James T. Cleland - "Come Ye Thankful People, Come" (November 18, 1962)
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| (organ music) | 0:03 | |
| Preacher | Let us pray. | 0:19 |
| Let the words of my mouth | 0:22 | |
| and the meditations of | 0:25 | |
| our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight. | 0:26 | |
| Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. | 0:30 | |
| Amen. | 0:35 | |
| What are we doing here, | 0:44 | |
| at this university | 0:47 | |
| service of worship? | 0:49 | |
| Think about it for a moment, | 0:52 | |
| we shall be surprised at the variety of answers. | 0:55 | |
| (thud) | 1:02 | |
| Some of us have been brought up to go to church | 1:03 | |
| at 11 o'clock from the Lord's day, | 1:05 | |
| so here we are. | 1:09 | |
| Some of us are here because our date makes | 1:13 | |
| a habit of coming, | 1:16 | |
| and we like to be with her, | 1:19 | |
| with him. | 1:21 | |
| Others of us come to listen to the choir. | 1:25 | |
| There have been folk who slipped out before the sermon. | 1:28 | |
| I don't blame them. | 1:34 | |
| (clears throat) | 1:35 | |
| Some of us like to sing hymns, | 1:37 | |
| though we do wish the hymns chosen were more singable. | 1:40 | |
| Some of us believe in corporate prayer and we | 1:45 | |
| wish it were customary | 1:48 | |
| to say amen out loud, | 1:51 | |
| so that we might show that we are taking part | 1:54 | |
| in what is supposed to be corporate prayer. | 1:59 | |
| Others of us still believe in the reading, | 2:04 | |
| the preaching, and the hearing of the Word. | 2:07 | |
| (light clapping) | 2:10 | |
| For some of us, | 2:12 | |
| church going is a reasonable courtesy | 2:14 | |
| to the Almighty. | 2:18 | |
| Well so be it, but what are we doing here | 2:21 | |
| on this particular Sunday? | 2:24 | |
| You ask, is it a particular Sunday? | 2:28 | |
| Yes. | 2:33 | |
| This is the annual Thanksgiving service. | 2:34 | |
| So, Thanksgiving for what? | 2:40 | |
| Isn't Thanksgiving supposed to | 2:44 | |
| be a part of every service? | 2:46 | |
| Yes, but | 2:50 | |
| today | 2:51 | |
| is a unique kind of | 2:53 | |
| Thanksgiving, | 2:54 | |
| a once in a year Thanksgiving. | 2:56 | |
| It is a service of Thanksgiving with a capital T. | 3:00 | |
| Let's look together at its uniqueness. | 3:05 | |
| This is a service of Thanksgiving, | 3:10 | |
| for the harvest. | 3:14 | |
| We are here today specifically to express our | 3:17 | |
| gratitude for food and drink, | 3:21 | |
| for cereal and meat, | 3:26 | |
| for eggs and buttered toast. | 3:29 | |
| The focus of our attention is, of course God, | 3:33 | |
| but the focus is in a very special manner. | 3:38 | |
| The god of creation and preservation. | 3:42 | |
| Once again seed, time, and harvest have not failed. | 3:47 | |
| Our barns are filled, | 3:52 | |
| there were seed for the sore | 3:56 | |
| and now there is bread for the eater. | 3:58 | |
| Thanks be | 4:02 | |
| to God. | 4:04 | |
| Now in centering our attention on the god | 4:08 | |
| of creation and preservation, | 4:10 | |
| we are consciously | 4:13 | |
| showing ourselves to be heirs of a long, long tradition. | 4:14 | |
| For us as Christians, that heritage has | 4:21 | |
| its roots in the Old Testament. | 4:24 | |
| Where thrice a year, | 4:28 | |
| the Jews had special feasts | 4:31 | |
| on the three occasions of the gathering | 4:34 | |
| in of the fruits of the field, | 4:37 | |
| and of the orchard. | 4:40 | |
| That is why our scripture lesson was Psalm 1:36. | 4:42 | |
| The great Hallel, as it's called, | 4:48 | |
| that is the Jewish Te Deum laudamas of gratitude. | 4:51 | |
| For God's creating and sustaining mercy. | 4:57 | |
| Oh give thanks unto the Lord for He is good | 5:00 | |
| for His mercy endureth forever. | 5:04 | |
| Who give us food, | 5:07 | |
| to all flesh, | 5:09 | |
| for His mercy endureth forever. | 5:11 | |
| I plan to make use of that Pslam twice in the service. | 5:16 | |
| Our opening hymn was supposed to be | 5:22 | |
| part of a paraphrase of that Psalm. | 5:24 | |
| Made by John Milton, | 5:28 | |
| of paradise lost fame | 5:31 | |
| when he was just 15 years old. | 5:32 | |
| You all know it, let us with a gladsome mind, | 5:36 | |
| praise the Lord for He is kind. | 5:41 | |
| For his mercies I endure, | 5:44 | |
| ever faithful, | 5:47 | |
| ever sure. | 5:49 | |
| But the musical powers that be vetoed that hymn. | 5:51 | |
| Well God is not causally, intermittently, | 5:56 | |
| sporadically interested in His creatures. | 6:00 | |
| He cares everyday, His mercies | 6:03 | |
| I endure | 6:06 | |
| that if I stand aversion translates but a frain into some | 6:08 | |
| for His steadfast love | 6:12 | |
| endures forever. | 6:16 | |
| Now the Christian church has not been unmindful | 6:19 | |
| of this, it continued the festival of | 6:21 | |
| Thanksgiving and set it to music. | 6:24 | |
| We plow the field and scatter the good seed on the land. | 6:28 | |
| That was supposed to be the second hymn | 6:33 | |
| (laughs) | 6:35 | |
| That's the translation, this is interesting, | 6:37 | |
| that's the translation of a hymn written | 6:39 | |
| in 1782 | 6:42 | |
| by a German | 6:45 | |
| commissioner of agriculture. | 6:46 | |
| This was his job, | 6:49 | |
| and he wrote the hymn | 6:52 | |
| we plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land. | 6:53 | |
| Come ye thankful people, come as the, the theme song | 6:58 | |
| of this day of Thanksgiving. | 7:02 | |
| Our exiled fathers crossed the sea and in | 7:04 | |
| 1621, | 7:07 | |
| proclaimed the first festival | 7:09 | |
| of Thanksgiving, on this side of the Atlantic. | 7:11 | |
| Does all this sound terribly materialistic | 7:17 | |
| for a religious service? | 7:20 | |
| Well, if we feel that we are in direct | 7:23 | |
| opposition to our Lord, Jesus Christ. | 7:25 | |
| Into his exemplary prayer, | 7:30 | |
| he wrote the petition, | 7:33 | |
| give us this day | 7:36 | |
| our daily bread. | 7:38 | |
| And he meant ordinary bread, | 7:41 | |
| the staff and the stuff of life. | 7:44 | |
| He fed the 5,000 as well as preaching to them. | 7:50 | |
| He took bread and wine at what we call the | 7:55 | |
| Last Supper, and made of these normal necessities, | 7:58 | |
| the very food of Heaven. | 8:04 | |
| Do you know what prayers he probably | 8:07 | |
| used in the upper room? | 8:09 | |
| He probably gave thanks in the time honored phrases | 8:12 | |
| of a commonly used Jewish prayer, | 8:17 | |
| blessed art thou oh ruler of the universe, | 8:21 | |
| he that created the fruit of the vine. | 8:25 | |
| Blessed art thou oh lord of the universe, | 8:30 | |
| the one who causeth bread to spring from the earth. | 8:34 | |
| It's true that man shall not live by bread alone, | 8:41 | |
| but he won't survive long without it. | 8:46 | |
| Jesus knew that. | 8:50 | |
| And his church believed that one of the features | 8:54 | |
| of the kingdom of God, would be a messianic banquet. | 8:58 | |
| Well, why not? | 9:04 | |
| Didn't the father order the fatted calf to be | 9:07 | |
| killed on the prodigal's return? | 9:11 | |
| There isn't much in the way of dieting about that. | 9:14 | |
| In Egypt and Rome and Carthage we are told | 9:20 | |
| it was the custom to deliver to the candidates | 9:24 | |
| at their first communion, | 9:28 | |
| in addition to bread and wine, | 9:31 | |
| a cup | 9:35 | |
| of milk | 9:36 | |
| and honey, | 9:37 | |
| to give them a foretaste | 9:39 | |
| of the heavenly food which the blessed would | 9:41 | |
| partake in the kingdom of God. | 9:43 | |
| And judge forth more that distinguished Jewish color, | 9:47 | |
| has resurrected from somewhere a description | 9:52 | |
| of the fertility of the soil in the kingdom of God. | 9:55 | |
| On one vine will be 1,000 clusters, | 10:00 | |
| each cluster of 1,000 grapes | 10:06 | |
| and each grape will yield about 90 gallons of wine. | 10:11 | |
| Now that must be quite an orchard. | 10:16 | |
| Wherein there is such a thing as godly materialism | 10:23 | |
| beware of spiritual anemia. | 10:28 | |
| So, it is wise on a uniquely special occasion | 10:33 | |
| once each year, | 10:36 | |
| to have a service | 10:39 | |
| completely devoted to a happy, | 10:40 | |
| grateful Thanksgiving for daily bread. | 10:43 | |
| We take our food so for granted | 10:47 | |
| most of the time. | 10:51 | |
| Partly because we live in a land of overflowing plenty. | 10:53 | |
| The late Dean Cannon used to tell of | 11:01 | |
| an experience he had in Edinburgh. | 11:04 | |
| He asked an old Scott what he ate for breakfast, | 11:07 | |
| and received the not unexpected reply, | 11:11 | |
| porridge. | 11:14 | |
| Now porridge is oatmeal. | 11:16 | |
| Which Dr. Samuel Johnson described as food for men | 11:20 | |
| in Scotland and for horses in England. | 11:23 | |
| Dr. Cannon then asked the man what he had for lunch. | 11:30 | |
| Porridge. | 11:35 | |
| You know the next question hah. | 11:37 | |
| What did you eat for supper? | 11:38 | |
| Porridge. | 11:42 | |
| Dr. Cannon tried again, | 11:45 | |
| don't you ever get tired of porridge? | 11:48 | |
| Can you guess the reply? | 11:51 | |
| Why would I get tired of my food? | 11:54 | |
| There's a good question. | 11:58 | |
| Why would I get tired of my food? | 12:00 | |
| It's from an answer like that old goodness grandiose brings. | 12:04 | |
| Contrast that with the menu in the stork club, | 12:08 | |
| or even in the old saddle club. | 12:11 | |
| Perhaps with a return to simplicity, to | 12:17 | |
| a sparse simplicity, we might also return to gratitude. | 12:20 | |
| You remember how Saint Francis thanked God | 12:25 | |
| for all created things, | 12:27 | |
| for our brother the sun, | 12:29 | |
| for our sister the moon, | 12:32 | |
| for wind and water and fire. | 12:35 | |
| And then this phrase, for our mother the earth | 12:40 | |
| that which doth sustain us | 12:46 | |
| and keep us. | 12:49 | |
| For our mother the earth that which | 12:52 | |
| doth sustain us and keep us. | 12:54 | |
| When Isaiah tried to express the enthusiasm of the Jews | 12:59 | |
| for promised deliverance, he put it simply | 13:03 | |
| using the best metaphor her knew. | 13:06 | |
| They joy before thee, | 13:09 | |
| according to the joy in harvest. | 13:13 | |
| So today right now we rejoice for | 13:18 | |
| what we normally take for granted. | 13:21 | |
| Now sing me a song of the harvest, Thanksgiving | 13:24 | |
| and honor and praise for all that the | 13:27 | |
| bountiful giver hath given to gladden our days. | 13:30 | |
| Oh thou who art lord of the harvest, the giver | 13:35 | |
| who gladdens our days, our hearts are forever | 13:38 | |
| repeating Thanksgiving and honor and praise. | 13:42 | |
| I wish that hymn were in the Methodist hymn, no? | 13:47 | |
| Though it might not help us much in this chapel's service. | 13:51 | |
| (laughter and coughing) | 13:55 | |
| Well having asked about the what | 13:59 | |
| of the Thanksgiving service, | 14:00 | |
| let us look at one other question, | 14:02 | |
| how do we implement | 14:05 | |
| the what? | 14:08 | |
| Well, here are 3 simple suggestions. | 14:10 | |
| If at all possible, | 14:14 | |
| and some of us have the power to make it possible, | 14:17 | |
| let us attend a service on Thursday. | 14:22 | |
| I can recall the harvest festival in the | 14:27 | |
| Scottish churches of my boyhood. | 14:30 | |
| On each side of the communion table | 14:33 | |
| were enormous sheaths of wheat. | 14:36 | |
| The visual sign of what the service was all about. | 14:41 | |
| I suppose that today these sheaths of wheat | 14:46 | |
| have been replaced by pyramids of canned goods, | 14:49 | |
| from some Caledonian A and P. | 14:53 | |
| But nevermind, the congregation will | 14:59 | |
| still see the reason, | 15:01 | |
| they'll still see the reason | 15:04 | |
| for the service. | 15:07 | |
| It is the god of creation and preservation | 15:09 | |
| who is being worshiped. | 15:13 | |
| And because God is being recognized primarily, | 15:16 | |
| in fact only, at this service, | 15:19 | |
| as the god of creation and preservation. | 15:22 | |
| It is perfectly possible | 15:27 | |
| for Protestant, | 15:30 | |
| Roman-Catholic, | 15:32 | |
| and Jew | 15:34 | |
| to worship together | 15:36 | |
| on the Thursday of Thanksgiving. | 15:39 | |
| Of course the service will have to be | 15:41 | |
| held in an armory or in a civic auditorium. | 15:43 | |
| But there's no conflict between the 3 faiths | 15:48 | |
| on creation and preservation, | 15:51 | |
| though there is on redemption, | 15:54 | |
| but Thanksgiving | 15:57 | |
| Thursday does not focus on redemption. | 15:58 | |
| That will be taken care of in the Sundays of advent, | 16:02 | |
| which occupy the 4 weeks before Christmas. | 16:07 | |
| When we remember that God sent His son | 16:10 | |
| into the world for our benefit. | 16:12 | |
| See if you can find a really | 16:16 | |
| ecumenical gathering on Thursday. | 16:17 | |
| One of my former students in the divinity school | 16:21 | |
| now in Oklahoma City, with whom I have been for the | 16:23 | |
| last week, is preaching this Thursday | 16:27 | |
| in Oklahoma City | 16:30 | |
| at a Jewish-Protestant | 16:32 | |
| community service of Thanksgiving. | 16:35 | |
| To be held in the local synagogue. | 16:38 | |
| Well, that is 2 thirds of ecumenicity. | 16:42 | |
| Maybe Pope John will encourage the | 16:47 | |
| Vatican council to put its imperator on a 3 thirds | 16:49 | |
| ecumenical service, | 16:54 | |
| a service of praise | 16:57 | |
| to the god of the harvest. | 16:59 | |
| Are you in the habit of saying grace before meals? | 17:05 | |
| If not, why don't you start this Thursday | 17:11 | |
| even if you do it under your breath | 17:16 | |
| lest you scare the living daylights | 17:19 | |
| out of the rest of the family. | 17:21 | |
| What distinguishes a man from a hog when | 17:25 | |
| eating is not that one uses cutlery, | 17:28 | |
| it is that one gives thanks. | 17:32 | |
| The man who doesn't give thanks | 17:35 | |
| has all the earmarks of a hog. | 17:36 | |
| (laughter) | 17:39 | |
| The simplest grace for Thanksgiving, which I know, | 17:41 | |
| is probably un-sayable by most of you. | 17:44 | |
| Because it was written Great Scott by Robert Burns. | 17:49 | |
| But the theme is utterly valid for Thursday's dinner. | 17:55 | |
| Let me say it and then translate it. | 18:01 | |
| Some hay meat and cannot eat, | 18:04 | |
| and some would eat that wanted, | 18:10 | |
| but we hay meat and we can eat. | 18:14 | |
| Say let the Lord be thanketh. | 18:18 | |
| Some have meat and can't eat, some would eat | 18:21 | |
| if they could get it, but we have meat | 18:24 | |
| and we can eat so let the Lord be thanked. | 18:26 | |
| For if you start saying grace on Thursday | 18:31 | |
| you may keep on. | 18:33 | |
| The day of Thanksgiving is unique, | 18:36 | |
| but it has no monopolistic right on a merely | 18:38 | |
| once in the year expression of gratitude. | 18:43 | |
| All right then we may go to church, we may say grace. | 18:46 | |
| There's one more way of implementing our gratitude. | 18:51 | |
| Let us remember those less fortunate than ourselves. | 18:57 | |
| Do we realize that 2 thirds of the people | 19:04 | |
| of the world go to bed hungry? | 19:08 | |
| 2 thirds. | 19:14 | |
| 66%. | 19:17 | |
| 2 out of every 3. | 19:20 | |
| Oh yes we can pray for them. | 19:23 | |
| But prayers without work can be dead, | 19:27 | |
| in fact they can be a form of careless blasphemy. | 19:31 | |
| A New Testament writer spotted that listen to him, | 19:36 | |
| my brothers what use is it for a man to say he has | 19:40 | |
| faith when he does nothing to show it? | 19:44 | |
| Can that faith save him? | 19:48 | |
| Supposing a brother or a sister is in rags | 19:53 | |
| with not enough food for the day, | 19:56 | |
| and one of you says good luck to you, | 19:59 | |
| keep yourselves warm and have plenty to eat. | 20:03 | |
| But does nothing to supply their bodily needs, | 20:08 | |
| what is the good of that? | 20:12 | |
| So with faith, if it does not lead to action, | 20:15 | |
| it is in itself a lifeless thing. | 20:20 | |
| That's from the second chapter of the epistle of James | 20:25 | |
| that's translated in the new English bible. | 20:29 | |
| Now James was talking only about fellow | 20:33 | |
| Christians, but dare we limit it? | 20:36 | |
| God did not send His son into | 20:41 | |
| the world to save the church. | 20:43 | |
| God loved the world. | 20:47 | |
| That's what we're supposed to do. | 20:51 | |
| It means food baskets and care packages. | 20:54 | |
| But it means more than that, | 21:01 | |
| because the matter is personal it involves persons, | 21:05 | |
| and yet it's impersonal | 21:10 | |
| in that it embraces millions with whom | 21:12 | |
| we can make no elbow to elbow contact. | 21:16 | |
| We have therefore to work through organizations. | 21:21 | |
| Especially through the agencies of government, | 21:25 | |
| local, state, federal. | 21:27 | |
| Is there any relationship between our food surpluses | 21:31 | |
| and the hungry at home in Africa? | 21:35 | |
| In Asia? | 21:39 | |
| Yes? | 21:41 | |
| But okay, but this relationship can | 21:44 | |
| be handled only by Congress. | 21:47 | |
| Have we written our congressman or our senator about | 21:51 | |
| home and foreign aid? | 21:56 | |
| Should we? | 22:00 | |
| As citizens who are Christians? | 22:02 | |
| Why? | 22:05 | |
| Why not? | 22:08 | |
| Is self denial a part of Thanksgiving? | 22:10 | |
| Well, you figure that out. | 22:15 | |
| Corporate worship, grace before meals, | 22:18 | |
| sharing with others. | 22:23 | |
| Would such actions assists us | 22:25 | |
| to say thanks worthily | 22:28 | |
| at this season of the year? | 22:32 | |
| Have you read O Ye Jig and Juleps | 22:40 | |
| by Virginia Carry Hudson? | 22:46 | |
| Within 30 minutes of finishing it I bought 5 | 22:50 | |
| copies and posted 3 of them to friends. | 22:53 | |
| One of the recipients wrote me, | 22:57 | |
| you've solved part of my problem of Christmas presents. | 22:59 | |
| I have ordered 20 copies. | 23:04 | |
| The other at the age of 10, back in 19 four, | 23:10 | |
| wrote the chapters as essays in an English class | 23:15 | |
| at an Episcopal boarding school. | 23:19 | |
| They were discovered this year, | 23:23 | |
| published, | 23:25 | |
| and have swept the country. | 23:27 | |
| She finishes each chapter with an inscription of praise | 23:32 | |
| to God, now remember she's a 10 year older. | 23:36 | |
| So you get some unexpected inscription. | 23:40 | |
| Let me use 2 of them to conclude this service | 23:44 | |
| of Thanksgiving for creation and preservation. | 23:46 | |
| She's a kind of junior-varsity, female Francis of Assisi. | 23:52 | |
| (clears throat) | 23:58 | |
| O ye sun and moon, o ye beans and roses, | 24:01 | |
| o ye jigs and juleps, bless ye the Lord. | 24:05 | |
| Praise Him and magnify Him forever. | 24:09 | |
| Amen. | 24:13 | |
| And hallelujah, | 24:15 | |
| hallelujah, | 24:18 | |
| hallelujah, | 24:20 | |
| glory three times also, | 24:22 | |
| and amen twice. | 24:25 | |
| (laughter) | 24:28 | |
| And so let it be. | 24:29 | |
| (whispers) Thanks. | 24:33 | |
| (coughs) | 24:35 | |
| Oh most merciful father who hast blessed the labors | 24:38 | |
| of the husbandmen in the returns of the fruits of the earth. | 24:42 | |
| We give thee humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty. | 24:47 | |
| Beseeching thee to continue thy loving kindness to us. | 24:51 | |
| That our land may still yield her increase to thy glory | 24:55 | |
| and our comfort through Jesus Christ our lord. | 25:01 | |
| And may the blessing of the Lord come upon you abundantly, | 25:05 | |
| may it keep you strong and tranquil | 25:11 | |
| in the truth of his promises through Jesus Christ | 25:15 | |
| our lord. | 25:20 | |
| (choir sings) | 25:25 |
