the Lord is near

Thanksgiving is not a liturgical holiday. 

But it could be.

For, what could be more faithful than breaking bread with family (and foes) knowing that Jesus spent his entire ministry doing the same?

And yet, there is a sense in which what happens around the Thanksgiving table is more determinative over our lives than the One who gives us life. Rare is the family that is immune to the political pandering that happens over turkey and mashed potatoes. Gone are the days we could sit back and rejoice without worrying about who will say what and ruin the holiday mood. We, then, approach the table of blessings without feeling like it’s much of a blessing at all.

But what if God is the one calling us together for the explicit purpose of redeeming our Thanksgiving tables? What if this is the year to let forgiveness reign over judgment? What if we took seriously the claim that, as Paul put it, “The Lord is near,” even at the holiday table?

There’s no guarantee that anything good can come out of our Thanksgivings this year, save for the fact that we worship the God of impossible possibility! So keep your eyes and ears open, let your gentleness be known, and rejoice! The Lord is near!

That good word blessed me this thanksgiving! And, the Lord carried it over.  After Thanksgiving dinner with all the kids, Matt's parents and a good friend, Matt and I headed over to the house of a dear church member, on his deathbed. 

We pulled up to the house with the whole street full of cars, and the porch and house was FULL of their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren...grandparents and chubby babies and teens and pie...all the  richness of Joyce and Harry's lives was pouring out of that house. 

As we met people and gathered around Harry's bedside, I kept hearing echoes of "the Lord is Near." Keep your eyes and ears open. Let your gentleness be known.

We read Psalm 23, we anointed his precious head with oil and the forehead of his beloved wife of 74 years...we prayed over his dying bones and lifted our voices in the benediction and my heart was so full of the sacredness and holiness of it all it poured down my cheeks. 

You could sense we were standing at the gates of heaven. You could see we were surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, both there and to ahead. In the tears of all around us, 40 people crammed in a sacred space, you could see hope and heartbreak and the THANKSGIVING.

Every dying and broken and pain,

the Lord is NEAR,

and He is EVERYTHING He says He is. 

There is ONE thing that has never disappointed, never abandoned, never let me down...

and He is NEAR. 

What a gift, this Thanksgiving