I am a wife, mother, grandmother, Christian, deacon, citizen and Palmer; and, I am thankful. I am also a bit anxious and distracted, yet hopeful during this time of pandemic. Our family has met weekly since June, and Thanksgiving together would be our norm, but with COVID spreading, these are not normal times. So, we are considering our options--outdoors and socially distanced, perhaps tested beforehand, or a new or future celebration-- but we are still undecided. I know we are not alone.

Our faith journey and shared common prayers have comforted and provided focus for me these many months, as have my fellow Palmers. Though we may be grieving painful losses, fear and isolation, and lamenting our cherished and now disrupted holiday celebrations, I believe it is good to pause and “give God thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them.” 

I see our recognition of those gifts and labors expanding past the traditional cornucopia to a wider and deeper gratitude. These are the things – the gifts and the labors – for which I am most grateful this Thanksgiving:

• The new hope and promise of vaccines to fight COVID-19 and the labor of scientists and first-responders who are instruments of God’s healing and care…
• The increasing recognition of teachers, front-line laborers and all who serve us and whose gifts and labor have gone unrewarded…
• Our new awareness of injustice, oppression and disparities suffered by so many and new opportunities to learn and act on these in our lives and community…
• Palmer’s history and faithful witness in the heart of our city both within its beloved walls in “ordinary times”; and its visible embodiment of our mission to “know and share the love of Christ” outside our walls in these extraordinary times...
• The steadfast leadership and labor of our clergy, musicians, program and all staff members at Palmer and the larger Church as they have learned, adapted and innovated to keep us safe, connected and spiritually fed…
• That Zoom and online technology have helped us to stay connected as we share in classes and gatherings with people inside and beyond our local parish, reminding us of the breadth of God’s creation and growing kingdom.

Letting go of what was, the known and familiar, what we used to recognize and call “normal”, is hard, but we can now see where we have fallen short in the past and that we are now called to new possibilities. When we ask “Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need...”, we admit our need of and desire for re-shaping, not only as faithful stewards, but as loving neighbors to one another. Theologian Walter Brueggemann says God “requires us to imagine, to risk and be vulnerable as we watch ‘new normals’ emerge among us” (p.60) in his book Virus as a Summons to Faith, Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief and Anxiety, 2020.    

For all this, I am hopeful and grateful. Listening, learning, and walking new paths are not done alone, especially in the midst of a pandemic. I thank you for your company as we continue trying out and living into new and expanded ways of being God’s people and Christ’s hand and feet in the world.

Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the

fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those

who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of

your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and

the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; 

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with

you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  

---Rite II Collect for Thanksgiving, BCP p. 246