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Rev. Merlin Shorb
Rappahannock Methodist Charge
Flint Hilly Sperry ville, Willis Chapel
THANKSGIVING
On Thanksgiving Day many New England families customarily place five kernels of com on each plate at the carving of the turkey. These kernels represent the daily ration per person of their Pilgrim ancestors prior to the first harvest in the new land. As we know, many of them succumbed to the harsh winter on such meager fare. What we may overlook is that those same settlers nevertheless gave thanks over those provisions.
This year as we load up our tables with all the delectable entrees of the season we will do well to remember the five kernels. These speak not only of our history but also of the harsh realities of our own times. At this very moment the cruel gap between rich and poor is expanding. The inflationary pressures that fuel this trend are squeezing out the middle class majority on which our Republic is built. It ought to be an occasion of national shame when any family slips below the poverty line, especially among the working classes.
But this is Thanksgiving. And we need to be thankful that an hourly wage worker can still put bread on the table on two day's earnings out of the week. We need to be thankful that great volunteer organizations, the most efficient of whom are the churches, are responding capably with relief. We need to be thankful that our own nation at great cost to herself has faithfully responded to human need in all parts of the globe. We have not withheld aid over questions of ideology or color or circumstance or religion. We have given freely of our bounty. And God has blessed us.
At this glorious season let us never regard a bountiful harvest with its enormous risk as anything other than God's blessing. Let us never think of our prosperity as a coincidence of history. Let us thank God, the living God, for prospering our labors and filling our tables once again. A true Thanksgiving is not found in overstuffing ourselves. A true Thanksgiving is a heart overflowing with gratitude to the Lord who made it all possible.
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