The Thanksgiving holiday we inherit is a complex, morally mixed amalgam of different kinds of gratitude: for good harvest, for safe passage, for colonial conquest, for military victory. All of which only sharpens the question, How will we celebrate Thanksgiving today?
Remembering this history of cross-cultural encounter and conflict, we may give thanks for the dazzling diversity of this land, including and especially Native American communities. Giving thanks in this way, our gratitude can spur us to reach out and work together to create a more just and equitable world.
Likewise, remembering the holiday’s links to war, we may give thanks for times of peace and peacemaking, for the indispensable work of bringing an end to war in all its forms: in our hearts, homes, neighborhoods, and between nations. Remembering the holiday’s links to creation, we may give thanks for the planet’s nourishing abundance. Here, too, our gratitude can serve to inspire us to redouble our efforts to be genuine peacemakers, serve the hungry in our neighborhoods, and care for God’s good Earth, all creatures great and small.
This message is excerpted from “A brief theology of Thanksgiving” by Matthew Myer Boulton from the November 17, 2023, blog of the Women of the ELCA. Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
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