.

For the most part evangelical churches don’t make it a practice to celebrate Ash Wednesday but Westview does.
We are going to celebrate this important day next week, Wednesday, March 9th at 7:00PM.

Why?

So we can remember, prepare and rejoice

A former Trappist monk remembers Ash Wednesdays at the Abbey of the Holy Trinity monastery.
He remembers how the monks would walk barefoot through the stone church, keeping time to Gregorian chants, marching eventually into the old church where they received a daub of ashes on their foreheads – a visual reminder of their need for repentance.  He said, “It was cold at this time of year.
You would try to step in the spots where someone had stepped before, to feel some warmth.”
(Fr. Thomas Culleton, quoted in Des Moines Register, February 8, 1997)

Cold is a good adjective to describe this day, though we have the furnace turned down and all of our recent snow has melted.  It is a cold day spiritually, as we confront the darker side of our humanity…our sin…our need for repentance.  It can be very cold in our souls until we do this thing, this coming face-to-face with darkness, with despair, with death.  But thankfully, we do not journey through this day, and other days like it, alone.  There are others who have gone before us and in their footsteps we do find some warmth, some direction.

A book I read this winter on another topic had a chapter title of: From Ashes to Fire. Beginning this Wednesday, we figuratively step out on the cold stone floor of that place in our souls where we meet God, in the midst of ashes and repentance, undertaking a journey that will lead us through the days of Lenten preparation, into a week called Holy, to the glorious new day of Easter, and on to the fires of Pentecost and the burning promise of God’s eternal presence in our lives…from ashes to fire.

Have any of you ever stood in the ruins of a burned out building?  When I was boy, a home in West Des Moines  burned to the ground. The trees all around were scorched. The grass was brown.
A few blackened timbers stood near the back of the house, and the remains of the cast iron plumbing system rose out of the ashes.  The day after the fire, as I walked to school with a friend, we saw the family who had lived there, standing in the midst of what had once been their home, the woman was weeping and wondering aloud what would become of her and her family.  As she gazed at the ruins of her life, she despaired.
But her husband was comforting her.  ”We can rebuild,” he said.  And they did.  Just a year later, a beautiful new home graced that lot. And the home they built was built around a massive stone fireplace.  I wonder…
Did the woman and her husband and their children sit around that fireplace on winter nights, look at the dancing flames on the logs they were burning, and remember the ashes?

Ash Wednesday is a day when we say to God, “Here I am! Imperfect, incomplete, weak and broken, sorrowful and mourning.  Here I am! Sinner and saint all rolled into one.  Here I am! Frightened and needy and uncertain.
Here I am! Confessing and repentant, and hesitantly hopeful.  Here I am! In the midst of ashes, cold, wasted, wanting.  Here I am!  Looking for the fire of hope, the fire of forgiveness, the fire of love, the fire of salvation.

Our journey begins Wednesday, when we say to God, “Here I am! Mold me, make me, create in a new heart in me.”  We come to the altar to make our confession, to receive God’s promise, to step out in faith that Christ walks with us, that the Spirit will guide us, and that God’s love for us can rise up from the dark and ashes of Wednesday to become the bright and glorious day of Easter and the burning fire of Pentecost.

Thomas Carlyle once said, “Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.”  God calls us on this night to repentance.  It is a divine thing we do, but our fear is that God will reject us for our sins.  Hear the promise! “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus! Nothing!”

Dr. Bass Mitchell remembers helping his grandfather on his farm.  One of his jobs was to carry water from the spring to the house. Bass says,

“I would put a pole across my shoulders with a bucket on each end. The house was a good distance away and the first time I tried this, I just could not make it. The buckets were too heavy. And I’ll never forget my grandfather coming out, taking the pole and placing it on his strong shoulders, then carrying them for me. It sure felt good to get rid of those heavy buckets.”

Well, folks, that’s the way it is on Ash Wednesday.  The burden we bear may seem heavy, but God is here to carry it for us.
Just bring it to Jesus Christ and let Him take up the weight.  There’s not a one of us here who is not bearing a burden of sin that God can lighten.

Join us this Wednesday. Come and give God your burden, and take away just an ashen mark, a symbol of God’s love for you and the world around us.

Think about it.

I hope to see you there,

Tom

Shortly after World War II came to a close Europe began picking up the pieces. Much of the Old Country had been ravaged by war and was in ruins. Perhaps the saddest sight of all was that of the masses of orphaned children starving in the streets of those war-torn cities.

Early one chilly morning during the first winter after the war an American soldier was making his way back to the barracks in Berlin. As he turned the corner in his jeep, he spotted a little lad with his nose pressed to the window of a bakery. Inside the cook was kneading dough for a fresh batch of pastries.

The hungry boy stared in silence, watching every move.

The soldier pulled his jeep to the curb, stopped, got out, and walked quietly over to where the little fellow was standing. Through the steamed-up window he could see the mouth-watering morsels as they were being pulled from the oven, piping hot. The boy salivated and released a slight groan as he watched the cook place them onto the glass-enclosed counter ever so carefully. The soldier’s heart went out to the nameless orphan as he stood beside him and through his limited German ask the boy, “Son, would you like one of those?” The boy was startled, turned to the soldier, looked embarrassed and then “No sir! I mean, yes.Yes sir, I certainly would, if you please sir!”

The young soldier stepped inside and bought a dozen, put them in a bag, and walked back to where the lad was standing in the snowy cold of the Berlin morning. He smiled, held out the bag, and said simply: “Here you are.” As he turned to walk away, he felt a tug on his coat. He looked back and heard the child ask quietly:

“Mister, are you God?”

“No son, I’m not. I’m just one grateful to Him that this war is over and I can give these to you.”

We are never more like God than when we give.

And no one ever sees Him more clearly than when we do.

Live this week in such a way that you might be mistaken for the One who makes it possible for us to give in the first place.

Think about it.

See you Sunday!

Tom

Tom’s Stuff  by Pastor Tom Clegg

This week I was ministering at a Pastor’s Retreat and I overheard one of the pastors speaking about his appointment to a new church and the pastor did not feel the placement exactly suited his abilities.

I overheard him complaining about it to another pastor that he  ”didn’t do the small church thing.” After a short pause I heard the other pastor say, “You know, the world’s a better place because Michelangelo did not say, ‘I don’t do ceilings.’ ”

Her comment stopped me dead in my tracks. I had to admit she was right.

If you and I are going to be faithful to God’s calling on our lives, then we had better understand that.

I reflected on the attitudes of some of the prominent people throughout the Scriptures and the history of the church. It was through uncomfortable circumstances, impossible odds and incredible personal risk that they and their worlds were changed.  In the margin of my bible I found the following, to whom credit is due I have no idea but I just had to share it with you…

The world’s a better place because a German monk named Martin Luther did not say, “I don’t do doors.”

The world’s a better place because an Oxford student named John Wesley didn’t say, “I don’t do preaching in fields.”

The world’s a better place because Moses didn’t say, “I don’t do Pharaohs or mass migrations.”

The world’s a better place because Noah didn’t say, “I don’t do arks and animals.”

The world’s a better place because Rahab didn’t say, “I don’t do enemy spies.”

The world’s a better place because Ruth didn’t say, “I don’t do mothers-in-law.”

The world’s a better place because Samuel didn’t say, “I don’t do mornings.”

The world’s a better place because David didn’t say, “I don’t do giants.”

The world’s a better place because Peter didn’t say, “I don’t do Gentiles.”

The world’s a better place because John didn’t say, “I don’t do deserts.”

The world’s a better place because Mary didn’t say, “I don’t do virgin births.”

The world’s a better place because Paul didn’t say, “I don’t do correspondence.”

The world’s a better place because Mary Magdalene didn’t say, “I don’t do feet.”

The world’s a better place because Jesus didn’t say, “I don’t do crosses.”

And the world will be a better place only if you and I don’t say, “I don’t do …”

Take a minute and look up Genesis 22:2; Joshua 11:15; 2 Kings 18:6 and Hebrews 5:8.

Incredible, isn’t it? That the changing of our entire world might reside just outside your comfort zone?

Think about it.

Tom

This past week has been one fraught with grief. I lost my sister-in-law to leukemia and dear friends lost their good friend to co-worker lung cancer. Both were 55 years old or younger. So there’s grief close to my heart and grief I’ve observed in others. I’ve held my loved ones and I’ve officiated the funeral for another. Grief is close and far. Sometimes it comes in crashing waves and at other times is merely an abstract concept. Both are very real. Both hurt.

Why the hurt at loss? Because of love. The loss of a loved one rips our heart and tears at our soul. We love and now we ache. The only way to make the pain go away is to choose to no longer love…and that simply isn’t an option.

Losses in life are simply inevitable and there are two ways to grieve losses, either:

- society’s way, which lacks hope, or
- God’s way, which is hope-filled.

Paul the Apostle wrote some very practical words when he penned, “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. – 1 Thessalonians 4:13.” One of the most potent and practical ways the Gospel of Jesus Christ is both applied and demonstrated is in our grief! Think about this:

Society’s approach to grieving only leads to despair.

Step 1: We are to stop feeling badly and bury our feelings.
Step 2: We are to replace our losses, and fix the pain quickly.
Step 3: We are to grieve alone.
Step 4: We are to give it time; time heals in and of itself.
Step 5: If there’s unfinished business, we are to accept a life of regret; there’s nothing that can be done.
Step 6: We are to wall up and never trust again.

God’s approach to grieving eventually leads to healing.

Step 1: Feel your feelings and express them.
- The words “Jesus wept” speak volumes about grief management.
Step 2: Don’t just replace the loss, review the loss.
- To recover from pain, we have to face it.
Step 3: God’s approach is to grieve in community.
- Here’s where community life, a small group, and friends at church are most practically helpful in providing a safe place to mourn.
Step 4: Only the Holy Spirit, called the Comforter, will heal.
- Christians who’ve suffered loss testify to God’s healing power. No it didn’t, because it shouldn’t, all go away.
Step 5: God’s approach says we can still express our regrets.
- He gives us a means to head off regreats by obeying the scripture that tells us: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ” Romans 12:18
Step 6: Christians are capable of recovering from any loss that comes their way.

The difference simply is if we make Christ our treasure and not money, ease, or something else, we will never have reason to fear, because He is invulnerable and He will never leave us.

So, how will we choose to grieve? With the hope we have in Jesus Christ or the hopelessness of our society’s way?

Think about it.

See you Sunday!

Tom

This week we will continue our series Well Spent with wrapping up the message from last week, Made for Stewardship. As I was researching for this series I picked up a great little book that speaks to being good stewards of our relationships and in particular partnership, it’s The Power of 2 by Radd Wagner and Dale Muller.

“Humans are made for collaborating,” that’s the amazing opening sentence. The book then powerfully addresses some of the barriers to relationships:

“Yet over time, humans created so many conveniences that we now can survive without each other. We live indoors rather than in the elements. We can eat microwavable dinners instead of hauling in a fish net with someone else. We no longer tell real stories around the fire; we turn on the TV and watch familiar strangers pretend.”

Later they point out that, “Isolation is bad for you. It poses dangers as serious as cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, or lack of exercise, one research summary concluded. Conversely, the more good partnerships you have in your life, the more likely you are to say that you experienced the feelings of enjoyment much of the day yesterday, that you recently learned something interesting, and that you’ve been doing a lot of smiling and laughing – all key measures of your happiness.” [taken from pages 2-4 in The Power of 2]

So here’s what hit me right between the eyes – God wired us for community. At the very beginning of the story he made humans in HIS IMAGE which means we are created in the image of the God who lives perpetually in community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have a void in our lives that only can be filled through human relationships. God made us that way.

So here are two Gallup research writers who discover that the data concludes that we are “made for collaborating” and we live healthier, happier lives if we have partnerships in life! I love it when scientific researchers discover spiritual truths!

This semester we will be offering several great classes during Discovery Hour one of which is Re-Group. If you are not part of a small group this is the BEST way to overcome isolation and to embrace collaborating with other in your own spiritual development!

Re-Group will start on Sunday, January 16. If you are interested please contact Valerie Wagner at 224-6817 or kevalwag@q.com

Think about it!

See you Sunday,

Tom

Via Flickr by Duckmarx

The day before Christmas I was sitting at Starbucks reading the New York Times and there was a very good op-ed piece entitled, “A Tough Season for Believers.” In the closing paragraph the writer said,

[B]elieving Christians are no longer what they once were — an overwhelming majority in a self-consciously Christian nation. The question is whether they can become a creative and attractive minority in a different sort of culture, where they’re competing not only with rival faiths but with a host of pseudo-Christian spiritualities, and where the idea of a single religious truth seems increasingly passé. Or to put it another way, Christians need to find a way to thrive in a society that looks less and less like any sort of Christendom — and more and more like the diverse and complicated Roman Empire where their religion had its beginning, 2,000 years ago this week.”

Christianity did thrive under a brutally intolerant Roman Empire. God doesn’t need a “Christian nation” or tolerant environment for his people to flourish. But we do need to be the people He calls and empowers us to be in the context we find ourselves.

“Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives. (1 Peter 1:11-12, The Message)”

Listen, God is for you not against you. This year let us live into the glory, promise and purpose of Christmas all year long. Let’s no longer worry about the darkness, instead let’s be the light. Let’s take on the challenges we have to face and turn them into opportunities, let’s work together, pray together and believe together that this will be the best year thus far for Westview, for each other and for you.

I believe it.

See you Sunday.

Tom

A few nights ago the staff and leadership team of Westview gathered for a Christmas meal together. We couldn’t all join in because several were sick so the conversation was warm and intimate. Melissa talked about Crystal and Toby’s internet conversations from Afghanistan and the gifts our church had sent them last month. It was a touching reminder of the sacrifice those who represent us in uniform make to secure our freedoms. Those who endure hardships that we might have peace and quiet here at home.

Sixty-nine years ago this Christmas Eve over 20,000 people gathered on the lawn of the Whitehouse and stood in the freezing cold to witness the lighting of the Christmas Tree and to hear two leaders share their greetings on the eve of that holy day. Remember what had happened just two weeks prior? Pearl Harbor had been bombed and our nation was at war. A war that engulfed the entire world!

The first to speak was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he said,

Fellow workers for freedom:

There are many men and women in America- sincere and faithful men and women—who are asking themselves this Christmas: How can we light our trees? How can we give our gifts? How can we meet and worship with love and with uplifted spirit and heart in a world at war, a world of fighting and suffering and death? How can we pause, even for a day, even for Christmas Day, in our urgent labor of arming a decent humanity against the enemies which beset it? How can we put the world aside, as men and women put the world aside in peaceful years, to rejoice in the birth of Christ? These are natural—inevitable—questions in every part of the world which is resisting the evil thing.

And even as we ask these questions, we know the answer. There is another preparation demanded of this Nation beyond and beside the preparation of weapons and materials of war. There is demanded also of us the preparation of our hearts; the arming of our hearts. And when we make ready our hearts for the labor and the suffering and the ultimate victory which lie ahead, then we observe Christmas Day—with all of its memories and all of its meanings—as we should.

Looking into the days to come, I have set aside a day of prayer, and in that Proclamation I have said: “The year 1941 has brought upon our Nation a war of aggression by powers dominated by arrogant rulers whose selfish purpose is to destroy free institutions. They would thereby take from the freedom-loving peoples of the earth the hard-won liberties gained over many centuries.

“The new year of 1942 calls for the courage and the resolution of old and young to help to win a world struggle in order that we may preserve all we hold dear.

“We are confident in our devotion to country, in our love of freedom, in our inheritance of courage. But our strength, as the strength of all men everywhere, is of greater avail as God upholds us.

“Therefore, I… do hereby appoint the first day of the year 1942 as a day of prayer, of asking forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the present, of asking God’s help in days to come.

“We need His guidance that this people may be humble in spirit but strong in the conviction of the right; steadfast to endure sacrifice, and brave to achieve a victory of liberty and peace.”

Our strongest weapon in this war is that conviction of the dignity and brotherhood of man which Christmas Day signifies-more than any other day or any other symbol. Against enemies who preach the principles of hate and practice them, we set our faith in human love and in God’s care for us and all men everywhere. It is in that spirit, and with particular thoughtfulness of those, our sons and brothers, who serve in our armed forces on land and sea, near and far- those who serve for us and endure for us that we light our Christmas candles now across the continent from one coast to the other on this Christmas Eve.

We have joined with many other Nations and peoples in a very great cause. Millions of them have been engaged in the task of defending good with their life-blood for months and for years. One of their great leaders stands beside me. He and his people in many parts of the world are having their Christmas trees with their little children around them, just as we do here. He and his people have pointed the way in courage and in sacrifice for the sake of little children everywhere.

And so I am asking my associate, my old and good friend, to say a word to the people of America, old and young, tonight Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain.

I’ll tell you what he said, next week. In the meanwhile, think about the magnitude of what the president said: that the future of our society necessitated celebrating the true meaning of Christmas and turning to God in prayer!

Fitting words for all of us, no matter the struggle.

Think about it.

See you Sunday!

Tom

THANKSGIVING

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of, if not, the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated, in good times and in bad, by the individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the as of then horrible and undecided Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—a diverse assortment of Christian separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith away from a state controlled church and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable 66 day crossing, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of awful and contagious diseases. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English! Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition.

Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between the European colonists and the Native Americans.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five freshly slain deer. Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark of contemporary greeting cards and celebrations.

That first Thanksgiving was truly an act of gratitude to God for life wrenched out the jaws of genuine hardship. But the holiday that Lincoln signed into law was at a time when America and Americans had nothing for which they seemingly could be thankful. Embroiled in the most tragic episode in our history, a civil war that had by that time claimed the lives of a quarter of a million Americans. It was Lincoln’s practice to call the nation to days of prayer and repentance during the dark days of the war. However, it was against the backdrop of thousands of letters piled in the White House to and from families who had lost loved ones that President Lincoln called for a national day to give thanks.

The president called for a day of thanks because he understood that the scripture teaches us to: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7  Lincoln knew that gratitude despite circumstances is a key to experiencing God’s peace. He desperately wanted peace for our war torn country, he wanted peace for those who’d lost loved ones and he wanted peace in his own heart. Peace he knew that was only found in Jesus Christ.

From that day to this Americans have been celebrating Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of each November. In many ways the holiday has meant little more than turkey, pilgrims and football games to most Americans. But this holiday, like all holidays, can be redeemed.  It can be.

Thanksgiving is a gift. A day when we can, from the bottom of our hearts, give thanks. And we should! Celebrating despite our immediate circumstances.  Celebrating because, we have, in comparison to the rest of the world a great deal for which we should be grateful. Celebrating God’s blessings, His faithfulness, His provision, and celebrating trials, challenges and burdens because they bring endurance, strength and dependency. This holiday despite how secularized it has become is in reality a very redemptive day for you, me and our country.

So, celebrate. Give thanks. Despite your circumstances. Even if you don’t feel like it. Be thankful, before long…you will feel like it.

See you Sunday!

Tom

Pastor Tom’s email is Tom@westview.org, and has office hours on Wednesdays.