Prayer: Dear God, in this season of Thanksgiving we come to you with grateful hearts. We thank you for this new day, for family and friends, for our church and for our time together in this historic meetinghouse. As we worship, speak the word you have for us. Strengthen us for the challenges of our lives. Comfort us and give us your peace, in the spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This is one of my favorite Sundays of the year. This Sunday before Thanksgiving, with the wonderful hymns: "Come Ye Thankful People Come", "We gather together to ask the Lord's Blessing", "Now Thank we All Our God."

What a privilege for me to stand in this pulpit. What a privilege for each of us to be here in this meetinghouse this morning. Della and I are so thankful to be with you and to share this time in our life together. If only these walls could talk, what a story they would tell. A story of faith, courage, patriotism, the willingness to risk all for the new nation. As they would later say: "We pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." As we gather here this morning we are surrounded by what scripture calls, "the great cloud of witnesses in the listening skies." Often referred to as the "balcony people" in our lives.

Can you see them sitting in the balcony this morning? Watching, listening, cheering us on: calling us, challenging us to keep the faith and to be as bold and brave in relating our faith to the challenges of today as they were in their day. There they are up in the balcony: Benjamin Franklin, baptized here, referred to in the title of a new biography as "the first American," Deacon Samuel Adams, known as the Father of the American Revolution, William Dawes, another Deacon, who rode that midnight ride with Paul Revere. Never forget the source of their strength and courage in all the trying days of the American Revolution. They were sustained by their faith in Divine Providence. They believed they were called to be "a city set upon a hill."

We come here this morning not to worship the past. We have gathered in this historic meetinghouse on this Thanksgiving Sunday to remember and celebrate and to thank God for our rich heritage. We are here to remember our colonial ancestors because we see in them the faith and courage we require for the living of these days.

We come to our roots that we might soar with wings of faith.
So be glad, be grateful, and try always to be worthy.

It is for this reason also that our thoughts go back to that first Thanksgiving and to the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation. The event has been romanticized. It was filled with peril. Half of their number died that first year, buried at night in unmarked graves so hostile natives would not see how their ranks were being diminished. Starvation was a real possibility. It was corn given to them by friendly natives that saved them. Governor Bradford wrote in his journal: "The whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue, if they looked behind them there was the mighty ocean, what could sustain them but the spirit of God and His grace."

They were, of course, people of the Bible. They understood that God is to be thanked and praised regardless of what is going on around us and in the world, in good times and in bad. The Pilgrims were thankful that first Thanksgiving, as were our colonial ancestors, for divine providence, because God had not abandoned them and was calling them on into a future bright with promise. Exactly as God is calling this congregation today.

In our first Gospel reading of the morning Saint Luke tells us of the time Jesus encountered a pathetic group of ten lepers, suffering from the dread skin disease that so frightened people that its victims were isolated from family, community, synagogue, and compelled to cry out a warning as they approached: "Unclean, unclean!" Seeing Jesus they called out: "Have mercy on us." Jesus healed them - but only one returned to thank him, throwing himself at Jesus' feet, praising God. Jesus asked: "Were not ten healed? Where are the nine, where are your friends?" And to the one who returned he said, "Your faith has made you well." Actually the Greek is stronger than that, "Your faith has saved you."

You see what is happening? Ten are cured, but only one becomes well, whole, saved, and the reason is, apparently, his gratitude, his expression of thanksgiving is what restores him to health and wholeness. Think about that: Faith is here defined not as believing certain doctrines or living in holiness. Faith is here described as taking delight in God's amazing goodness and love. Unfaith then, is accepting God's gifts and taking them for granted, not thanking God, not expressing delight. Where are the nine? Were not ten healed?

You see, Jesus knew that ingratitude is a poison which erodes your spiritual life. My mother knew this - I'm sure yours did also. "Always say please and thank you - always insisting that I write a thank you note to every aunt and uncle who remembered my birthday. It is much more than a matter of manners. Ingratitude is a powerful enemy of your spiritual life.

Were not ten healed? Where are the nine?

If you have been careful, if you have taken too much for granted, let this Thanksgiving be a time of returning, remembering and giving thanks. Be glad, be grateful and try always to be worthy.

In our second parable of the morning, this from the Lectionary, Jesus gives each of us some very practical suggestions as to ways we can express our gratitude to God. There is this wonderful block of teaching material in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Saint Matthew: the parable of the wise and foolish maidens, the parable of the talents, and the parable of the last judgment. often called the parable of the "great surprise" - for Jesus says the criterion for judgment is not believing the creeds or the doctrine of the church. It is whether, as Jesus says, "You have done it unto one of the least of these who are members of my family."

In the opening verses of the parable it is interesting we so frequently overlook who is there on this day of judgment. Jesus says, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. . ."

Wow! Wow! Did you hear that? Apparently we are not only going to be held accountable for our own shortcomings (as if I wasn't in trouble enough), but we will stand on the day of judgment also as citizens of this nation. Ponder that in your hearts!

Jesus here stands in the line of the grate Hebrew prophets. God requires right action as well as right worship. "What does God require of you but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." No one knew this more fully than Franklin, Adams and Dawes, who proclaimed not alone a private faith, but a public faith encountering the nation and the world.

"Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these…" If you have been careless, if you have taken too much for granted, let this Thanksgiving be a time of returning, remembering and giving thanks. The amazing grace and generosity of God is not to b e paid back. It is to be passed on. Be glad, be grateful, and try always to be worthy!

There is a wonderful story about Orel Hershiser, the great Dodger pitcher. He was a born-again Christian who passed out autographed Bibles to team mates and others. His feat of consecutive scoreless innings pitched is always referred to a couple of times during every World Series. After the World Series in which he set the record he was a guest on the Johnny Carson Show. Carson said to him, "I was watching you during the games, between innings. You were by yourself but your lips were moving. Who were you talking to?" Orel replied, "I wasn't talking. I was singing." "What were you singing?" "I was singing the Doxology." Johnny called out to Doc Severson: "Hey, Doc, do we know that?" On national television Orel sang:

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise God all creatures here below."
The audience was stunned!

In these days of uncertainty and anxiety, in these days so full of potential and promise, this is our song: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." Thanksgiving Day is not very far away from Advent. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent: the beginning of a new liturgical year. Today, this final Sunday of the old year is known on the calendar of the Universal Christian Church as "Christ the King Sunday" or the "Reign of Christ Sunday." It is good when it falls as it does this year on Thanksgiving Sunday, for it reminds us of the true ground of our thanksgiving.

God is God. We are the sons and daughters of God. God in Christ is with us. Because of God's grace we are not deterred or fearful. Nor are we afraid of what is to come. For we may not know what tomorrow holds, but we know who holds tomorrow.

As with our colonial ancestors and the pilgrims of Plymouth, the ground of our gratitude is not in our material abundance. The foundation of our Thanksgiving is in the love and grace of God revealed in Jesus our Lord.

If you have been careless, if you have taken too much for granted, let this Thanksgiving be a time of remembering, returning and giving thanks. Be glad, be grateful, try always to be worthy.

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hand and voices,
who wondrous things has done and in whom this world rejoices.
Who from our parents' arms has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love and still is ours today.
Let all the people say, Amen and Amen.

Scripture Readings
Luke 17: 11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Matthew 25: 31-46

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are member of my family, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those at his left hand,' You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.