Gratitude on Thanksgiving

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Kessler Park Friends:

I send you this message on Thanksgiving Day, 2021.

We usually send you a full newsletter on Thursdays, and in keeping with that schedule, I’ve prewritten this for you to receive on Thanksgiving.

Let me be clear, I didn’t write it today. And, frankly, I’m hoping you don’t read it today either. I hope you’re getting a day of rest and gratitude with family or friends.

There are lots of reasons to be wary of the original founding myth of Thanksgiving that our nation reveres: That story of “Pilgrims and Indians” sharing a meal. 

There’s a lot of questions as to whether it ever happened, and our Native American friends quickly remind us that there are justice reasons to be wary of remembering this story and forgetting the rest of the history.

But there’s one bit of the myth that seems deeply important:

The ability to give thanks EVEN IN DIFFICULT TIMES.

That is what we are told happened during that allegedly first Thanksgiving. They’d survived a harsh season and came together to celebrate.

Again, the actual event might have never happened. But don’t miss the *meaning* of that story.

I think that’s why Abraham Lincoln issued that original Thanksgiving proclamation during the Civil War. He understood what that founding myth was trying to teach us: To be grateful even if it feels like the nation is being ripped apart.

That sounds all too familiar to us, doesn’t it?

Therefore, it might be good to recall Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation.

It’s pretty powerful:

“I 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 of the 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.”

— Abraham Lincoln

Did you catch that?

Lincoln not only invited the nation to give thanks to God, but he also explicitly invited the nation to remember the many who, right then, had lost loved ones in “the lamentable civil strife.” (Civil War)

We have now lost more than 770,000 souls to Covid-19.

That is, for comparison, now officially more persons than our nation lost in the Civil War, on “both sides.”

I have a sense that this Thanksgiving will be sweet for many of us as we gather again with family for the first time in two years. If that is the case for you, then simply give thanks for that blessing and for the fact that you have all made it through this pandemic.

But it will also no doubt be bitter for many more. Some of you, or your family, might still be wary of gathering with family. Or, if you do, you might be grieving one of those souls lost to Covid. And finally, even within your families, some of you will navigate the political divisions that are tearing us apart.

Therefore, this Thanksgiving Day, I want you to know I am holding you in my prayers.

Whether you are alone, or with family/friends.

Whether you experience happy contentment with your family, or trying hard to not argue with those who think/believe differently.

And finally, I’m praying especially for all of us who have lost loved ones.

Lincoln was wise to suggest Thanksgiving to the nation during the Civil War, and we would do well to focus on the spiritual gift of gratitude both today and in coming months.

But, of course, Lincoln wasn’t the first to think of giving thanks in hard times. St. Paul challenged the Thessalonians to: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

We Christians have been working on this ever since.

It’s a hard move, of course. But that’s what our faith in God allows us to do…to even give thanks in hard times. I tend to think it is only through faith that we are given the strength for such a challenging thing.

Perhaps the most direct scripture on this “move” is from the Prophet Habbukkuk who lived in a time of massive calamity and war.

And yet, the Prophet was able to say:

“Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength.”

May God continue to guide you through every moment of joy and every moment of suffering. May you find a way to embrace it all in gratitude and thanksgiving.

And wherever you are today, I pray God’s blessings on each and every one of you this special day.

Grace and Peace,

Eric Folkerth

Grateful for the Wrong Moves

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Here's the hard move...

Here's where our "Thanksgiving" moves from platitude to soul-changing reality...

It's the moment when we look back and find gratitude, even for all the "wrong moves,” and discover that without them we would never be who we are.

No one can force another person to do this. And the simplistic platitudes about "everything happens for a reason" don't help. (imho)

But the reality is this: Without every twist and turn in your road, you would not be who you are today. That includes, every heartbreak...every fork in the road when you declared "wait...this can't be right..."

It includes all the self-induced harm you might have done to yourself in the past.

Pull out one thread of memory and experience, and the whole cloth of your life falls apart.

For many years, I’ve been a fan of the band Poi Dog Pondering, especially the years they were based in Texas.

They have an amazingly deep little pop song, called “Thanksgiving.” It was written by Adam Sultan. But I first heard it at Open Mic’s at the old Poor David's Pub on Greenville from my friend Bill Seely.

You can find a cover of the song I’ve done HERE.

The chorus sums up the whole challenging thought:

“Thanksgiving for every wrong move…that made it right."

As we move through a Season of Gratitude, can you find a gratitude EVEN for the things that went so “wrong?”

You don't have to like them. You especially don’t have to like them while you are going through them! You don't ever have to be happy about them.

But, every time things go "right" in your present-day, that is building on everything else that already happened.

Whatever blessing you have *now* wouldn’t or couldn’t have ever happened without "every wrong move” that came before it.

That’s just how “space-time” works.

I hope you recall that I like to talk about “following your heartbreak.” Finding gratitude, even in the most challenging moments of our life’s history is the final challenging “move” of spiritual maturity. 

I believe it is God who turns our heartbreak into hope.
God doesn't make or intend all those "wrong moves" to happen to intentionally test us.

But bad stuff DOES happen. And God is the creative and healing force in and through all things. The spiritual DNA code of our spirits and souls is such that out of even the worst that ever happens to us...new hope, life, and joy can eventually come.

It's not a "this happens, so that that will happen" situation.

It just....IS.

So, as you tally up your gratitudes this Thanksgiving season, see if you are in a place where you can take this final, challenging step:

"Thanksgiving for every wrong move...that made it right."

That is the final spiritual move that our faith with God helps us to make.

The More We Are Thankful...

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for God is good; God’s steadfast love endures forever!”
1 Chronicles 16:34

The more we are thankful, the more we are thankful.

This simple phrase has become a mantra for my life. And as we approach Thanksgiving, I invite you to make it one of yours.

It’s been a terribly hard few years. Some of you reading this have lost loved ones to COVID. In our church, I hear the anguished grief of members mourning the loss of unvaccinated family members or friends. The sense of survivor’s guilt is palpable.

And right in the midst of this time, we barrel straight toward Thanksgiving. It’s the only Federal holiday that we in the Church can rightly say was ours first. Long before Lincoln made his decree about the day in November, People of Faith have been giving thanks day by day.

Thanksgiving is a spiritual process. It’s a spiritual discipline. And the more we are thankful…the more we are thankful.

Brain science now confirms this truth. One of my favorite podcasts, “The Happiness Lab,” seems to focus on gratitude in almost every episode. Time and time again they remind their listeners that thanksgiving is a practice we can and must cultivate. And, the more we lean-in to our gratitude, the happier we will be - even in our most challenging moments.

The more you practice the “practice of giving thanks,” the more things you find to be thankful for, and your thanksgiving will grow. That’s the way it works.

Especially if you are an idealist –if you yearn to change the world for the better– it’s very likely that you need to give thanks more often than you do. So, “put your own oxygen mask on first” before you charge out to change the world.

Let’s be clear. I’m not suggesting that gorging on turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie is a secret road to happiness. (In fact, it might be a path to more shame and sadness about your food choices…)

I’m suggesting that the original *point* of thanksgiving —naming, noticing, remembering the ways in which we are blessed— is deeply important to all human happiness. Science and faith teach us this.

During these weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, we will also be engaging in our yearly Stewardship Campaign around the theme “Season of Gratitude.” Please join us the next few weeks in worship as we unpack the meaning of gratitude in our lives.

So as we look toward Thanksgiving, start the practice anew for this year. Commit to be thankful and grateful for the things you often forget - like the  blessing of a warm house in winter, or being among the wealthiest folks on the planet.

You are, you know. If you are reading these words, you are among the wealthiest humans on the planet. Yes, life is hard. Yes, injustice is rampant. But if you want to fight injustice, start with a soul centered on Thanksgiving.

This season, I’m grateful for my family and friends. I’m grateful to all of you beautiful people of Kessler Park UMC. I’m grateful for the breath that moves in and out of me. I’m grateful for long walks through Oak Cliff as leaves turn and fall. I’m grateful for the chance to be able to write you all of this right now. 

Start with the simple things as you start your journey back toward gratitude.

I love Anne Lamotte’s writings, and especially what she says about prayer.

One of her favorite prayers is simply: “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” 

That’s it. That’s the whole prayer.

So, in every small and great thing you can think of to be thankful for, whisper the prayer, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

It won’t make the mess of the world go away, but it just might help you cope with it.

The more we are thankful, the more we are thankful.

Grace and Peace,

Eric Folkerth

(Note: A version of this piece also appears in this month’s Oak Cliff Advocate)