More than during any other year I can remember in my nearly 70 years of life, other than its customary disturbingly gluttonous overtones, in 2021 our annual national feast of Thanksgiving Day summons us as a people and nation to do some serious soul-searching. Last year, this holiday was obscured by the ever-present fear of sickness and death and the general unfocused anxiety stemming from the pandemic’s assault on the fabric of our American culture, exacerbated by the absolute insanity inflicted on our country by an unhinged president claiming conspiracies and a stolen election despite non-partisan assurances and court findings that the 2020 election was the most secure one ever conducted.
This year, however, if the opportunity to offer thanks to God doesn’t bring us to our knees in fervent prayers of gratitude, humility and hope, then a good bit of the struggle to build a world far more reflective of the Kingdom of God is in serious jeopardy. Life has certainly not returned to “normal”, and in my humble opinion, never should. For “normal” has meant the wealth and sense of well-being in our nation moving ever upward, out of the hands and bank accounts of the many and into the lives of the very few on the Forbes list or whatever measure of financial “success” we employ. It has included the continued and even increased oppression of people of color as well as the poor and marginalized of all colors in ways both blatant and subtle. The value of a good education and the central role of scientific endeavor to improve the lives of every American citizen has been assailed and rejected on multiple levels, leaving us vulnerable to the machinations and manipulations of charlatans and con-artists who have no one’s interest in mind but their own. And the list goes on and on.
My prayer is that, as we raise grateful hearts in thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God in gatherings both large and small, we will choose to commit ourselves anew to realizing the hopes and dreams of America’s founders, however limited they were by their time and circumstances, to establish our blessed nation on the principle of the God-given equality of all people and our inalienable right to build our lives, individually and collectively, in liberty and in pursuit of happiness. Here is where America’s true exceptionalism begins and flourishes. May it be so. Amen