Tag: Thanksgiving

Worship Resource Thanksgiving Sunday 2022

Gratitude

Call To Worship (from Psalm 100)

      Leader: Make a joyful noise to the LORD all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come into God’s presence with singing.

       All: Know that the LORD is God. It is God who made us; we are God’s. We are God’s people, the sheep of God’s pasture.

       Leader: Enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and God’s courts with praise. Give thanks to God. Bless God’s name.      

All: For the LORD is good; God’s steadfast love endures forever and God’s faithfulness to all generations.

Gathering Prayer

         God of gratitude, the Apostle Paul wrote “give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” This makes sense when things are going well. What about when things are unpleasant? What about when we experience grief and loss and harm? How can we give thanks? Holy God, your greatest gift is life itself and life itself is unending. Remind us again that no matter the circumstance, nothing can separate us from your love. Because of this we can say with the words of that old hymn, “Take our moments and our days. Let them flow in endless praise. Amen.

Prayer of Dedication

We give because we are grateful, Holy God. Bless our offerings that they may plant the seeds of gratitude in many hearts. Amen.

What’s Up with Pastor Todd 11-21-19

Crane China

What’s Up with Pastor Todd 11-21-19

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life” (John 6:27). 

Recently my wife’s aunt Susan shipped her a set of family silver table settings and a set of family China. My wife, Nicole, and I have been hosting Thanksgiving for family and friends since we started dating 26 years ago. And as we’ve moved around the country, our extended family have made it a priority to travel any distance to be a part of the celebration. This year the family will be joining us to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family silver and China.

The China has been passed down from Nicole’s grandparents. Burleigh Crane and Dorothy Warren had set their wedding date for the summer of 1942 when Burleigh was called up for active duty in the U.S. Army. The wedding date was moved up to February. After the wedding Burleigh was deployed to Italy as an artillery commander. Upon his return in 1945 Burleigh and Dot settled into their home in Milbridge, Maine where they would live for the next 60 years. They raised two children and were fixtures in the community. At their wedding they received two sets of China. They used one. The other was never opened. They stored it in the attic where it remained for over 75 years. Until this year. Next week the family will gather for Thanksgiving to use Dot and Burleigh’s China set for the first time. 

A couple weeks ago, Nicole and I talked with Aunt “Sue-sue,” as she is known, about our Thanksgiving plans. Susan wept as she talked about how meaningful it was to pass something of the family legacy on knowing that it will be used to celebrate the rituals of gathering together and giving thanks.

This year the gospel lectionary for Thanksgiving is John 6:25-35. In this text Jesus unfolds a complicated metaphor around food. Backstory: Jesus fed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish and then left to sail across the Sea of Galilee. The crowds, amazed by Jesus’ miracle and wondering if there was more where that came from, followed Jesus and his disciples across the sea and caught up to him in the town of Capernaum. When the approach Jesus, he says, “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures to eternal life.” 

What is the food that endures to eternal life? In the context of the Gospel of John, this “food” is faith. For Nicole and me, our commitment to giving thanks, gathering family, and honoring legacy arises out of the faith that was passed on to us, a faith that sustains us day to day, moment to moment through scarcity and abundance. Let’s face it: family can be a real pain in the ass. Traveling long distances to attend family gatherings can be difficult and even dangerous at times. There are family conflicts, losses, absences, and griefs. There are times when we set our own preferences and agendas aside for the good of the group. There are some days when the sacrifice doesn’t appear to be mutual. Faith means looking beyond the moment to what endures.

All of us–Nicole, Aunt Sue-Sue, me, nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws, and the rest–are looking forward to feasting on brined turkey, mashed potatoes, squash au gratin, roast vegetables, homemade cranberry sauce, gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping, pies, ice cream, carrot cake, and Nicole’s famous espresso-and-Grand Marnier-infused chocolate mousse for dessert all served on the family China. Left-overs will keep us fat and happy for another week or two. But the food that endures is faith, love, and a legacy of gathering to give thanks.

Pastoral Prayer for Proper 28B/Ordinary 33B/Pentecost 26 November 18, 2018. Mark 13, Little Apocalypse.

God of change,

Empires rise and fall, rulers come and go, temples are built up and torn down, but your pervasive, sustaining love is available to us in this moment and the next throughout time and space eternally.

We rest in that love. We open ourselves to your limitless energy to change ourselves and change our world.

There is so much suffering. Give us the courage to do something. Give us the patience and wisdom to discover what that something might be.

On this Stewardship Sunday we dedicate our pledges. On this Thanksgiving Sunday we offer our gratitude. On this Sunday we honor the Transgender Day of Remembrance, Nov. 20. We remember transgender victims of violence. We pray for safety, welcome, and respect for all our transgender family, friends, loved ones, and neighbors. Amen.

Reconnect

Pastor’s Page November 2018

My wife and I have hosted Thanksgiving for the past 20 years. Celebrating Thanksgiving at Todd and Nicole’s has become a family tradition for our generation of brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, cousins and in-laws. It’s a multi-day event which includes a feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, squash au gratin, stuffing (or “dressing” as my sister-in-law from Alabama calls it) gravy, vegetables, pies of various kinds, and–a Thanksgiving favorite–chocolate mousse. Over the years our family has grown, so the table has gotten longer. In fact, I think this year we might need two tables. What makes this time so precious is the opportunity to reconnect with people we love.

It is important to take time to reconnect. On October 13, about 20 of us from FCC Stamford made a retreat with Rev. Jim Griffith, who taught us about what church restart means and what it will take for us to do a restart should we decide to. One of the things he mentioned was that in this time of transition from our current location to a new one we make sure we take time to reconnect with each other. Our Monday evening pub study has been a great time of reconnection. Nicoline and Stuart Sawabini are hosting a generosity gathering at their house on Sunday Nov. 4, 5pm, share food and conversation. There are a lot of stresses in our lives both inside the church and outside, in our families, our workplaces, our schools, our politics, and in our hearts. It’s vitally important that we intentionally take time to reconnect.