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hanksgiving 2010,Tyre Baptist Church, Lebanon
In America today the Thanksgiving holiday has nostalgically become associated with cozy Norman Rockwell paintings depicting warm gatherings of family and friends around 20lbs Turkeys. In reality, the holiday has become a symbol of abundance, of “plenty, even excess, prompting an annual round of reduced-fat recipes, dieting tips, and warnings about the lethargy brought on by too much turkey.”[i] In Michigan, where we are from, the holiday tradition has also come to represent a yearly gathering around the television to watch the Detroit Lions lose - again. But what is this holiday originally all about?
Thanksgiving Origins
What do you know about the “first Thanksgiving” celebration shared between the English “Pilgrims” newly come to the American continent and the helpful Native-American Indians who met them? Last year as part of my literature curriculum for my English class in Rashaya al-Wadi of the Bekka Valley here in Lebanon, I read with my students portions of William Bradford’s first-hand accounts of the true events surrounding the first Thanksgiving in his historic, Of Plymouth Plantation, which has become an American classic. This peaked my interest in the history of the start of the American colonies so, this past summer, we visited the re-creation of Plymouth Plantation and the Mayflower II in Plymouth, Massachusetts while we were back on furlough.
I also read Nathaniel Philbrick’s book, Mayflower, which recounts with much detail and accuracy the events leading up to the journey of the Mayflower in 1621 from England to the American continent with its “pilgrim” passengers, the establishment of Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts, the tense relations between the new English settlers and the Natives, and the bloody, tragic ensuing war between them now called, King Philipp’s War, which occurred some fifty years later.
It is true that a few of the Native tribes, later to be called the Wampanoag under Sachem (Cheif) Massasoit, had friendly relations with the English settlers in those early years. It is also true that around a year after the English arrived in the New World they held a bountiful harvest-meal together with representatives from the Wampanoag to give thanks to God for allowing them to survive a devastating year wherein a majority of the English died from the difficult journey across the Atlantic ocean, from illness, from despair, from a lack of food, and from a very brutal winter.
To truly appreciate this event’s relevance for us today, it is important for us to keep in mind some details from the context in which that first Thanksgiving feast was celebrated, and hopefully, as we reflect on our own context we will gain some encouragement and inspiration to give thanks in this part of the world and in our place in history.
The Pilgrims’ story is one of constant battle on several fronts.
Spiritual battle: You do realize that the pilgrims would never have called themselves pilgrims. They would have called themselves “reformers of God’s church”. As reformers they held beliefs identifying them with John Calvin’s school of thought and they read from the Geneva Bible translation. Their beliefs and practices clashed with those of the Church of England and because they took a stand for their biblical beliefs they were derogatorily deemed “Separatists” and “Puritans” and severely persecuted, shunned from society. This was the initial reason they left England.
Did you know that they first set out for the Netherlands because there was religious freedom there? But although the Netherlands provided a society of freedom there was also much sin and licentiousness in the Dutch society. The English Reformers were afraid that their children would grow up speaking Dutch and adapt to Dutch culture and ultimately drift from the roots of their community of faith. They had left a battle against the legalism of a state church tradition only to find themselves in a battle with the world for the faith of their children. So, after a few years, they felt they needed to strike out in a place where they could construct their own society based upon their own biblical convictions. They decided that the “New World” of North America provided just the place to start all over again.
But in order to do this they had to cooperate with trade companies seeking to develop colonies because they needed some way to be provided with a ship, supplies, and a means of support and trade once they had arrived and established a plantation in the New World. So, they entered into contract with a trading company which supplied them with the Mayflower, sailors, and even a militia and a military captain to protect them. The sailors and the soldiers did not share the same biblical convictions as the reformers and so another battle of persecution ensued. They were often treated harshly and mocked by their fellow passengers on the ship and the militia lead by Miles Standish often sought to solve their problems with the native inhabitants of “New England” through violence and military force.
Physical Battle: This is part of what caused so much tension between the settlers and the Natives as the years drew on. Many times with complete disregard for the Christian settlers’ wishes, military raids were conducted and battles were fought between the militia and the natives. So, the spiritual battles of England and Amsterdam gave way, after only one generation, to actual physical war between the plantation and neighboring Native tribes. I can’t help but think of the true believers among the lot of them. They had fled one form of spiritual persecution in England only to find a different kind in the Netherlands. They moved on from the licentious society of the Netherlands only to suffer under ungodly business alliances, under severe natural conditions, and finally under cultural conflict and war at the hands of the compatriots.
So, thanksgiving is a holiday that was born in the context of spiritual struggle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). It is a holiday born in the midst of much physical suffering and much tension between very different cultures. It is a holiday that grew out of a time marked by the constant threat of war, and ultimately the reality of war. In fact, the history of how Thanksgiving became a national American holiday “is also connected to war. [President] Abraham Lincoln began the annual observance in 1863, as the [American] Civil War was nearing its bloody crescendo, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the federal holiday official by signing a bill in December 1941, a few weeks after Pearl Harbor [was attacked by Japanese kamikaze suicide pilots].”[ii]
It is of vital importance that as believers we keep our histories ever before us. During the Q & A time following a lecture on Covenant Theology and its implication for the Middle East at the Near East School of Theology this week, a man stood up in the audience and practically scolded the lecturer and the institution for “always looking backward and never looking forward”. This man failed to realize that the very sacred text we call the Word of God is history and that without a proper understanding of it there is no application for the present nor for the future. As believers we must keep history ever before our eyes so that as we hold our history up to God’s perfect Word we will see both the shortcomings and (by God’s grace) successes of our forefathers and take heed lest we either perpetuate ancient sins on the one hand or forget the fear of God on the other and take God’s past mercies for granted. When I take the first Thanksgiving and events surrounding it and the people who celebrated it and hold it up to the Word of God, I immediately think of 1Thessalonians 5:16-18
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
A Few Observations:
I can remember in college, when life was full of possibilities and potential, students often finding themselves wandering about in their faith, meandering in matters of devotion to God and frequently asking “How can I know what God’s will is for my life?” When I encounter people in this place in their lives I like to point them to verses like 1Thessalonians 5:16-18 and ask, “Are you joyful in the Lord no matter what happens? Are you praying all the time about everything going on in your life? Do you have a thankful attitude, a grateful spirit toward God even when things go wrong? – Well, this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Everything else is secondary. If you get these things down, everything else should come much easier and will often work itself out by God’s providence.”
The Pilgrims: I can’t presume to understand all they were going through and I don’t know what it was really like to be in their place in history but when I reflect on the lives and journey of the Pilgrims I find myself asking the question: “Did they truly remember to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances?” Let me repeat what I noted earlier regarding the true believers among the community that settled in Plymouth: They had fled one form of spiritual persecution in England only to find a different kind in the Netherlands. They moved on from the licentious society of the Netherlands only to suffer under ungodly business alliances, under severe natural conditions, and finally under cultural conflict and war at the hands of the compatriots. What their story reminds us of is this: whether persecution from the inside (other so-called Christians), or the temptations of the world, or suffering at the hands of unbelievers, or getting caught up in the political and international wars all around us… the life of a believer is a constant battle and you cannot run to a different country or a different continent to escape it!
We are commanded to rejoice always and pray without ceasing and give thanks in all circumstances because our circumstances are a battle most of the time and we cannot imagine that life will get easier if we just change our circumstances. God calls his people in all places in all times at every point in history to rejoice and celebrate in Him, to have a deep relationship with him (prayer), and give thanks to Him no matter what the circumstances look like for what He has done for us in sending his own Son to purchase for us forgiveness and eternal life – in other words, a hope for a future rest from the battles of this world when one day we go to be in His magnificent presence where there “is fullness of joy” and “pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)
How about you? When things don’t go your way, when life throws you a curve ball (to use a good American euphemism), what happens? Do you lose your joy? Do your prayers turn into whining at God about what you deserve and what God owes you, and what your rights are? Or do you continue to give thanks to God even when life feels like a constant battle – or even breaks out into an actual war? If so, praise God. Continue to celebrate His goodness and provision on this day of Thanksgiving. If not, why not start today? Let’s count our blessings and give praise to God no matter what the circumstances have been, are, or will be. We can’t change the battle around us – but we can turn to God through Jesus Christ and by His grace he can change our hearts, he can give us joy, he can better our attitudes, broaden our perspectives, and empower and equip us to face those battles with hope, joy, peace, and love.
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