Naming and Claiming our Past

 

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  To be sure the history around this holiday is complex, complicated, and we may prefer to cling to the notion that it was just a nice meal with turkey shared by the Native people of this land and Pilgrims of the buckled, wide-brimmed hats.  As Brian McLaren says, “We gravitate toward simplicity rather than complexity.”  To be sure, there were many Thanksgiving moments for those who had migrating to this country.  In Virginia in 1619, the English immigrants declared a day of Thanking to God for safe passage.  In 1637, the governor of Plymouth declared a day to celebrate winning a battle against the Native people of this land.  I didn’t learn that in history class.  In 1789, George Washington invited everyone to give thanks to God for the birth of a new nation.  Finally, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln asked all to give thanks for the military success of the Civil War.

 

When we read that history, it can make us uncomfortable.  We don’t like to appear like we don’t know everything and so instead today we tend to double down on our truth, and we struggle to listen to anyone or anything that asks us to change.

 

Maybe right now you would rather I just debate whether it is better to have pumpkin pie or apple pie tomorrow. 

 

Or maybe you have stopped reading today’s meditation all together.  I share the messiness of our human history because I believe we need to be honest about our past.  Perhaps we can begin to understand that some of the reasons why we struggle to love each other is because loving each other has always been challenging to people.  For some reason, we are drawn to fear rather than gratitude and grace.  Listen to the voices of leaders; read the emails asking you for donations; and turn on the news, how much gratitude or grace do you hear? 

 

Or better yet, don’t do any of that.  Instead, on this Thanksgiving Eve know that our ancestors were fully human.  The Pilgrims, who the UCC claim as our ancestors, did some amazing acts of God’s love and they also hurt/harmed Native people.  Early UCCers defended the slaves who overthrew the Amistad and owned slaves.    We were quick to give land holding men a vote and slow to see God’s gifts for ministry in women, African Americans, and LGBTQ.  We may be the first denomination to ordain God’s beloved who were not white men, but we still hear the struggles of countless ministers today who grew up on the margins, the fringe and fray of life. We are all a mixture of contradictions, even though we don’t want to admit it.

 

To embrace complexity, that the human story of prayerfully seeking to be God’s people has always had twists and turns, helps me live in the less-than-perfect present moment.  Our shared history reminds us that we too are getting somethings right and other things all wrong.  We don’t judge our ancestors.  This isn’t about shame or blame; grief or guilt.  We prayerfully seek to learn from yesterday to grow more into who and how God is calling us today.

 

For the richness and less-than-perfectness of our past, I give thanks for this present moment when we can continue to pour out our prayers of lament, confession, adoration, thanksgiving, and seeking God’s guidance, grace, and love to be the good news that is needed today.

 

Prayer: O God, You are our help in ages past.  You are our hope for years to come.  You are the shelter in the stormy blast, and our eternal home.  Amen.