Thanksgiving Thoughts

Sometimes the things we are most grateful for come as a total surprise.  Have you ever had that experience?  You thought that something would happen in one way – and you were totally okay with that.  But then something different happened.  Something you never expected.  Something that changes life for the better in ways you could never have imagined.  That’s what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving.  During our service today we’ve been invited to think of the one thing we are most thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend.  Our guide has been that story from Luke about the healing of the lepers.  I’ve always thought that story was a bit rough.  After all, the nine lepers did exactly what Jesus told them to do.  They went off rejoicing to show themselves to the priest so they could return to living in the community.  Imagine if we lived in a world – or even a community – where everyone who claims to believe in Jesus did exactly what he told us to do!  Wouldn’t that be great?  But the guy who gets the praise is someone who does something different.  He returns to thank Jesus.  He is said to have been “made well”.  The others are “healed” of their leprosy.  That’s pretty significant.  He is healed and made well.  Something more.  So, while it’s great for us to do what Jesus asks of us, the question is, can we do more?  Can we find in ourselves that sincere gratitude that means we have been made well?  That’s what we’ve been looking at today.

            As many of you know I was nominated for the position of Moderator of the United Church of Canada.  That in itself is a huge honour.  As the weeks and months passed, leading up to the General Council meeting, more and more nominees were added until there were fifteen of us.  A record number!  A couple of those folks I have known for decades; some others were acquaintances; some were names I recognized and others were strangers.  So I could claim to know four or five of the fifteen.  Tops. But a very strange thing happened.  Our General Council staff in Toronto arranged for a couple of video conference calls.  Each lasted over an hour as we shared questions and learned stuff it was an important for a might-be moderator to know.

   

         Midway through the process – let’s say April – we were told that the quilting group in a United Church in the Ottawa area was preparing stoles for us.  The idea was that, since there was such an overwhelming number of nominees, we were to wear the stoles during General Council as a form of identification.  That way the commissioners would know who to button hole to ask questions.  And, oh yes, “you can keep them to wear after General Council.” I confess my first thought was, “Yeah, right.  I’m going to wear a reminder of loooosing.  NOT”

            Anyway, we made the trek to Ottawa and a surprising change began to take shape.  This group of strangers began to draw together.  It was quite unusual.  I’ve been part of election and selection processes before.  Not as high pressure or high stakes as this.  But still, I’ve never seen a group of people who could be seen as competing for the same thing, draw so closely together.  I’m sure a psychologist might have a fancy explanation for our experience but to me it was clear evidence of the action of God the Holy Spirit!  This love thing is real!

            I cannot recall a time when I came so close to a group of relative strangers so quickly.  So close that, by voting day, most of us had switched to wanting the best for all the others.  So close that we could support the election of any of our fellows.  So close that, when names were dropped off after the first two ballots I was crying tears of real grief for the pain of these friends I had not had two weeks before.

            Something happened.  Something miraculous.  Something wondrous and totally unexpected.  In keeping with our gospel lesson we might say that a competitive – potentially divisive and destructive - election process was healed into a true experience of human bonding and community.  One that changed a group of strangers scattered from coast-to-coast-to-coast into a genuine community of love and support.  That changed an incredibly emotion-packed journey into something good and for which I am incredibly grateful.  This Thanksgiving, can you recall that sort of gift in your life?  Have you given thanks for it?

 
            Oh yeah, those stoles.  We’re now known in some church circles as the “Red Stole Club” and I wear mine gratefully as a reminder of a totally unexpected and unearned experience of the love of God made real in God’s people.