A Sunday of Thanksgiving

Dear Friends,

Eight years ago, Fr. Mike Michie and I were in the middle of an experiment we called “Digitized Discipleship.” We were trying to teach the Christian faith through the medium of Medium (an online publishing platform). I wrote as “Fr. Dad.” All these “Fr. Dad” posts still live online, but only one of them still is regularly read: ‘Give thanks for’ vs. ‘Give thanks to.’

It’s weird. Every week, all year long people read this thing. I can’t explain exactly why that happened with this one post — I don’t know what site it got posted on or maybe Google ranks it highly in some obscure search request — but for eight years now it keeps getting views.

The article is about how for the idea of “thanksgiving” to make any sense, we have to give thanks to someone not just for something. You’ll hear it next week. Listen for all the times people will way what they’re “thankful for” this coming week, but without ever even thinking about to whom that thanks is owed. It doesn’t even make sense. They may as well say, “I feel lucky for…”

We as Christians have a faithful commitment that we give thanks to God — that’s what the Thanksgiving holiday was all about, after all.

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving, but I’m writing you about it this Thursday because this Sunday at St. Andrew’s we’re going to have a special focus in our worship on giving thanks to God. We’ll have a beautiful “thanksgiving altar,” songs of thankfulness and praise, and prayers of thanksgiving.

Come and start the Thanksgiving holiday off the right way, by giving our thanks to God.

Thankful, as always, to God for you,
Fr. Andrew