In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly, they darted toward the nearest fence. The bull followed in hot pursuit and it was soon apparent that they wouldn’t make it. Terrified the one shouted to the other, “Put up a prayer, John. We’re in for it.”

John answered, “I can’t. I’ve never made a public prayer in my life.” “But you must” said his companion. “The bull is catching up to us.” “All right”, panted John, “I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table:
“O Lord, for what we are about to receive make us truly thankful.”

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. And many of us will leave from here this morning to join our extended families or friends to join in an afternoon or evening of visiting and with plenty of eating.  With turkey and stuffing and all the trimmings!!
Or perhaps some of you have already had your celebrations yesterday or earlier in the week.

It is a holiday I’ve always enjoyed. Especially when we are blessed to get such a beautiful thanksgiving weekend as we have had this year.  It is good to have a holiday when we pause to give thanks to God for our many blessings - of family, of friends, of lifestyle. For so often we take God’s blessings for granted.

And yet it is interesting that this is one of the few holidays that is not excessively commercialized - perhaps it isn’t in big businesses best interest to encourage people to be thankful for what they do have because we may just say, “hey we have got enough.” After all, advertising tells us that we always need that little something more.
That is a subject for another day. This morning we focus on the theme of thanksgiving. This may seem strange because each Sunday we give thanks to God for the blessings that we have received. The prayers of thanksgiving and intercession are incorporated into our worship each and every week. And giving thanks to God each day is part of the routine of the Christian life. Meister Eckhart once said about prayer, “If all you can say is thanks then that is enough.”

But perhaps we need this particular weekend in order to really focus on what we are thankful for in our lives. To see God’s creation infused with grace and the goodness that abounds. Because it is often so easy to be pessimistic, depressed, even hopeless about the state of the world.

Wars continue to rage in Iraq and Afghanistan. Canadian soldiers continue to come home in coffins. We have witnessed a rash of school shootings. And there was the collapse of the portion of the overpass in Laval, Quebec. These are just a few of the subjects that have crossed our breakfast tables over the last few weeks. It is hard to give thanks to God some days!

For if we concentrate and focus simply on the “eternal present” as we are wont to do, one cannot help but notice the bad in the midst of the good. And if we pay attention for any length of time to the tide of human history it seems that we have not progressed very far at all.

Humankind progresses and humans remain the same. Thomas Hardy, no great optimist on any occasion once wrote, “After two thousand years of mass, We’ve gotten as far as poison gas.”

But if we turn to our story, the Christian story in scripture, we find words to give us strength not only in the midst of the present but also hope as we look to the future. In our reading from the letter to the Hebrews, we have a letter that is noted for its determination to strengthen a band of struggling early Christians.

The first part of chapter 1 opens with a contrast between the partial revelation of God in the past through the Jewish prophets and the full revelation of God found in Jesus Christ. Christ is the all-powerful Son, present with God in creation, the reflection and the glory and radiance of God, “sustaining all things by his powerful word.” This imagery is along way from gentle Jesus meek and mild of Sunday school fame.

There is nothing here about the strength of the human spirit or faith in the possibilities of human achievement. It is about God and because of God Jesus has been revealed to those early Christians and to us as the “radiance of God’s glory. All things, all creation, all history is subject to him. “God left nothing that is not subject to him.” Christ then is our strength and our hope as his people.

Certainly, “we do not see everything subject to him.” There is tragedy in our midst. As well as all of the big and little examples of evil. We know that but even in the midst of tragedy we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, though his Lordship is not yet fully established. We have not seen the complete victory of the Kingdom of God among us. But we do see Jesus in the Word preached, in the breaking of the bread and the lifting of the cup.

And we, who know Jesus can dare to be honest, dare to tell the truth about the prospects for human achievement because our hope rests in God who is revealed in Christ. Here is hope that arises not because of some nebulous spirit of humanity but rather through the work of one who is “superior to the angels.” Our hope for the future is based on our experience of the Kingdom of God among us now. We see it in those mustard seed moments that are all around us if we only have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

Yes, in the present we have feuding and conflict. We have factions and violence. We have disappointments and grief. There are setbacks, sorrows and sadness as well as life’s big and little tragedies. We may wonder who is in charge. Has God gone on holiday?

But in our story we see where it is all headed. We haven’t witnessed the final act of this divine drama but we have seen enough to keep us in deep hopefulness.
On this thanksgiving weekend, we gather as God’s people to give thanks for the blessings that we have received in the ordinary moments of our daily lives. And yet, our thanksgiving also extends to the future which also is in the hands of God. For in Christ and through Christ we live at the dawn of a new age in which Christ will be all in all.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.