Hearts Overflowing with Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2018, Idolatry, and Deuteronomic Pie

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog


INTRODUCTION:

One of the more pleasant customs around here is to write something every Thanksgiving about how good God has been to us. But this is really not a “break” from all the culture war stuff—gratitude actually ought to be our central weapon in the culture war. Thanksgiving is not simply the name of our holiday; it is an individualized, shoulder-mounted, surface-to-air missile, capable of taking out every form of high-flying ingratitude. Just point and shoot.

The opposite of gratitude is envy, self-pity, and malice, and those three things are the driving engine of all our societal woes, from socialism to demented gender-bending, from coercive bureaucrats with a bad case of libido dominandi to trillions of gallons of red ink, stored in billions of fifty gallon drums in a warehouse the size of Rhode Island. You name it, prideful envy is calling the shots.

Manifest blessings in the spirit of Deuteronomy . . . a pretty girl, clearly devout, making a pie.
And when believers respond with fear and dismay, their tactic is working. We ought to respond with joy and hard work, with songs of deliverance straight out of the psalter, with exuberance in our families, with an urgent request of our preachers that they start preaching high and inside, and with lots of pie. The pie will help keep us centered. The pie will remind us that we are not gnostics, but rather that we are rejoicing in the blessings of Deuteronomy.

STUFF THAT WORKS:

The vicarious, substitutionary death of Christ on the cross, so that our old man might be laid in the grave, and the resurrection of Christ from the tomb so that our new man could emerge with Him, coming out into an everlasting newness of life. That God has placed me in the family He has—a glorious wife, three devout and talented children, spouses to match, and a passel of grandchildren, all of whom love the Lord. A truck that works. The opportunity, honor, and privilege of caring for my aging father. Writing software—the kind that enables me to write the way I love to do, and the kind that enables me then, just moments later, to click publish. Scores of books that come to me in various guises—hardback, paperback, e-books, and audio. Bible study software—in my case Logos 8—which currently is serving and amazing me. I cannot believe how many libraries are right at my fingertips now, and how many hundreds of thousands of Bible research cyber-interns are waiting on cyber-tiptoe, just waiting for me to want to find out something like where Midian was exactly. And let us not forget the pie—apple, pumpkin, pecan, and other periodic contenders.

The Real Thanksgiving Day

Humility, Not Hubris

"Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, 

"and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. 

"Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us. 

"And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best. 

"Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789."

— George Washington

Bearing Witness Around Laden Tables

Unbelief and Pumpkin Pie

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

So we have come to Thanksgiving 2017, year of our Lord.

On the one hand, we have an enormous amount to be grateful for. Things are still relatively stable. We were able to buy the turkey at CostCo with little difficulty. On the way home, the traffic lights were all still working. The roads were in decent condition. We are able to provide for our families. Today hundreds of thousands of turkeys will be placed on tables, surrounded by millions of smiles.

But on the other hands, when we consider our culture’s understanding of itself, the contradictory confusions are rampant. When we look at our society’s attitude toward sex, sexual fruitfulness, sexual entitlement, sexual abuse, sexual androgyny, and sexual morality, what we have is a cross between a David Bowie concert gone wrong and a Hieronymus Bosch painting having nightmares. We have an established organization that is selling the parts of its human victims, and not only will Congress not stop it, they won’t even stop subsidizing the ghouls.

In the face of this great incongruity, and many others like it, many Christians wonder about the propriety of celebrating Thanksgiving.

Daily Devotional

New Songs

"O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men."  Psalm 107:8

Charles H. Spurgeon

If we complained less, and praised more, we should be happier, and God would be more glorified. Let us daily praise God for common mercies--common as we frequently call them, and yet so priceless, that when deprived of them we are ready to perish.

Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the sun, for the health and strength to walk abroad, for the bread we eat, for the raiment we wear. Let us praise him that we are not cast out among the hopeless, or confined amongst the guilty; let us thank him for liberty, for friends, for family associations and comforts; let us praise him, in fact, for everything which we receive from his bounteous hand, for we deserve little, and yet are most plenteously endowed.

But, beloved, the sweetest and the loudest note in our songs of praise should be of redeeming love. God's redeeming acts towards his chosen are forever the favourite themes of their praise. If we know what redemption means, let us not withhold our sonnets of thanksgiving. We have been redeemed from the power of our corruptions, uplifted from the depth of sin in which we were naturally plunged. We have been led to the cross of Christ--our shackles of guilt have been broken off; we are no longer slaves, but children of the living God, and can antedate the period when we shall be presented before the throne without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

Even now by faith we wave the palm-branch and wrap ourselves about with the fair linen which is to be our everlasting array, and shall we not unceasingly give thanks to the Lord our Redeemer? Child of God, canst thou be silent? Awake, awake, ye inheritors of glory, and lead your captivity captive, as ye cry with David, "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name." Let the new month begin with new songs.

Letter From America (About Ugly Redneck Relatives)

The Self-Important Hive

Katherine Timpf, writing in National Review Online has authored of those "you have to be kidding" pieces that leaves one incredulous.  The Left, and their chattering Hive-like propaganda organs, are a strange lot.  One of their peculiarities is a general air of messianic self-importance.  They are saving the world, you know.  Being a super-hero is not easy, but we, the BBG ("Borg of Greater Good") can bear the load.  

Another peculiarity is the general air of perfumed condescension which oozes from their pores and sweat glands. There are enlightened mortals and then there is the great unwashed.  Mixing with the malodorous has to be done from time to time, and Thanksgiving is one of those times.  You end up sitting at a table with the rellies, who just happen to be ante-diluvian both in their non-chic fashion sense and, worse, their reactionary views.  But you can put up mingling with sinners if you take the opportunity to hector and evangelise.  

And so, we are told, the internet is awash with sanctimonious advice on how, not just to endure the red neck rellies over Thanksgiving, but actually use the occasion to advance the kingdom.  Timpf provides us with a summary of the Left's recommended talking points when sitting down with the red neck rellies. 

The Historical Zeitgeist of the American Holiday of Thanksgiving

'The Pilgrim Chronicles' (Excerpt)

The Faith and Focus of the Puritans

by Rod Gragg  

27 Nov 2014

Breitbart News

Through the Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity, Queen Elizabeth’s Settlement solidly established the Church of England as the nation’s official government denomination. It was a compromise of sorts: the Church of England would retain its Protestant doctrine, but it would also keep familiar, Catholic-style worship ceremonies and traditions. The publication of English language Bibles, once outlawed in England, now proliferated, and commoners and gentry alike eagerly purchased personal copies. Learning and sharing Scripture became the rage in England. “Everywhere might be heard the eager conversation of minds enlightened by the truth, speaking those wonderful words which the Most High had spoken unto men,” reported nineteenth-century church historian Edward B. Underhill. “The street, the tavern, the ale-house, the church and every company were the scenes of earnest dispute or holy zeal [as] scripture was compared with scripture and its sense closely scrutinized.” By the early 1600s, the common people of England were awash in a flood of faith. “The whole moral effect . . . was simply amazing,” observed renowned English historian John Richard Green. “The whole nation became a church.”

While Queen Elizabeth’s compromise solidified Protestant doctrine in the Church of England, it also placed requirements and restrictions on Protestants as well as Catholics. The English people were required to abide by the standards and policies of the Church of England as stated in the 1559 Book of Common Prayer.

Pastors and preachers were forbidden to publicly “preach, declare or speake any thing” that was not sanctioned by the Anglican Church. Disobedient pastors could be discharged from their salaried positions in the Church and even imprisoned for life. The punishment for any minister who deviated from Church policy was outlined in the Book of Common Prayer:

Thanksgiving

G.K. Chesterton on Thanksgiving

Justin Taylor
November 28, 2013

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”—G. K. Chesterton

“The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.”—G. K. Chesterton

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”—G. K. Chesterton

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”—G. K. Chesterton

“When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?”—G. K. Chesterton

Douglas Wilson's Thanksgiving Letter

Thanksgiving 2012 

Liturgy and Worship - Church Year
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, 22 November 2012

I have been thinking about this for some years now, but for certain reasons rhyming with prudence have been putting it off. It has been my practice to publicly register my itemized thanksgiving to God on Thanksgiving Day, and I certainly have had no shortage of material. God is greatly to be praised -- "Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits" (Ps. 68:19). My dear mother once said that she sometimes felt like "God's pet" -- and this from a woman whose life was filled with many trials and challenges. At the same time, she knew something about how much gratitude we all owe to God for all His blessings. Even the trials are presents -- sometimes the wrapping is harder to get off, but at the center of everything is gift.

What I have been putting off is expressing my gratitude for my kids and their spouses.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Thanksgiving 2011

Liturgy and Worship - Church Year
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving in the midst of war is not an incongruity; it is one of our chief weapons. The Lord prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies (Ps. 23:5). We are not yet privileged to sit down in Isaiah's hall, where the trumpet and spear are mounted in places of honor, where we may celebrate as those who never have to study war again. Until we are ushered into that era (by the conquering gospel), we must learn to keep our powder of faith dry and our hearts full of gratitude.

Out of the Rubble

The Blessings of Civility

Many of us were raised in post-Depression families where our parents constantly enjoined us to "count our blessings". They had known to an extent some of the hardship and deprivation portrayed so powerfully by John Mulgan in Man Alone. The Apostle Paul said that he had learned to be abased and to abound (Philippians 4:12). He also said that if he had food clothing and shelter, with these he would be content (I Timothy 6:8).

Many people have lost a great deal in Christchurch and their lives have been shaken to the core. One of the most encouraging things amidst it all, however, is to see civil society rise to the surface. By "civil" we mean a society where people are treating each other with respect, care, and concern. Where neighbour is reaching out to neighbour. The news media has been full of such incidents. It has been encouraging. Our parents taught us that these are some of the things that really matter.

Stuff has published an open letter of thanks from a Japanese father who has apparently lost his daughter. It encapsulates the blessings to be counted amidst the tragedy.

To the people of New Zealand and Japan:

My daughter was involved in the earthquake disaster while studying English in Christchurch in order to fulfill her ambition of becoming a medical worker able to work globally. I have come to New Zealand hoping for a slim chance of her survival, but she has not been found and the situation seems desperate. It was such a consolation for me to have met you who helped and co-operated with us, the families of the victims, with such warm hospitality and encouragement. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to you all.

Here in Christchurch, I have seen how the people and the government of New Zealand have come together to work to rescue the victims immediately after the earthquake occurred and the government proclaimed a state of emergency. Having witnessed your dedication with my own eyes, I now understand why my daughter decided to study in Christchurch, 5600 miles far from my country.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Japan in New Zealand, and the Consulate in Christchurch have been coordinating their collective efforts to cope with this situation and supporting the families of the victims. I am impressed and thankful for their painstaking efforts even when the families sometimes become impatient and demanding.

The agent that introduced my daughter to the language school in Christchurch has been supporting us by keeping in touch 24 hours a day, updating news every 1 to 2 hours, and continuously cheering us up. My daughter's friends have also encouraged us by every possible means. Since arriving in Christchurch, many volunteers have been providing us with empathetic care. Staff members dispatched from the agent have been with the families, sympathetically listening to us and supporting us even when we lose ourselves in worry. The media staff members understand the feelings of the families of the victims well, and are reporting the central issues of the disaster. Even though my daughter has not been rescued yet, I think she is really lucky and happy because she is supported by so very many kind-hearted people.

Most of all, I am overwhelmed with gratitude toward the rescue teams from various countries, who have been engaged in the relief activities with their high technical capability and noble-minded motivation. I sincerely hope that those who are engaged in the relief effort will not be involved in secondary disasters.

I thank you all again for your unremitting efforts and unceasing empathy, which we will remember forever.

We ought not to take such civility in Christchurch for granted. There have been plenty of occasions in human history where it has been absent and suffering has been multiplied many, many times over. C. S. Lewis once remarked that Hell will be a collection of starving people seated at a long table with just a knife, each trying to eat peas . No civil society there. There have been times when hell has come on earth as neighbour has turned upon neighbour, and parents have devoured their children, and children their parents.

How thankful we ought to be that Christchurch has been spared this, and that civility and neighbourly love have been so strongly to the fore. We thank God that this has made the tragedy not as bad as it might have been.

To highlight the blessings which we are to count in Christchurch, contrast the following description of daily life in a city amidst tragedy as described by an eye-witness:

By mid-summer, as the blistered and jagged hills sprouted forests of fly-blow crucified cadavers, the city within was tormented by a sense of impending doom, intransigent fanaticism, whimsical sadism, and searing hunger. Armed gangs prowled for food. Children grabbed morsels from their fathers' hands; mothers stole the tidbits of their own babies. Locked doors suggested hidden provisions and the warriors broke in, driving stakes up their victims' rectums to force them to reveal their caches of grain. If they found nothing, they were even more 'barbarously cruel' as if they had been 'defrauded.' Even though the fighters themselves still had food, they killed and tortured out of habit 'to keep their madness in exercise'. (The city) was riven by witch-hunts as people denounced each other as hoarders and traitors. No other city . . . 'did ever allow such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, since the beginning of the world.' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, The Biography, (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2011), p.4.

The city, Jerusalem. The time, AD70. The occasion, the Roman siege led by Titus. The situation, a people who had lost all civility. The result, hell upon earth.

The Lord said of that time that it would be "a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall." (Matthew 24:21).

Given that Jerusalem in AD70 teaches that of which we humans are capable, we thank God for a very, very different spirit manifest in Christchurch in AD2011. It is very beautiful to see--and not to be taken for granted.

Hat Tip: Keeping Stock

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Thanksgiving 2010 


Liturgy and Worship - Church Year
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, November 25, 2010

We begin by thanking God for who He is, and what He has done for us through His gospel of glory. He is the triune God, which means that He is love. Love is not an afterthought, not an add-on. From all eternity, the Father has loved the Son, and the Son the Father. The Spirit of their mutual love has been poured out upon us, now that Jesus showed us the love of the Father by dying on the cross for us, and who has come back from the dead for our justification.

We also thank God for the creational emblems of His goodness and grace, emblems that surround us on every hand. The overflowing goodness of God is seen in marital companionship, friendship, breath, light, beer, sex, sleep, hot water, pie, turkey, potatoes and gravy, sunlight, grass, snow, children, grandchildren, electricity, shelter, fire, electronic gadgets, cars, books, and music. We serve and worship a God who gives to us with prodigality and abandon.

So God in His grace has given us yet another celebration of Thanksgiving. On the one hand we should just do it -- bow our heads and thank Him -- and on the other we need to give ourselves to the study of thanksgiving. Were we to do that, we would come to understand how crucial this is. Our lack of understanding this point is why we are losing the culture war.

Whenever someone declares his gratitude for all the goodness that God showers us with, it is not long before someone says (or thinks), "But what about the people who don't have these things?" Shouldn't we feel guilty until everybody has some? No -- because misdirected envy and muddled guilt are a principal cause of misery and poverty.

The first Thanksgiving was in 1623, and it was a time of abundance. It also marked a fundamental deliverance from the experiment of the two previous years, in which the Puritans had a go at collectivism, and almost starved to death. Didn't work. Never has, never will. God hates that kind of sharing.

The kind of sharing He loves is based on private ownership, hard work, covenant blessing, all appropriate thanksgiving rendered to Him, and with the recipient of the glorious largesse going on to imitate God Himself in the resultant overflow. Refusal to give thanks cuts off the taproot of this kind of gospel blessing.

The enemy of thanksgiving is ingratitude, and therefore the enemy of the gospel is ingratitude. But the serpent is crafty, and so Paul wants Christians to be on their toes (2 Cor. 11:3). As Christians we all know that we are to render thanks to God for the good things. And so what we have done is become hypercritical, and we have convinced ourselves over time that our milk and honey is not the same as milk and honey in Bible times. Ours has cholesterol in it, and residue from pesticides, and fat probably, and the bees gathered pollen from land we stole from the Indians.

We should have none of this. Unless we know how to thank God for Cool Whip in a plastic container with a plastic lid, applied to pumpkin pie, in its turn made from the processed ingredients purchased in a can, it remains no wonder that the secularists are winning. Gratitude is simple. Food wowserism is complicated, and full of grumbles.

The lessons for us are basic:

"For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving" (1 Tim. 4:4).

"Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength" (Neh. 8:10).

"And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee" (Dt. 28:11).

And why did the Deuteronomic curses come upon them? Because they despised the Cool Whip. And the marshmallow jello.

" . . . because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things" (Dt. 28:47).

As I write this, Nancy -- may her name be honored in our family for generations -- is baking pies that some would like to claim are not good for my heart. On the contrary, before taking a bite, my heart is full of their mediated goodness.