THANKSGIVING PRAYER SERVICE

Thank You, Thank You, Generous God! Thank You, thank You, thank You, generous God! You have injected life with joy, thus we know laughter. You have dabbed creation with color, thus we enjoy beauty. You have whistled a divine tune into the rhythm of life, thus we hear music. You have filled our minds with questions, thus we appreciate mystery. You have entered our hearts with compassion, thus we experience faith. Thank You, God, Thaank You. Thank You! Be present at our table, Lord. Be here and everywhere adored. Thy creatures bless and grant that we May feast in paradise with Thee. - John Cennick O God, who has set us in a world of soaring beauty, and profound mystery. . . who has enclosed our years within the eternal context of fragrant spring mornings, and sparkling winter nights. . . who has granted us, over the years, the lilt of lively companionship, the provocation of ideas and personalities, the sheer, clear point of joy in creating a thing of loveliness, or of excellence, the steady, solid support of friendships tried, and tested. . . we thank you. Above all we thank you, for the first flowing of conscience. We look back, and we recognize, in ourselves, the dawning of a conviction that life is not simply a random series of opportunities and disappointments. We look back, and we acknowledge that our life has been a gift, a gift to be accepted - savoured, a gift to be lived out, fully lived out between the twin poles of freedom and responsibility. And now we step forward in this freedom and this responsibility., Free in the knowledge of how little is really essential. Responsible in the conviction of how much is desperately needed. Help us, living God, to maintain this tension, this heart-rending, heart-healing tension. And in all this grant us grace: that elusive tenderness that blesses all it touches, that lightens every load, that sings in every song and dances in every step; that grace which is the flame of love, leaping up in our hearts, and setting our lives afire. Amen Our Father in Heaven, we give thanks for the pleasure of gathering together for this occasion. We give thanks for life, the feedom to enjoy it all, and all other blessings. As we partake of this food, we pray for health and strength to carry on and try to live as You would have us. This we ask in the name of Christ Our Heavenly Father. Come, Lord Jesus, Be our guest, And let Thy gifts to us Be blest. Amen. An Iroquois Prayer We return thanks to our mother, the earth, with sustains us. We return thanks to the rivers and streams,which supply us with water. We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases. We return thanks to the corn, and to her sisters, the beans and squash, which give us life. We return thanks to the bushes and trees, which provide us with fruit. We return thanks to the wind, which, moving the air, has banished diseases. We return thanks to the moon and the stars, which have given us their light when the sun was gone. We return thanks to our grandfather He-no, .., who has given to us his rain. We return thanks to the sun, that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye. Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the good of his children. Though our mouths were full of song as the sea, and our tongues of exultation as the multitude of its waves, and our lips of praise as the wide-extended firmament; though our eyes shone with light like the sun and the moon, and our hands were spread forth like the eagles of heaven, and our feet were swift as hinds, we should still be unable to thank thee and bless thy name, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, for one thousandth or one ten thousandth part of the bounties which thou has bestowed upon our fathers and upon us. LET US PRAISE GOD WITH A PSALM OF PRAISE Psalm 100 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into God's presence with singing! Know that the Lord is God! It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures for ever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 111 Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who have pleasure in them. Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures for ever. He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant. He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations. The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy, they are established for ever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant for ever. Holy and terrible is his name! The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who practice it. His praise endures for ever! We Give Thanks Our Father in Heaven, We give thanks for the pleasure Of gathering together for this occasion. We give thanks for this food Prepared by loving hands. We give thanks for life, The freedom to enjoy it all And all other blessings. As we partake of this food, We pray for health and strength To carry on and try to live as You would have us. This we ask in the name of Christ, Our Heavenly Father. O God of all Creation: You have cared for the earth, and have filled it with your riches. Abundance flows in your steppes, through the pastures and wilderness. You provide for our land, softening it with showers, bathing it in light, and blessing it with growth. The hills sing with joy; the meadows are covered with flocks; the fields deck themselves with wheat; and together they glorify your name! On this occasion of our Thanksgiving, we as a nation take rest from our labors to consider your many blessings. We thank you for our freedoms, and for the opportunity to contribute our skills, our attributes and our values toward the good of society. We thank you for the mixture of our cultures, blending us into one people under God. Help us to be a light unto other nations, and to further the cause of freedom and justice all over the world. We remember those who are less fortunate than we. We lift up in prayer the victims of poverty and racism, and all those who suffer from forms of political and economic oppression. Let the word that goes forth from our mouths speak of your peace, and let us proclaim our hope in Christ as Savior of all humankind. We pray that you will bless all those who gather here, as we have come to experience your presence among us. Give us your guidance, O God, and empower us for your work. For we claim nothing for ourselves, but return all honor and glory unto you, and offer our thanks and praise. Amen. As families gather around their tables filled with so many good things to eat, is the real purpose of this holiday to catalogue all our success, to list our achievements, to enjoy our good fortune that we happen to live in the richest and most powerful nation on earth? Or is there something deeper calling to us from within this nation's singular call to prayer? Giving thanks is, of course, an activity that religious people have been engaged in long before European settlers gave thanks to God for having placed into their hands certain lands along the eastern seaboard of this continent. The indigenous peoples who were invited to those Puritan harvest festivals may have been only dimly aware that a God whose name they had never heard was about to turn over their continent to the Europeans. Were the prayers of thanksgiving uttered by those early settlers in some real sense an attempt to give religious sanction to a simple act of theft? Are the prayers of thanksgiving in which we partake this year, simply a way of wrapping a mantle of piety around our way of life, while deeper questions about the source of our successes (or failures) are not addressed? To whom, and for what are we thankful on Thanksgiving Day? As as Christian, I happen to find wisdom in the words of Jesus. I also believe that a number of things that he said about "thanksgiving" will ring true for those from other religious traditions as well; for his words point to a reality that lies deeper than the traditions of any nation, denomination, tribe or clan. In the midst of a much longer passage about the kingdom of God (Mark 4:26-29) Jesus draws this image: "The kingdom of God is like a man scattering seeds upon the ground. While he sleeps, while he is awake, night and day, the seed is sprouting and growing, he knows not how. The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear." At first reading this image seems to be a simple description about the great processes of nature. The seed, once planted, is nurtured by rain and sun, it sprouts and grows and matures, gradually ripening into grain. At first reading this image calls to mind beautiful scenes of ripening grain; isn't it wonderful what nature can do! Yes, it's wonderful, and its also terrifying to reflect upon the impersonal and arbitrary power of nature. Just think Katrina. Or tsunami. Read as a simple ode to nature, the words of Jesus are not very illuminating. For if the sun and rain bring wheat to harvest in some parts of the world, there are many places where drought or flood, earthquake or fire bring death and destruction. The impersonal forces and processes of nature do not offer a very firm foundation for thanksgiving, for what nature gives this year, may well be withheld the next. Jesus was not pointing simply to nature, he was directing our attention to something deeper. The kingdom of God, said Jesus, is like a man who scatters seed upon the ground, and then he sleeps and rises again, night and day. As he is carried through the rounds of time, the seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how.