11.18.04

Thanksgiving from moment to moment

As Thanksgiving 2004 approaches, Erskine Seminary Dean Dr. R.J. Gore nears the end of his service as a chaplain in Iraq and finds he is thankful for many things.

 In a recent e-mail message, Gore offers a litany of thanks that is a window on his world, which features the daily dangers of a war zone, long separation from loved ones, and ministry to soldiers who are risking their lives. It reads, in part:

• "I am thankful that the rocket I just heard going over my head kept going and landed in the middle of the airfield so it didn't hurt anyone when it blew up."

• "I am thankful that no one was in the trailer over in Q Pod when it was destroyed by a rocket the other day."

• "I am thankful that we have had none of our soldiers in headquarters killed and only suffered two wounded in action in the past year."

Back in Due West, Interim Dean Dr. Robert W. Bell reflects on an incident that changed forever his own view of Thanksgiving. He had just moved with his wife and children to Indiana. "It was my first Thanksgiving after entering graduate school," he said.

After only one Sunday of attending church with his family, he had begun a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at a state mental hospital where he was responsible for Sunday worship services.

"This particular Sunday I was feeling very homesick, lonely, tired, and a bit overwhelmed with the demands of the Ph.D. program," Bell recalled. He watched as a small group of mentally retarded adults prepared to participate in the service. 

"As they gathered haphazardly at the front of the chapel under the direction of Sister Sarah, dressed in their ill-fitting clothes, preparing to give their program for which they had been preparing, Sarah asked, 'What are we thankful for?' and  I thought to myself, 'What do they have to be thankful for? '  

"The thought had no more crossed my mind when one of the patients, a man peering from behind Coke-bottle thick lenses and dressed in an orange-brown polyester suit that was a bit too small, exclaimed with all sincerity, 'Thank God that we're alive!'

"My Thanksgivings have never been the same since," Bell said.

"I think it's wonderful that we have an annual national day of Thanksgiving," Assistant Professor of Worship and Homiletics Dr. Michael Bush said. "Among other things it gives an occasion for Christians to do one of the things I hope we know how to do best.

 "Maybe that's wishful thinking, but it shouldn't be, because thanksgiving is one of the basic things Christians do in worship."

Bush, who serves as director of the Institute for Reformed Worship, notes that the word "eucharist," often used to refer to the Lord's Supper, means "thanksgiving."

"The eucharistic prayer really is a time when we count our blessings before God," he said. "We think through the blessings of creation and redemption, giving thanks for them all along the way."

Gore's list of blessings includes the safety of his family and the support of friends who have prayed for him, written letters and e-mails, and sent gifts of food and books over the past year.

"One of the surest antidotes to dealing with the troubles and trials of life is to maintain a sense of thankfulness … in a way that sees beyond the surface to discern the providence and sovereignty of God," Bell said.

Gore has experienced the truth of Bell's assertion. "I am thankful that God has showed himself faithful in the midst of trying circumstances and has given me strength to complete 300 days in theater."

And just as Bell learned the appropriateness of the most basic thanksgiving to God "that we've alive," Gore looks back at life before his sojourn in Iraq and is "thankful for freedom and for the myriad of blessings that I took for granted while sitting peacefully in my easy chair back home."

Thanksgiving draws attention to the bounty of everyday existence. "There is not a moment in life that does not call for gratitude, but it is one of the means of grace for us to have these occasions for giving thanks whether we feel grateful or not," Bush said.

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