11/18/56

Scripture: (Read Psalm 103).

We have a tradition of Thanksgiving in this American nation that is 335 [344] years old. A holiday in November reminds us of it each year. Yet we may remind ourselves that neither the Thanksgiving of New England Pilgrims, nor that of their spiritual successors since, is an innovation. For the tradition of special thanks goes much farther back than 1621. We read that Noah, after the great flood, offered prayers of thanksgiving for the deliverance of himself and his household. [Genesis 8: 20]. As the Hebrew nation grew, days of thanksgiving, commemorating the guidance and care of God, were carefully observed. When the walls of the city of Jerusalem were dedicated, Nehemiah recorded that on “that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced with great joy; the wives and also the children rejoiced; and the singers sang aloud.” [Nehemiah 12: 43]. Many of the Psalms are filled with thanksgiving. The festival of the Passover is, in large measure, an occasion of thanksgiving for the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery.

In various forms, the custom of public thanksgiving has continued through centuries. One finds it in England in the 17th century. There is preserved an account of what was expected among English Puritans for observing fasts and thanksgivings. The congregation was to assemble early at the church, simply clothed. The minister was to provide some “pithy narration of the deliverance obtained, or mercy received.” After a sermon, together with Psalm singing and prayer, the people were dismissed with a blessing, that “convenient time might be had for their repast and refreshing.” Also there is the old counsel that the minister should not forget to admonish them to “beware of all excess and riot, tending to gluttony or drunkenness” in their feasts. And collections were taken for the poor.

All of this is background for that first day of general Thanksgiving proclaimed among the small band of spiritual forefathers whom we know as the Pilgrims. It helps to account for the attitudes and tendencies of 102 individuals who crowded the Mayflower in the fall of 1620. Their voyage had been long and perilous. Two months seems to us a long time to be tossed on the North Atlantic in the autumn, on a tiny sailing vessel. After 61 days of it, they had arrived at a shore of Cape Cod. On November 11th, certain of their men went ashore. And, according to William Bradford, their first act was to fall to their knees and bless the God of heaven.

They passed the first winter in incredible hardship. Suffering cold and disease and undernourishment, half of their number died before spring and were buried beneath the snow in graves that were unmarked lest natives should know how few were the survivors. They must have sown their seeds in the spring time with great anxiety. But the summer of 1621 saw sunshine and showers in the right proportion for growth. And when autumn came there was a goodly harvest. Governor Bradford appointed a week of festivity. It was to be a time of thanksgiving. It is refreshing to learn of some details of that occasion.

A week before the thanksgiving, a runner was dispatched to invite Chief Massassit and his tribe and other chieftains to be guests at the feast. Gov. Bradford sent 4 men on a hunt for wild game. And it is recorded that they killed enough fowl for nearly a week’s feasting. On the appointed day, Massassit, with his principal leaders, numbering perhaps 90, arrived at dawn. Miles Standish was awake, fulfilling his duty to fire a gun at daybreak. Gov. Bradford was awake; he usually rose early to let his mind dwell on profound thoughts that the active occupation of the later day would not permit. Elder Brewster had risen early to prepare remarks appropriate for the occasion.

These three greeted the Indian guests while Winslow, Alleston, Warren and others were dressing. Squanto was interpreter as greeting were exchanged. When the village was afoot, a fire was started between Elders’ house and the brook. A roll of the drum called all people to morning prayer. After prayers had ended, breakfast was served. There was hasty pudding, cold boiled meat, clam chowder with sea biscuits in the broth, and dishes of turnips. After the meal there was a grace said, amounting almost to another service of worship.

The day was clear and warm. In the year following, the people, remembering that first thanksgiving season, said, “Here is the Indian summer again.”

Then began the recreation. Muster of the military was prominent. The “army” of 19 men went through maneuvers with fanfare of trumpet and with drum, the banner of England flying over them. Their own families admired them; and the Indians watched, uneasy and questioning. Muskets were discharged and the fort cannon fired. Possibly children screamed and women may have put hands to ears.

Then there were competitive games -- running, “pitching ye barr” and “stoole-ball.” Some of the Indians went hunting and returned with 5 deer which they presented to the governor and to others. There seems to have been an abundance of food; venison, turkey, partridge, duck, geese, oysters, clams, and fish were in evidence. There were cakes of Indian meal and barley loaves. And plenty of vegetables provided the vitamins.

The Governor himself wrote a few lines of verse which indicate what their harvest may have been:

All sorts of grain which our own land doth yield,

Was hither brought, and sown in every field;

As wheat and rye, barley, oates, beans and peas

Here all thrive and they profit from them raise,

All sorts of roots and herbs in garden grow -

Parsnips, carrots, turnips or what you’ll sow,

Onions, melons, cucumbers, radishes,

Skirets, beets, coleworts and fair cabbages.

There were fruits and berries, perhaps sun-dried. It was a beautiful time, a hallowed time. They had worked hard. They had known severe suffering and had seen much of death. They knew there was more work and discontent and suffering and death to come.

[These words were added for the later presentation. In order to be certain that they and their children did not forget the hardship of the first winter on the new shore, those Pilgrims developed a significant tradition. The hardship had been so severe that an appalling number of their company died. Food was reduced to the point where Gov. Bradford issued only 5 grains of corn per day to each survivor for several weeks.

The tradition which they developed in later years was this: on their days of Thanksgiving, when they sat at table, before partaking of abundant food, Gov. Bradford saw to it that 5 grains of corn were laid beside each plate. While they looked at those 5 grains of corn, they meditated on the deprivation and suffering from which they had now been delivered, and offered their prayers of gratitude and thanksgiving before they began their feasting.]

But now was the time of harvest. Leaves had turned gold and red. Earth had yielded increase. They had a holiday and some fun. And they were thankful to God. With dignity, they paused to bless and elevate their lives in thanksgiving.

That is some of the story. It is preceded by many earlier occasions of thanksgiving in human history. And our season of thanksgiving is deeply rooted in this story. There are certain elements of that story of 1621 that can guide us in our Thanksgiving this year. Without doubt, there will be food in abundance on many dining tables in this land of plenty. But let the tables and altars of our hearts be laden with the gifts of gratitude to God, and let our lives be disposed to share with some of the world’s unfortunates who do not know any abundance.

1) Those people at Plymouth recognized the sovereignty of God. There was no question for them that spiritual values were supreme. This was expressed in their Thanksgiving, as it had been expressed in their earlier determination to go where they might worship unmolested. It was while they had been in Holland and before they left Leyden, that they held a fast. Their Pastor, Mr. Robinson, spoke to them on a text from Ezra 8: 21; “And there at the river, by Ahava, I proclaimed a fast, that we might humble ourselves before our God, and seek of him a right way for us, and for our children, and for all our substance.” They really spent that day, from 9 AM to 4 PM listening to their pastor’s discourse and uniting in fervent prayer to God.

When they were ready to leave Leyden, they left in a spirit described in these words of Bradford: “So they left ye goodly and pleasant city, which had been their resting place near 12 years, but they knew they were pilgrims, and looked not on those things, but lifted up their eyes to ye heavens, their dearest countrie, and quieted their spirits.”

Those people knew themselves to be instruments in the hands of God. In Him they lived and moved and had their being. Their tasks came from the Almighty. From Him came the power to meet and overcome obstacles. It was their faith that, as they did their best, God would take care of them. And they recognized this care without doubt or question, in the increase of that first, blessed harvest.

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There are some among us Americans who feel like straws driven by the winds of chance, helpless in the whirlpool of world and local events. That is not the true heritage of our forefathers in the spirit. More of us are affiliated with some church than ever before in our national history. Unless this represents only a thin veneer of respectability, it should signify the greatest consciousness of God’s sovereignty. Does it?

In any time, it is the gifts of the spirit -- hope and courage and faith and persistence and honor and sacrifice that can make us men. These abide when everything else is gone. They are reflections of God’s eternal spirit in the life of people. And they are more valuable than any material possession. As one lifts his heart to God in thanksgiving, the channel is opened for strengthening such virtues in his own life. And here is his power for the way he must go.

Let our Thanksgiving season be a time when we lift our spirits, together with all others of insight and sensitiveness, in gratitude to the Lord of Lords -- the One Sovereign God. Let the strength of eternity come into the spiritual fiber of our life today.

2) Further, let us see that those Pilgrims were adaptable, ingenious, imaginative folk. Priscilla Alden wished that she had chestnuts for the stuffing in the fowl. Since none were to be had, she used beechnuts. Years later she learned to use sweet potatoes from the Carolinas. Knowing that the future was God’s, these people went forward to meet it in His name, unwithered by fear. In this trust they found their faculties for resourcefulness sharpened.

If any here today feels that the doors of life have been closed against him, let him remember that there is a spirit abroad that seeks entry into his life. It is the spirit of Thanksgiving, through which people renew their contact with God who “creates all things new.”

There are resources of ingenuity and adaptability and strength which you did not know you had, or could have. Bow your heart and lift your spirit in thankfulness to Him who permits us to know the manhood of which we are capable as we adjust ourselves to life’s sorrow and hardships, its demands and challenges.

3) And then, too, let us learn from these spiritual forefathers the necessity of discipline and order and regularity [Ben Franklin and the salt barrel of meat]. There was order and discipline in the religion of the Pilgrims. It was a duty to worship. Failure to attend prayers brought serious consequences. It was an obligation to express thankfulness. And if there was a time for festivity, there was also a time for solemn devotion. It was at Christmas, following that first Thanksgiving, that Bradford found the newcomers, who had just arrived on the ship “Fortune,” at games. He ordered them to their houses, and confiscated their play implements; for that season was to be one of devotion.

And everyone was to work. There were duties for each one. It was this concept of order and discipline and work that became the strongest of implements for American freedom.

There are a host of areas where we may apply this concept to our individual and corporate life today. But at this Thanksgiving season, let us see its particular validity in the area of our religion. As free Protestant Christians, we talk of our liberty to worship as we will, following our own conscience. What then saves us from Religious anarchy? Is it not a companion conviction that our own religious life must have regularity, order and self-discipline?

Too many of us, too much of the time, tend to make church attendance an elective affair. And we give ourselves numerous, ingenious reasons. But the cold, logical truth is that any facet of life has meaning and strength only when treated with order, discipline and regularity.

You men of business do not treat your affairs in any haphazard or sporadic way. You doctors and lawyers do not see a patient or client only at times when you happen to feel like it. Teachers are in classrooms at specified times and ministers must be prepared for regular hours when their congregations know they will be led in worship and thought.

The religious life of anyone needs this regular sustenance and expression. Would it not be a vital use of this Thanksgiving week to pledge yourself anew to voluntarily submit yourself to a regular regime of religious nurture and worship? You would be blessing your society, and, in turn, would be receiving a blessing.

4) One more item: those who lifted their voices in that Thanksgiving of 1621 knew an unbreakable bond between their religious faith and all other facets of living -- both personal and corporate. The Mayflower Compact was signed by the same men who were in the army and in the church. Brewster was to provide religious leadership. Bradford was to be judge and guide in civil affairs. Standish was to be in charge of defense. But these were not considered separate from religion. They were all integral parts of a concept that saw God as ruler of all the affairs of men and of every man of affairs. Each one was to do God’s will in the discharge of his special duties. The laws were to maintain peace, do justice, see that righteousness prevailed. The military was to defend from danger and evil. The religious leadership was to instruct the mind and heart in Christian truth. Each office had the respect and participation of all. This Thanksgiving season, let the Mayflower spirit bring a renewed spirit of dignity to our tools and our tasks. Let each think of himself as a priest of God’s will at lathe or desk or throttle.

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As we gather at some table of abundance on Thanksgiving Day, let it be not just to feast the body, but to open the floods of gratitude in prayer and thanksgiving. Go to church on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning; say a prayer of Thanksgiving; whether long or short; whether you have ever done it before or not. You don’t need to use the quaint language of Elder Brewster, nor the English of the Bible. So long as it is your word, and your thought, expressing your gratitude, and that of your household, to Almighty God, it is enough.

Let your children, your guests, yourself know the expression of thanks to God for the blessings of what your life has harvested; for blessings of disciplined liberty; for strength and guidance and opportunity. Ask God’s blessing on our nation and His mercy on all our world. Give unto the Lord the thanks due unto His name, for His wonderful gifts to the children of men.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, November 18, 1956.

Also in Wisconsin Rapids, November 21, 1965.