Be Joyful in the Lord All You Lands! - A Psalm for Thanksgiving
There really is no more appropriate passage of scripture for Thanksgiving Sunday than the One Hundredth Psalm, which our three year lectionary so fittingly places before us today, part of our Thanksgiving feast.
Clearly written for a celebration of thanksgiving it has, for perhaps 2500 years, all over the world, invited people of God to do just exactly what we are doing today: enter the house of God, come into the presence of God, singing a song. Singing in fact, this song. In so doing, the psalmist bids us be something it is so very important for us to be, for our spiritual wellbeing: thankful. We cannot be fully well, spiritually, unless we are thankful. We cannot be whole unless we are also thankful. It is not enough to give thanks. We must also be thankful.
As I sat down last week to write the annual Thanksgiving letter on behalf the parish, which you all have received in the mail, the spirit of this ancient song took hold of me. I heard this thanksgiving song being sung inside me by a chorus of voices. I wrote down the music I heard for the choir, and all of us, to sing together today on Thanksgiving. I hope you will all join me in offering it at the altar today on Thanksgiving,
To the glory of God, who placed it in my heart, in thanksgiving for all of you and all we have to be thankful for!