Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, 11/24/2025, at the Southfield Interfaith Thanksgiving Service
Lessons: Phil 2:1-4
Earlier today I posted tonight's Interfaith Thanksgiving service on social media as a reminder for people to attend.
And I was tempted to entice people by calling to mind all of the blessings that they enjoy...
Think about the good earth from which our food comes - its beauty and wonder - its seasons and harvests - all creatures of our God and king!
Think about its water that gives us fishing, sailing, calamari and shrimp - and life itself!
And about the fresh air - the birds and bats - dirigibles and drones - and that fills our lungs as we breathe 20,000 times each day without ever thinking twice.
Then I thought about the blessing of ancestors - all who came before us - their stories and struggles - their good reputations that precede us - and their wisdom and prayers that pursue us.
Then, I thought about our families and friends - who enliven our days - they give us the substance of the greatest joys we have! They give us hope and laughter - and continuous encouragement that helps us both cope and achieve.
Then, I pondered our homes - whether humble or grand - those familiar rooms with pillows and bedspreads, skillets and microwaves, big screens and liquor cabinets - where we form perhaps our most sacred memories - where we're warm and fed and safe and loved.
But then as I was ready to hit the big blue button that said "POST" I said: "Blessings? Scratch that!" And, instead - I asked people to think of all the terrible things that have happened this year!
Think about your very worst moments - your sorrows, your losses, your sadness, your embarrassment, your disgrace - How has our patience been tried - our fuse been lit, our hopes dashed, our fears heightened, our anxieties inflamed? How have we let God, others, and ourselves down - so far down we can't do a thing about it?
And now, I ask: Can we please remember.
Can we please remember that we are here...that somehow, some way - we got through the worst day of the year - perhaps it was the worst of our lives!
As the ancient Israelites in Deuteronomy invited us - can we "forget not:" that somehow, some way - we have survived - we have come through it - albeit bruised and battered, weary and limping, perhaps forever scared and forever changed –
But we are here.
We made it through the trauma - the trial - the temptation - we made it out of the dark and miry clay.
This we remember.
Now, remember: Who got you through it.
I got me into that mess - or most of them - but it was the Lord who got us out!
It was my bright ideas, my best coping logic, my shortcomings and shortcuts that made that bed - But it was the Lord who kept me from sleeping in it.
Job number one around your Thanksgiving table this year:
Remember to remember.
Not just the blessing - but the deliverance.
And remember that the same God that got you out of that jam this year - will get us out of that jam next year.
That's just who God is.
Yes, we will face challenges - maybe to our health, finances, or relationships - they will come - but remember to remember that this same God who got us to today - will get us to tomorrow.
Job number one around your Thanksgiving table:
Remember to remember.
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I know of an old pastor who cherished a tattered and torn church bulletin from November of 1936 - nearly 90 years old.
And he kept it around because it had a typo in it - It had listed the upcoming service for the 4th Thursday in November not as Thanksgiving but as ThanksLIVING.
ThanksLIVING - it kind of piques your imagination doesn't it?
ThanksLIVING - is refusing to take the Left Road of glass-half-empty, negativity, ungratefulness, and entitlement - "Oh, things just never work out for me!" - when we look at a catalog and notice all the things we DON'T have - and never stop to look at the things we DO have.
When I'm in touch with that part of me and somebody points it out - "Boy, why are you such a Negative Nelson?" (that's what we call it in my house...)
That's when I look down my long snoot and correct them - saying,
"Young sir - I am not a Negative Nelson - I am a Realistic Reggie!"
You ever use that defense - 'O I'm just being realistic...'
But my conception of ThanksLIVING is to bypass that Left Road - and take that more difficult Right Road of abundance, gratitude, and appreciation.
That is the road of your spirit and of my spirit!
And look who I get to enjoy it with!
These are all the congregations that covid could not kill!
Why sure, they bruised the Baptists, pummeled the Presbyterians, undercut the unitarians, jilted the Jews, clipped the Catholics, and eclipsed the episcopalians,
But we're still standing! God is still standing! The spirit is still moving all over this land!
And while there is a lot of talk about congregations closing, people being an interested in religion, they are interested in spirituality!
And I like to say I'm spiritual not religious as well. Because that's who's going to be left. Standing, the communities of Faith that embody the true spirit of the holy One, the spirit of love!
Yes, that's what keeps us moving, and will keep us moving is when we take the latter part of that second reading to heart!
Did you notice in our Philippians reading perhaps the best advice we find in the big book?
"Let each of you look not at your own interests but at the interests of others!"
In our selfish, self-isolating, inward turned, and outwardly blind world, it's you good people of the spirit who show us another way, a better way, the only way, really, to live life, and that's to do our very best to put other people first.
This is why the right road is the difficult road.
Those of you who have children are probably used to the lunchtime symphony you here in your car when you ask for a preferred restaurant, I want to go to McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Kentucky fried Chicken!
Well, why don't we do what the good book says and go to where your brother and sister want to go? And that my friends is how you start world war III.
And that is also how you avoid world war 3. Listening to others, compromising, negotiating, working it out together.
Not putting the other person down, telling them how bad the burger is at that other place, or how your decision will poison us all!
Around your Thanksgiving table, remember to put other people first.
Remember to show your thanks.
Remember to show your appreciation!
That is not hard around here!
Do you know what a joy it is to work with our music director and our choir?
Do you know how terrific it is to be able to call up such gracious, intelligent, and loving colleagues as Aaron, Anders, Clarence, Jeff, and Julie? And yes, that is alphabetical order, as not to communicate preference...
But my preference is that every Community would have such outstanding clergy as ours.... Can we give them a hand for all the hard work they do for you all and for this community?
And that's not even to mention you all, as if you didn't have enough going on in your own congregations and in your own lives, to make time, in our splintered, fractured, distracted, and divided world, to seek unity among good people of Faith, to establish and enhance important relationships.
It means so much to me For you to be here tonight, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to gather in a spirit of unity, love, and gratitude, to be in this place.
We want you to stick around, we want you to linger, we have brought some snacks, cookies and brownies, from our homes, and we don't want to bring them back! But we are hoping that you will join us in the atrium following the service to meet somebody new.
And so, from this place, as you go about your holiday planning and celebrating, remember to remember, not just the blessing, but the Deliverance.
And remember to celebrate. Not just Thanksgiving, but ThanksLiving, by trying your best, to put the other person first.
And may you go from this place knowing that you are loved, knowing that you are not alone, and knowing that the same God who brought you through today, will take you through tomorrow!
Amen.