Journey from Adversity to Thanksgiving

                                    Journey from Adversity to Thanksgiving

                                        Psalm 103, selected verses, NIV

          A meditation delivered electronically by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, Nov 22, 2020

How can we possibly get ourselves in the spirit of thanksgiving this week with all we have endured these past months and in light of all that is still going on around us and the bad news that bombards us daily?  Such is a natural question that many Americans may be asking today. 

Some of our United Church members have been personally affected by the coronavirus, either by testing positive, being ill, or in a few cases having lost a loved one to it. And to these members we extend our empathy and concern.  And as you well know, the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to rise.  So we are still in the midst of a very difficult time.

And then there have been the natural disasters that have destroyed livelihoods, homes, and have also taken lives – wildfires in the west, hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, flooding in many places, and so on. 

Again, it all begs the question: How can America even think of offering thanksgiving?  Enter the story of the Pilgrims.

Each year as Thanksgiving draws near, we are reminded of the story of the Plymouth Pilgrims that most of us learned in elementary school.  Now, unless you stay up on early American or Congregational history, it may not have occurred to you that this year marks the 400^th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ crossing the Atlantic and landing on America’s shore on November 11, 1620.  On December 16, 1620, 35 days later, they landed at what is now known as Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.

Now, we realize that some mythical elements likely have grown up around the story of the Pilgrims and their big feast with the Native Americans of the area.  And we realize that in general Europeans arriving on American soil was not good in every sense of the term, since the indigenous peoples in many ways would be wronged, taken advantage of, driven from their lands, and would suffer death because of illnesses that were brought here and as they sought to protect their lands.  We have to acknowledge that the stories of early American history have their low points as well as their high points. We have to confess that the Pilgrims had their faults and were not perfect people, just as the Puritans who arrived shortly after them certainly had their faults and were not perfect people either.

However, the experience of the Pilgrims as it relates to adversity mirrors the experience we see throughout the Bible, and especially the psalms, which mirrors the experience of humanity in general.  This past week, I came up with an acronym that sort of describes a universal human experience that speaks to our situation today – A-C-T. 

A – Adversity. A common experience we see depicted in the scriptures is lamenting or recounting some great adversity that threatened the life of an individual or the people as a whole – a life-threatening illness, enemies who threatened them with death, hunger and thirst, imprisonment, danger at sea, famine, exile, the list of adversities is long.

C – Calm. Following the great adversity comes redemption and calm.  The sick recovered, enemies were overcome, food and water were restored, the imprisoned were released, those in danger on the seas were saved, the famine ended, the exile came to an end.  And there was an experience of calm.

T – Thanksgiving.  Over and again throughout the psalms, we see the psalmists praying prayers and singing songs of thanksgiving for having overcome the adversity and for the redemption and calm that followed.

Such is what we see in Psalm 107 that was read earlier.  And this psalm, especially, is most appropriate in thinking about the experience of the Plymouth Pilgrims, as it speaks of imprisonment and persecution, those who journeyed on ships and were guided to their desired haven, and then in the end were moved to offer thanksgiving.  The Pilgrims, as the story goes, left Europe to escape religious persecution and the threat of imprisonment; sailed for 66 days across the Atlantic in a small vessel called the Mayflower, suffering many fierce storms that threatened to destroy them; and finally landed at a fair haven which came to be known as Cape Cod. 

However, having left Europe much later in the season than they had planned because of problems with ships and actually setting sail, they arrived in New England as winter was approaching.  Many of their number died that first winter from starvation, exposure, and cold.  So the great adversity continued.  Thanks to the actions of the local indigenous peoples, about half of the Pilgrims were able to survive that first harsh winter, and the survivors experienced a time of redemption and calm in the spring and summer of 1621, and that autumn they held a big thanksgiving celebration.  From that thanksgiving celebration following the harvest in the autumn of 1621 came, at least in part, our American Thanksgiving holiday.

ACT – Adversity, Calm, and then Thanksgiving: it was the experience of the psalmists time and again, it was the experience of the Pilgrims, and it has been a universal human experience throughout history.  It is only natural to break forth into thanksgiving during a period of redemption and calm and when looking back at the adversity behind us. 

Yes, America – we – have experienced these past months, but continue to experience, adversity.  There is no question about that. 

But the question is, Can we find it within ourselves to offer thanksgiving when adversity still presses upon us?  When life is not as we would choose it to be?  Can we, as writer Daniel Defoe contended, even in the midst of our adversity, still “see something or other to be thankful for”?  May we have the grace to do so.  Amen.