Deuteronomy 26:1-11

We are a nation of immigrants. We all came from somewhere else. Some like the pilgrims crossed the Atlantic Ocean on ships seeking freedom and a new life. Some came across the Pacific Ocean seeking opportunity farther east in the American West. Some were taken captive and brought over against their will on slave ships. Even the Native Americans' ancestors walked here from Siberia.

My own Family came here from Europe. Some branches of my mother's family go back to the Revolution and had immigrated from France and Britain. But my father's family came more recently. Both my paternal grandparents came from Scotland in the early 1900's On my 13th birthday my grandfather told me how he went to work in the coalmines of Scotland when he was 13. When he finally had the means he came to America looking for opportunity.

As a nation of immigrants, Thanksgiving is truly our unique American holiday. It recalls our immigrant roots. It retells the story of a group of immigrants in a new and strange land fighting to survive. It memorializes their struggle for freedom and symbolizes our ongoing struggles for liberty, hope, and a better future. It also acknowledges God as the source of help in the mist of a difficult, cold, and drastically changing world.

Thanksgiving, in its American form, is uniquely American, but setting aside a day for giving thanks is not as unique as one might think. You see Israel had a very similar Thanksgiving Day. Like us Israel was a nation of immigrants. For 400 years they had been slaves in Egypt before they immigrated for 40 years to the Promised Land seeking freedom. Like American immigrants, they found a land flowing with milk and honey but also filled with new dangers. Even Abraham and Sarah, who were the first to receive the promise of the land, had been immigrants from Ur.

Before Israel entered the land, God told them to set aside a day to give thanks. It was a festival of the first fruits. It would have been earlier in the year than our Thanksgiving but the idea was the same. God told them to bring the first fruits and offer them to God in thanksgiving for the blessings he had given them.

And as part of this they were told to give a specific response. It starts, "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor." It then goes on to recall the exodus and the gift of the Promised Land. It all ends with guess what? A feast! They might not have had turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, but like the pilgrims, and us they feasted.

"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor." That is true of us today. Maybe as we all gather at the Thanksgiving table this week we should all recite this passage before saying grace. We have traveled a long way to get where we are. It has been an exodus through a wilderness of dangers and pitfalls. All for the shining hope of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Americans have fought for centuries to realize freedom. The pilgrims fought disease and the elements to find religious freedom. As a nation we fought for our independence and the right to govern ourselves. In the 1860's we fought so that the statement "All men are created equal" could be applied to men of color. Then we struggled so that the working class would have rights and so that "All men are created equal" could apply to women. We fought 2 world wars to free the world of violence and tyranny. We fought a cold war to remain free from communism. And now we are fighting to be free from terrorism and mass murder.

Our ancestors were wanderers in the world seeking the promised land of freedom. We didn't arrive at this place on our own. Generations of others took risks, even gave their lives, so that we could live in this promised land of the United States. "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor." Whether your ancestors arrived on ocean liners, slave ships, land bridges, or more recently jet planes; we all owe a debt to the sacrifices of the past. And we owe thanks to God for allowing us to live here in this time.

"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor." We have wanders quite a ways in just this last year. We have gone from economic growth to the edge of recession. We have gone from as sense of national security to being victims of terrorism. We have gone from a state of peace to a state of war. We have gone from not knowing who would be the president to having a president with record setting approval ratings.

But, despite the troubles, we have much to be thankful for. Fortunes, jobs, our sense of security and even lives have been lost in the past year. But God was with us through it all. Just as God was with our ancestors through their trials. Just as God was with the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. God is with us now.

So let us give thanks. Let us all join with the ancient Israelites and say, "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor. He lived in slavery in Egypt and was brought out to freedom by your holy power. And so we gather here to offer the first fruits of our lives in gratitude and thanksgiving!"

We have a lot to be thankful for. The clothes on our backs that keep us warm, the food in our cupboards that keeps us fed, the houses we live in as well as the homes that nurture and protect us. In this country we are blessed with a wealth of material and political blessings that people in other countries only dream of. By third world standards even the poor in America are rich. And we take for granted liberties that are revolutionary in some places. And we are healthy enough to gather here and for that we give thanks.

I personally have a lot to be thankful for. I have a family that is a source of strength of daily life. As difficult as raising two teenagers is it is also rewarding. My work is rewarding and challenging.

Recently I have been reminded of something else I can be thankful for. I am a child of the nuclear age. I grew up with the constant threat of a nuclear war. I can remember the movies about the aftermath of a nuclear war. I also had "nuclear dreams" as a child. You know the dreams in which there is a nuclear war and everything is destroyed. Even as a child the fear of nuclear war was so much a part of my psyche that it invaded my dreams. Recently I was watching an old movie that was depicting the results of a nuclear war. And it seemed so unlikely and unreal to me. Yet I can remember in college how real and inevitable it had seemed to me. Then it hit me like a bolt out of the blue. It has been years since I have had a nuclear dream. That constant fear is no longer a part of my life. We no longer live in a world that is constantly on the verge of blowing itself up. That is not to say some terrorist will not blow up a city. But the world is no longer controlled by mutually assured destruction.

We have a lot to be thankful for!

We certainly do have a lot to be thankful for, but too often we forget all these blessing in the midst of our worries. Instead of seeing that the glass is half full we worry that it is half empty. We worry about having new and nicer clothes, or better food. We are distraught because our economy is not doing as well as we like. We focus on our physical pains and disabilities instead of seeing what we can do.

I think it is good that we set one day a year aside to intentionally give thanks. We need to periodically remind ourselves that we are blessed. Remember the pilgrims. They were in a strange land with an unsure future. Famine and disease could strike at any time. But they decided to give thanks. They established this holiday. In the midst of troubles they took time to thank God for the food that would ward off famine for at least one year. And they celebrated with their new found friends the Indians. I give thanks that they did that because we, who are much more blessed than they, need this holiday to remember our blessings.

We follow the example of the pilgrims but they were simply following the example of Israel in the Bible. God had brought the children of Israel through hundreds of years of slavery and they were about to embark on settling a new land. But God told them to always give the first fruits to God as an offering of thanksgiving. God knew that the Israelites needed to have a day set aside to give thanks. The pilgrims realized that they also needed to set aside a day to give thanks even in the face of their hard lives. And so we need to set aside time to give thanks to God.

We have a lot to be thankful for: Food, clothing, material needs security family. But if we stop there we will miss the greater part of the blessings we have. That is what Jesus' followers did. Jesus had recently fed the crowd of 5,000. The disciples who had nothing were greatly blessed by it. Their empty stomachs were filled. So the next morning they come back to Jesus seeking more bread.

The disciples were probably thankful for the bread that filled their stomachs, but they failed to see the greater blessing that was present. Jesus was revealing more to them in the breaking of the bread than just free food. He was revealing the source of eternal life.

So Jesus told them: Don't waste you time on food which perishes. When you eat earthly bread your stomach aches for more before long. It is a temporary satisfaction. Look up to heaven for the food which God's Son will give you. That food will nourish your soul to eternal life.

We have a treasure trove of spiritual blessings to be thankful for. Just consider the Bible. Today is Bible Sunday. How may of you brought your Bible's? Some have said that the Bible is the least read best seller of all time. Most people own several Bibles, but how many have read them. Here is a treasure chest full of inspiring stories of God and people of faith. We call it "God's Word" but do we pay attention to it.

And what about the gift of salvation. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten so that whosoever believes in him shall have eternal life. That the God of the universe would love me enough to die in my place. I wonder how much I need to pay him for such a sacrifice. But it's a free gift all we need to do is trust him and we are forgiven.

And then there is the gift of assurance. "Blessed assurance Jesus is mine. Oh what a foretaste of Glory divine." What a blessing to know for sure in your heart that Jesus is yours and that you are his and that your eternal destination is assured. Sometimes when you ask people if they are going to heaven they say, "I hope so." There are some who will say that means they aren't going to heaven. Let me tell you that is not necessarily so. Many times I have found that "I hope so" is really a way of expressing a respect for God's greatness. What these people are really saying sometimes is "Whether I go the heaven is God's decision and who am I to read God's mind." I deeply respect that because we can't read God's mind, but to say "I hope so" instead of "I know so" misses a very important point. God told us through Jesus that we can be certain. Jesus clearly said, "Whosoever believeth in me shall not perish but have eternal life. God could have left us in the dark always wondering, but instead he sent His Son to tell us clearly. What a blessing: to be able to know for sure that we are saved.

I could go on and on with all the spiritual blessing God has given us: peace, strength, guidance, ministry, to be children of God� We have much to be thankful for.

-Take time this Thanksgiving to give thanks for the spiritual blessings we have in Christ. Jesus said "I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." God gives us eternal life. God also give us food and clothing and all the necessities of life. We should give thanks for these material blessing and use them to bless others. But let's not overlook the heavenly food that God gives.

Take stock this Thanksgiving of all that God has given you. Don't let Thanksgiving be just a chance to eat a lot and watch football. But remember that we have the opportunity to feast every day on the blessings of eternal life. Because we know Christ we shall never hunger or thirst for heavenly bread. Thank God!