Thanksgiving And Salvation

The OED defines ‘thanksgiving’ as “the expression of gratitude, especially to God.” Certainly the word compels an object of the preposition “to” or “for”, but I wonder whether God is that object in the minds of most Americans. Yes, most of us our thankful for our many blessings as broad as freedom and as narrow and essential as food on the table. Yesterday marked our annual day of reflecting on and enjoying these blessings. In my own reflection, I have two serious questions for consideration.

First, in our act of being thankful for our blessings, is there an object to which we direct our thankfulness? How many Americans held hands, said grace at their meal, and thanked God for these blessings? How many attended a worship service in their community as a collective act of gratitude to God? The OED defines our Thanksgiving as “an annual national holiday marked by religious observances and a traditional meal.” How dated is this notion? It seems to me from my observations that the objects of our gratitude are each other, our spouse, our family members, our community, and maybe, but less likely, our nation. We are social beings, and a principal source of our well being are those closest to us whom we know, love and trust. As we express our gratitude, is God relevant? Does God play a role. Is God even in the conversation? I wonder.

Second, consider the objects for which we express our thanks. What are we thankful for? Are they not all temporal realities that provide us comfort, pleasure, and well-being—the many blessings of prosperity, good health, safe travel, family and friends? These daily realities of life are foremost in our thinking and in our expressions of gratitude. And even if we reach out to God in thankfulness, it is for these blessings that we count.

It seems to me, then, that our Thanksgiving today is once again confirmation of our notion of salvation quite similar to the Israelites of old. Salvation is first and foremost the deliverance from harm, ruin or loss into the land of milk and honey in this life (See OED). For the Israelites, it was God who provided this salvation from enemies, disease and drought; though in the latter days God was nowhere to be found. Here we are again. We are thinking small in our Thanksgiving, and we err in leaving God out of the conversation.

I leave Thanksgiving and turn to Advent with a stunningly relevant paragraph from C.S. Lewis’ most famous sermon: “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”¹ Indeed.

1. “The Weight of Glory”, delivered June 8, 1941 at Oxford University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. See 2 Cor. 4:16-18.