Dear friends and members of University UMC:
I’ll never forget the first Thanksgiving I spent away from my family. I was in my 3rd year of college and I spent the Fall Semester in London. During the Thanksgiving holiday a four-day trip was coordinated for American students living in London. A few of my friends and I signed up right away. The trip began with a bus ride to the coast of England, and late that evening, we boarded a ship that took us to Amsterdam. We would see where Anne Frank hid with her family, the house where artist Vincent Van Gough lived, and we’d take a day trip to Belgium. To say the least we were excited about the trip. And I suspect somewhere inside, we sensed the trip would distract us from the fact that we were missing Thanksgiving back home.
We awakened the next day only to find that those planning the trip had surprised us with a traditional Thanksgiving Day Dinner. At the table, we were served dinner plates filled with food. And it was all wrong. You could see the faces of American college kids turning up their noses all around the room. The turkey was cold and looked more like deli meat. The cranberry sauce was served piping hot. Everything was just plain wrong. Our idea of trying to avoid thinking of home didn’t work. Instead, it made us even more homesick. We spent the entire meal sharing with one another about our favorite holiday dishes, and talking about recipes handed down through the generations.
Food can tell you a lot about where someone comes from. We assume we all sit down to the same meal at Thanksgiving, but there are so many variations. We might think everyone has pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but if you live in the Deep South, it’s more likely to be sweet potato pie. Dressings and stuffings vary from region to region, along with many other sides and food traditions–not to mention the friendly debate over cranberry chutney vs. relish vs. the congealed sauce we find in a can.
For many of us, it isn’t until we are in a strange land that we take time to remember where we came from. It was true for my friends and I, spending Thanksgiving overseas all those years ago. When our native language was not the language of the people around us, when the customs and traditions of the land were not our own, when the food seemed completely different from grandma’s good home cooking - it was then in the foreign place that we longed for home. Around that Thanksgiving dinner years ago, my friends and I shared stories about our family and took turns talking about our favorite home-cooked sides and desserts. We took time to remember what it feels like to be at home. And we gave thanks.
The scriptures are full of calls to remember because God knows there is a deep connection between memory and giving thanks. At any given moment, we may feel as if we are at home, or we may feel homesick. We may feel spiritually, as if we are in a foreign land, or we may be longing to return home. Wherever you find yourself this season, may we give thanks for the God who leads us through our wilderness days. May we give thanks to the God who provides for us a spiritual home.
Below are a few table blessings, as well as a prayer for Thanksgiving written by Diana Butler Bass that we'll use in our Sunday morning worship. I pray as you observe Thanksgiving in the days ahead, you will be surrounded by the company of those who love you best. This season, I give thanks for the gift of University UMC and the ways you are home for a great many people.
What a joy to be your pastor!
Teresa
