by Jennifer Hockenbery
The story that is often told to and by school children about the first Thanksgiving is that it is a remembrance of a day of concord between the Puritan colonizers and the Wampanoag and other Native nations who assisted them as they tried to survive. Many versions of the story told in storybooks and plays devalued the Native peoples involved, invisibilized them, or appropriated their customs without acknowledging the lives and contributions of Wampanoag and other Native people living today. A deeper understanding of that story requires reading Wampanoag resources and learning of their 12,000 year history before the Puritans came as well as the story of violence and broken treaties after their first encounters. As we offer thanks today, let us have gratitude for the continued presence of diverse and vibrant Native communities and work for continued truth and healing in our church, society and world.
The story of the first national Thanksgiving is told less often. President Abraham Lincoln established the holiday in a proclamation on October 3, 1863 in the midst of the Civil War. He had been urged to do so by Sarah Josepha Hale, an abolitionist and advocate for female education. Lincoln’s proclamation has words that are worth repeating. He speaks of the beauty of fruitful fields and bounties “which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come” and beauties that “cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful presence of Almighty God.” Lincoln invites his fellow citizens to set apart the last Thursday in November to offer thanks and praise and to offer “humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience” and to commend to God’s tender care all those who have been widowed or orphaned and all those who mourn and suffer due to lamentable civil strife. Finally, he asks that on this day Americans “fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it” that it might enjoy “peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”
This Thanksgiving, let us give thanks to God for all people and remember especially those whose gifts and humanity for so long have not been acknowledged in public testimonies. This Thanksgiving, let us give thanks for the harvest of the fields and the natural beauty of our world. This Thanksgiving, let us humbly repent of the ways we have turned from God by ignoring or harming our neighbors. This Thanksgiving, may we beg God for truth, healing, and tranquility that leads to strong unity. In recognizing God’s love, grace, and beautiful gifts, may we humbly walk in love with our neighbors.
Dr. Jennifer Hockenbery is interim executive director for Women of the ELCA and editor of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics.