Thanksgiving Sunday
7 October 2012
Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
On Saturday, the 8th of September of this
year, I joined Herbert O’Driscoll, a wise and well-known figure in Canada, and
David Neelands, the Dean of Theology at Trinity College Toronto, at Christ
Church Cathedral in Victoria. The
occasion was the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the Book of
Common Prayer of 1662, the Prayer Book that accompanied many of the early
English colonists to North America. The
three of us formed a panel to discuss the importance of this prayer book and
the notion of a prayer book itself for the Anglican way of following Christ.
Now, the Prayer Book of 1662 was forged after twenty-five
years of political and religious conflict in England. A civil war had been fought and a king had
been executed. The monarchy fell and a
parliamentary government had arisen.
Families had been torn asunder and persecution fell upon people on all
sides of the conflict. One of the
casualties of this quarter century of conflict was the Prayer Book itself. The victorious Parliament had banned the
Prayer Book as well as bishops and cathedral chapters. Clergy who would not give up the use of the Prayer
Book were sent into exile, whether within the British Isles or overseas. Some of these clergy died from hunger,
disease and poverty.
After the death of Oliver Cromwell and the collapse of
the Commonwealth government, the newly-restored king, Charles II, called for a
conference to determine the shape of the Church of England after the
restoration of the monarchy.
Representatives of the various movements within the Church of England were
present, but it must be said that the new Prayer Book, meant to bring harmony,
came as a profound disappointment to those who thought that the Church of
England was not yet truly reformed. It
is said that thousands of clergy left the Church of England to form the
so-called ‘dissenting’ or ‘non-conformist’ churches.
But something very good came out of the process that led
to the creation of the Prayer Book of 1662.
Bishop Edward Reynolds of Norwich, a man who served the Church of
England before the Civil War, during the Commonwealth and in the Restoration
wrote a prayer which I have treasured all my life, a prayer I believe expresses
the Anglican ethos of constant thankfulness.
Almighty
God, Father of all mercies,
we
your unworthy servants give you humble thanks
for
all your goodness and loving-kindness
to
us and all whom you have made.
We
bless you for our creation, preservation,
and
all the blessings of this life;
but
above all for your immeasurable love
in
the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for
the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
And,
we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies,
that
with truly thankful hearts
we
may show forth your praise,
not
only with our lips, but in our lives,
by
giving up ourselves to your service,
and
by walking before you
in
holiness and righteousness all our days;
through
Jesus Christ our Lord,
to
whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
be
honour and glory throughout all ages.
Amen.
(The Book of Alternative Services, p.
129)
On this Thanksgiving Sunday let me share some thoughts
arising from this prayer, the General Thanksgiving.
‘We bless you for our creation,
preservation, and all the blessings of this life.’
Have you ever pondered the mystery embodied in each and
every human being? None of us, none of
us, created ourselves. Every unique
individual that bears a name came into being without any effort on its
part. Life, with all its joys and
sorrows, all its successes and failures, all its hopes and disappointments, is
given to each one of us as a windfall, whether of genetics, environment or
God’s intent. Life is a gift.
Have you ever pondered the mystery that is lived out
every day of our lives as we walk the journey of our days? While there are aspects of my life that are
under my control, there are numerous others that are really in the control of
others. Take driving. I do my best to be a safe driver, but I
cannot control the person in the lane next to me, in the lane coming towards
me. I trust them to make good decisions,
so that all of us can arrive safely to our work places or return safely home to
be with family and friends. Just as my
creation is a mystery beyond my control, so, in many ways, is the preservation
of my life beyond my control. Life is a
gift.
Have you ever pondered the mystery of who we are in time
and space? I did not choose to be born
into the privileged society that we know as North America. Whatever blessings have come to me as a
result of the accident of my birth as a white, English-speaking male have come
freely to me without any merit or hard work on my part. These blessings raise questions about why
there are so many who suffer hardship and deprivation simply because they were
born aboriginal or a woman or poor or oppressed by evil rulers. Knowing that blessings come to me whether I
deserve them or not, I am compelled to work to remove any obstacles to the flow
of this river of grace to others. Life
is a gift.
When faced with the many advantages I have, all I can do
is bless God and work so that all God’s children can share the many gifts of
God’s goodness.
‘We bless you . . . for the means of
grace, and for the hope of glory.’
From the very beginning of the Christian movement we have
known God to provide us with ‘the means of grace’, the sacraments by which we
come to know who and whose we are and by which we are sustained in our sharing
in God’s mission to renew creation.
Most of us were brought to the font as infants or young
children by parents who believed that belonging to the Christian community was
valuable. To be baptized is to learn who
one truly is, a beloved child made in the image and likeness of God. This is true of every human being, but those
who are baptized become part of a community that knows this, celebrates this
and works for this to be realized in the lives of every person who shares this
planet. There is no greater calamity
that can befall a human being than to have amnesia and to lose all knowledge of
oneself and one’s life story. We who are
baptized are blessed with the knowledge of who we are, so that we can call
others to their true selves.
With every celebration of the eucharist we are brought
face to face with the shape of the life of Christ that we are all called to
share. We gather from the scattered
places of our lives
- to hear again words that summon us to be who we truly are,
- to offer our intercessions, petitions and thanksgivings for the needs, concerns and joys of the world and
- to share in a meal that reminds us of our need for God’s grace and the love of one another
so that we can be sent forth
blessed by God to be a blessing for others.
We do this again and again and again because we have ‘the
hope of glory’, the hope that God working with us, through us and, sometimes,
despite us, is bringing above the renewal of creation. Our hope is sustained by the occasional
glimpses we catch of that renewal, whether among us or out in the world.
And so we bless God for there is nothing else to do when
faced with such abundant grace poured out upon us and with the hope set before
us.
‘. . . give us such an awareness of your
mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not
only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service .
. . ‘
You all remember the old saying: Imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery. To imitate God is, when
everything else is stripped away, the essence of religious faith. In creation God makes room for all that is,
seen and unseen. In preservation God
ensures that every living creature has what it needs to survive and, more
importantly, thrive. In the future God
promises that all of creation will reach its perfection. Gratitude for this generosity compels us to
act.
You and I are called to create space for all those who
are often crowded out and denied access to the good things of God --- that is
why we are working towards a pastoral resource centre here at Saint
Faith’s. You and I are called to be
stewards of the time, talents and treasure given us by a loving God so that
every one, every living creature, has enough for the fullness of life. You and I are called to proclaim to a
doubting and fearful world the good news that God is for us and that we are
God’s work of art being brought to its perfection through Holy Spirit.
So, at all times and in all places, may we always be
aware of God’s mercies. May our hearts
be truly thankful. And may we walk
before God in holiness and righteousness all our days. Amen.
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