It’s Harvest Sunday, and for me, that translates into one of the most joyous services of our church year. This Sunday is a time when we gather together as families and as church family to realize and give thanks for our many blessings. Wondrously, this is not a time tied up in the myriad expectations and traditions we choose for ourselves during the seasons of Advent and Christmas, (although we do have our "Sacrament of the Cans.") But like the seasons of Advent and Christmas, we do love to sing our Thanksgiving hymns and make the very rafters of this Meetinghouse ring out.

Harvest Sunday also signals the fact that Thanksgiving is almost upon us and with that in mind I’d like to tell you a story.

One Thanksgiving a family was seated around their table, looking at the annual holiday bird. From the oldest to the youngest, they were to go around the table and express their thanks and praise. When they came time for the five-year-old he began by looking at the turkey and expressing his thanks to the turkey, saying that although he had not yet tasted it, he was sure it would be good. After that rather novel expression of thanksgiving, he began with a more predictable line of credits, thanking his mother for cooking the turkey and his father for buying the turkey, and then he went further. He joined together a whole hidden multitude of benefactors, linking them by cause and effect.

He said, "I give thanks for the checker at the grocery store who checked out the turkey. I give thanks for the grocery store people who put it on the shelf. I give thanks for the farmer who made it fat. I give thanks for the man who made the feed. I give thanks for those who brought the turkey to the store."

Using his Columbo-like little mind, he traced the turkey all the way from its origin to his plate. And then at the end, he solemnly asked, "Did I leave out anybody?"

To which his three-year-old brother, embarrassed by all the proceedings, said, "God".

And solemnly and without being flustered at all, the 5-year-old said, "I was about to get to him."

And if we are not careful, that same sequence may also be true for us – with all our preparations, when is it we will hold God in the center of our celebrations?

Looking at Thanksgiving and harvest time from the secular side of things, we think of football games and parades, and of beautiful cool weather hailed by the vibrant colors of the changing seasons. Across the countryside we see fields cut, hay bailed, and the corn brought in. The fruits of the season have been taken from the trees, and are now filling our stores and decorating our tables. Pumpkins and gourds, cornstalks and wheat shafts adorn our doorways; and bring forth a sense of bounty. It is a time when we can scarcely avoid the feeling of good fortune and blessing.

Thanksgiving Day is itself is a national holiday, first declared by President George Washington on November 26th, 1789 to enable the country to stop on that particular day and offer thanks to God for her manifold blessings. It was later regularized by President Lincoln, who even in the midst of the suffering of the great Civil War, realized God’s blessing and felt it important to offer thanks to God annually no matter the circumstances of our lives. However, given the passage of time and the increased focus on the principle of the separation of church and state, Thanksgiving has evolved - for some - into a time to be thankful that things have gone well, perhaps due to our own hard work, or careful planning, or maybe just due to good luck.

But from the perspective of our faith, this time of year, this time of harvest calls us to count our blessings and offer thanks to God, the author of all good things. When we realize blessing, rather than simple good fortune, thanksgiving gains a new focus. It shifts into gratefulness, gratefulness to the One who chooses to do things with us in mind, the One who blesses us with the gifts of creation, and who also walks with us and loves us even when mishaps befall. For I believe that even then, there is potential for blessing in all that happens. Now, to see blessing around all that happens is a stretch, for there are events which we wish - with everything in us - had not taken place – in our lives, and across the globe. But blessing can be and is found in our human response to discovered hurts or needs.

Such was the case recently with the forgiveness offered by the Amish people to the murderer of their children, and their example of forgiveness to all the world. In a less public, or more private forums, blessing has also be found in the simple, yet very difficult, accompaniment of loving friends with a friend or family members through a time of real need. These situations and many more, can, with God’s help, bring forth blessing.

Now, let us move away from our own experiences and current understandings of thanksgiving, and look back to the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures, as Beth Beam read to us from the Book of Leviticus.

"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard, you shall leave them for the poor and the alien."

Inherent in the process of the harvest for Israel, we find an element of justice with the command to leave part of the harvest available for whoever would come. Not only were the side margins of the fields left uncut, but anything that fell to the ground was also left for gleaning. According to Jewish law, the alien and the poor mattered greatly.

The list of commands continued addressing in all instances concern for one’s neighbor. "You shall not defraud your neighbor. You shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. You shall not judge your neighbor…You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

At harvest time, not only were people to leave part of their bounty for the poor and the alien, their personal actions and intentions were also directed toward kindness and justice for all.

Right there, in the heart of the Old Testament, right there in the heart of Jewish law, we see the joy and celebration of the harvest tied to justice and the love of neighbor - which may come as a surprise, as we intrinsically attribute the command to love our neighbor as part of Jesus’ Great Commandment as expressed in the New Testament when he was being questioned by the Sadducees. We need to remember that Jesus was a faithful Jew.

In our time, where people of different faiths live side-by-side and are aware of their diversity, it is also important to discover the common ground we have long shared as Christians and Jews. As two faiths, descended from one line, both recognize that the bounty of this season also carries with it the responsibility for all people.

Harvest time is a celebration of life and a time for joy. Our participation in justice seeking and love of neighbor, only serves to heighten that joy, as we hear in the following poem penned by an unknown author, entitled

"Sharing"

When we share laughter,
There’s twice the fun;
When we share success,
We surpass what we’ve done.

When we share problems,
There’s half the pain,
When we share tears,
A rainbow follows the rain.

When we share dreams,
They become more real.
When we share secrets,
It’s our hearts we reveal.

If we share a smile,
Then our love shows.
If we share a hug
Then our love grows.

If we share with someone
On whom we depend,
That person becomes
Family or friend.

And what draws us closer
And makes us all care,
is not what we have,
But the things that we share.

In our second scripture lesson today from the Gospel according to Matthew, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we are taken a step further in regard to the consideration of our riches and our bounty. Jesus calls us from any worry or defensiveness, from the need to protect our bounty - to the real freedom encountered in seeking first the kingdom of God.

"Do not worry about your life," he says, "what you shall eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sew nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them…. And if God so clothes the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith.

THEREFORE, DO NOT WORRY, saying "What will we eat?" or "What shall we wear?"… (and how many times will we ask exactly those questions this very week!) "But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Can we do that? We pray "Thy kingdom come on earth…as it is in heaven." This can begin
      when we do not hoard, but leave a portion of our bounty for others
      when we do not build up walls, but build bridges reaching out to others
      when we stop acting out of fear, and trust in God’s loving presence to bring us into each new day.

When we can take those actions, then we will know God’s blessings, as we never have before. Then we will know joy as we have not known before.

But such a change, such a radical reorientation, cannot happen overnight, for we have been, as it is put in the musical South Pacific, we have been "carefully taught", "carefully taught" to protect our riches, and to plan for our futures.

On the other hand, I do believe such giving and such loving can be learned – and is being learned. That was evident in the multiple articles found in the thick green "Special Section" of the New York Times this past Monday entitled "GIVING". According to Stephanie Strom in the lead article, there is a new breed of billionaires out to harness the marketplace as a force for doing good in the underdeveloped world. eBay’s founder, Pierre Omidyar and Stephen M. Case, the co-founder of America Online are two who are harnessing the power of technology to use its vast information gathering for good.

"Easy," you say "for billionaires." But this section only used the star power to attract attention. Inside, held up as significant examples of giving, are the works of religious groups, of Boys and Girls Clubs, of Unicef, and of younger children who were beginning lifelong habits of giving through helping their neighbors and helping animals. There was no project or creature too small to be overlooked in this compendium. The Red Cross was included, so were Walks to Benefit Breast Cancer and other illnesses. High school class projects were mentioned, and even freshly minted college graduates carrying large personal debt were sited for making small investments where their capital was going to make a large difference - in the further restoration of the New Orleans area. There were dozens of visionary plans described, drawing people of all ages and walks of life into the process of giving and sharing in ways that hearts were touched, and lives changed – on both sides of the equation, deepening joy.

Social responsibility may be having a new birth in this the 21st century, sadly, motivated by the terrible realities that scar the landscape of our globe, but hopefully enabled by our technology. As we discover the gifts we have to share, you could say that justice and joy are beginning to walk hand-in-hand.

So where does that leave us – all of us seated here – or gathered at home near the radio or computer. We are gathered by our gratitude to God for the many blessings that have come our way - and we could make long lists enumerating our bounty. We are also gathered in this country recognizing the invaluable gifts that we have been given – gifts of safety and security - the freedom to speak our minds and to practice our faith - and the ability to vote and take action upon what we believe to be most important.

We are also gathered as citizens of this world, and as children of God, knowing full well that there are many people not drawn to shout praises and offer thanks this day – on the dusty landscapes of Iraq and Afghanistan, in our Holy Lands, and in Darfur. This day, right in the midst of our bounty, we would pray for our world, pray that we might find ways today and tomorrow to share our bounty so that all can know – even we – the concept of "enough." We know the need, it is not invisible to us, thanks be to God.

As Melody Beattie has put it, "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

Thanks be to God from whom all blessings flow. Amen.