Christ Lutheran Church: Welcome

Thanksgiving - November 21, 2007

Thanksgiving

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

November 21, 2007

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

For 75 years after Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation, Thanksgiving was celebrated on the last Thursday in November.  But, in 1939 the nation was trying to recover from the Great Depression when the last Thursday of November was going to fall on November 30.  Retailers complained to FDR that this only left 24 shopping days to Christmas and begged him to push Thanksgiving just one week earlier.  It was determined that most people do their Christmas shopping after Thanksgiving and retailers hoped that with an extra week of shopping, people would buy more.  So FDR announced that year Thanksgiving would be on the fourth Thursday.

But this caused one heck of a lot of confusion.  Calendars were now incorrect.  Schools that had planned vacations and tests now had to reschedule.  Thanksgiving had been a big day for football fames, as it is today, so the game schedule had to be examined.

Political opponents of FDR and many others questioned the president's right to change the holiday and stressed the breaking of precedent and disregard for tradition.  Many believed that changing a cherished holiday just to appease businesses was not a sufficient reason for change.  Atlantic City's mayor derogatorily called November 23 "Franksgiving."

Before 1939, the president annually announced his Thanksgiving Proclamation and then governors followed the president in officially proclaiming the same day as Thanksgiving for their state.  In 1939, many governors did not agree with FDR's decision to change the date and refused to follow him.  The country became split on which Thanksgiving they should observe.  Twenty-three states followed FDR's change and declared Thanksgiving to be November 23.  Twenty-three other states disagreed with FDR and kept the traditional date for Thanksgiving, November 30.  Two states, Colorado and Texas, decided to honor both dates.

This idea of two Thanksgiving days even split some families, because not everyone had the same day off work.

Though the confusion caused many frustrations across the country, the question remained as to whether the extended holiday shopping season caused people to spend more, thus helping the economy.  The answer was no.  Businesses reported that the spending was approximately the same, but the distribution of the shopping was changed.  For those states that celebrated the earlier Thanksgiving date, the shopping was evenly distributed throughout the season.  For those states that kept the traditional date, businesses experiences a bulk of shopping in the last week before Christmas.

In 1940, FDR did it again.  This time, 31 states followed him with the earlier date and 17 kept the traditional date.  Confusion over two Thanksgivings continued.

Hmmmmmm...sounds a lot like a church changing its worship schedule.

Lincoln had established the Thanksgiving holiday to bring the country together, but the confusion over the date change was tearing it apart.  So n December 26, 1941, Congress itself settled the issue by passing a law declaring that Thanksgiving would occur every year on the fourth Thursday of November.  End of discussion.

As you can see, this whole process now had been running its course for the better part of two years before coming to a head.  Now, in December, the 76th Congress does three things.  On December 8th it declares war on Japan, and on December 11th it declares war on Germany.  The day after Christmas, Winston Churchill addressed a joint session of Congress to welcome the United States on board as a full ally in World War ii and on that particular day Congress passed its third historic piece of legislation - making the fourth Thursday of November the official Day of Thanksgiving in the United States.

I can only wonder what might have been going on in the heads of people - on the day after Christmas, just nineteen days after the most devastating attack on American soil at Pearl Harbor and the entry into World War II...America passes a law about national thanksgiving.

How on earth could anyone talk about Thanksgiving at the beginning of a world war?  We had just lost over 2400 people at Pearl Harbor, we were in shock, virtually our entire Navy had been wiped out, we were under attack all around the world with virtually no air force and hardly any army to speak of.  Ken Nordine's brother had just disappeared in combat in the Philippines and was about to become a prisoner in the Bataan Death March.  How many thousands of families were dealing with something like this?  And THIS is when our leaders pass a bill establishing a national day of Thanksgiving - especially one that had been tearing the country apart?

I would have guessed that maybe people would have put off ANY discussion about thanksgiving, of all things, until after we had had something to be thankful FOR.

But the apostle Paul said that for a Christian, thanksgiving is not just a happy time thing.  Hours ago Bob Steffl was ambulanced to the hospital after difficulty recovering from anesthesia in a shoulder operation.  Just minutes ago Dale KenKnight's mom was diagnosed with anesthesia induced problems to her liver.  Cheryl Ross's mother just passed away and Barb Jerde is standing by her father in his last days.  And we again are back in the middle of a war that is affecting this very congregation.  We have just given an entire family to the war effort as Command Sergeant Major Neil Heupel and Denise have gone full time active duty.  I just got an email this morning from Staff Sergeant Jeremy Marr who is breaking out his cold weather gear for deployment today as an artillery lookout on the DMZ in Korea.

And we are talking about Thanksgiving...because we are told in our Scripture that we are to, "...give thanks in ALL circumstances, for this is God's will for [us] in Christ Jesus."  It does not say that we are to be happy in all circumstances, but that we are to give thanks in all circumstances.  For the ones we love, especially those who cannot be with us tomorrow and for the One we love who IS with us everywhere at all times, even beyond the end of time, we give thanks tonight, tomorrow and always...in ALL circumstances.  Amen - may it be so!