A Letter To The Community: Thanksgiving 2021

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,  or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Matthew 6:25

Friends,

Thanksgiving is a time of year which is about making provision, both in the temporal and spiritual sense of the word. Making provision, by its definition, is about the action of providing something of use, which we mark by turning the produce of our land into abundant meals while being actively thankful that we will have enough for the winter. Thankfulness is an action, a statement, and a way of seeing the world which fundamentally says that there is, and always will be, enough for everyone. While we celebrate this “enoughness” once a year in October, to live a sense of “enough” is also about how we build relationships too. It is an orientation that helps us see the world not as it is, but as it can be, where there is room for everyone and there is enough to go around.  But what are we making provision for this year? I believe, as Matthew 6:25 suggests, thanksgiving is about making room for God’s providence to show us how wide God sets a table for us, a table which includes everyone.

Over the month of October, we will mark one of the ways God sets a table large enough for everyone, as we honour Homeless Action Month. Together this month invites us to listen, wonder and give thanks for the ministry we share to our friends on the streets of our neighborhood. This ministry, among the others we share in this place, has helped us develop relationships with those we serve in order to see God in a whole new way. A newness which is about just how connected we actually are, irrespective of our income or housing, as we all look for a life of meaning, of hope, of safety, and love, because of how we are all asking the exact same questions. 

A life of thanksgiving, my friends, is more than worrying about how we will survive, but seeing that our survival is dependent on everyone's survival which is given to us through God's daily shared provision for everyone. A provision which gives each of us enough to join in the work of the Kingdom of God today, a provision which is still not equally accessible to all either. So as you gather around your tables with thanksgiving for the provisions God has made for you this year, let us also remember all the relationships we’ve made and are still to be built as we continue on this road of transformation called discipleship. Follow this link to find our online giving page, to offer back to God a provision of his wealth which he has gifted us with for to make provisions for others as well. 

As we gather again this thanksgiving, we will join together with all our stories, joys, and hopes on Sunday October 10, 2021  for a festive Eucharist which both celebrates what we are given, and pauses to remember what we've lost in these last months to Covid-19. All are welcome, and I invite you to send this to your friends and family to join with us in our corporate witness of God's faithful provision in our lives. A provision which gives us more than we can ask or imagine, so that we can continue to share the good news of the Kingdom of God which says to us again that in God, we are enough and there is enough for everyone.

Thanksgiving is about sharing the good news that there is enough for everyone, without qualification. In God, everyone is welcome with the same provision and grace.  How might we share that provision with everyone again this year?

From my table to yours, Happy Thanksgiving, 

Alex+