Matthew 6:25-32 In the Palm of God's Hand
Thanksgiving Sunday Sermon Nov. 23, 2008: People's U.C.C., Dover, DE: The Rev. Dan Griggs
Several years ago Harriet and I visited a re-creation of the original Plimouth Plantation in Massachusetts. It's a living museum with people dressed in period clothing, speaking older English. We even got to talk with some young people descended from the Wampanoag Native Americans of that region—they looked cold, because even though it was July, a storm had blown up the East Coast, and it was rainy and windy. The original site, obviously, is now downtown Plymouth, Massachusetts. Plymouth Rock is now protected by a deep well because so many people have chipped pieces off—it's a lot smaller than it used to be.
The senior historian at Plimouth Plantation, the museum, is James W. Baker. He has a short piece online about "Mayflower Myths." The thanksgiving celebration in 1621 was not a religious event, it was a secular harvest festival like they had back in England, with dancing, singing secular songs, and games. And they didn't repeat it year after year: President Lincoln established the American holiday, and President Roosevelt set it on the fourth Thursday of November. The Pilgrims were English Separatists—that is, they had separated from the Church of England. They didn't wear black and white except for formal occasions; so they were probably wearing clothes that were beige, green and brown. And buckles didn't come into style for several more decades.
But those first-comers to New England had something in common with Lincoln's American nation struggling through a Civil War, and with FDR's American nation dealing with the Great Depression: those Americans in all three eras knew that if they were to survive, they had one thing to depend on—they were living in the palm of God's hand.
Where did they get such a preposterous idea? Those Separatists had been living in Holland for twenty years, but when their children turned out to be more Dutch than English they knew they had to change things; so they sold everything they had, squeezed into a ship not much bigger than a fishing boat, sailed across the Atlantic in autumn weather, landed in enemy territory, and more than half of them died of sickness and hunger the first year. Where did they get the preposterous idea that they were living in the palm of God's hand?
And how on earth did Abraham Lincoln decide that America needed a day for giving thanks? When he took office the southern states had already seceded and a war was on. He had ordered martial law in Delaware and Maryland to keep them from joining the Confederacy. And while he was sinking deeper into his depression, pioneers were leaving New York and Ohio to start new settlements in the great West—somebody was talking about building a railroad out there; and Lincoln needed those resources to fight this war. How did he decide we needed a Thanksgiving Day? Lincoln was not a church-going man, but somehow he had an intuition that America was living in the palm of God's hand.
Some of you remember the Great Depression from your childhood. I've heard so many people say, "We were poor, but we didn't know we were poor because everybody was poor." Unemployment reached 20%. Farmers dumped thousands of gallons of milk onto the ground in protest against low crop prices. Businesses were failing. The Stock Market was bobbing up and down like it was on a pogo stick. The churches were no longer full, as they had been twenty-five years before. Thousands of young men reached age eighteen and left home to try to make it on their own, because their families couldn't afford to feed them anymore. Now Franklin Roosevelt didn't know what to do about the Depression, but when he was elected he knew he had to do something. Part of what he did was to hold his head high, smile broadly and reassure Americans that, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Then he started figuring some things out. So where did he get the ridiculous idea that America was living in the palm of God's hand?
"The Bible tells me so." The Book of Job is another story about loss and death and sorrow beyond measure; but when Job's friends try to tell him it's all his own fault, Job answers:[1]
… ask the animals, they will teach you;
the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of every human being.
Again and again the Psalms sing the refrain:[2]
[O God,] your right hand has supported me;
your help has made me great.
In fact, you could write a new psalm using just those verses in the Book of Psalms that say we are all living in the palm of God's hand:[3]
You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures forevermore. …
You are my God:
My times are in your hand. …
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand,
and satisfy the desire of every living thing. …
Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
That last verse was on Jesus' lips as he died on the Cross. Jesus knew the comfort and the power of living and dying in the palm of God's hand. So many verses in the Gospels show Jesus' own hands reaching out like God's hands, touching, healing, comforting, blessing.[4] And in the Gospel of John he says:[5]
I give [my sheep] eternal life, and they will never perish.
No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father
has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch
it out of the Father's hand.
A hundred years later, a Christian whose understanding of the faith was in the tradition of Peter urged his congregation with these words:[6]
So humble yourselves under the mighty hand
of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.
"The Bible tells me so."
Some people in this sanctuary today have a friend, a neighbor, a family member who is serving in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or one of the other countries where America is combating enemies; and so this Thanksgiving season is an anxious time. Many here today, both retired and working, have been watching investment values rise and fall and rise and fall; and so this Thanksgiving season comes with questions about the future. Some among us have been diagnosed recently with illnesses we never expected to face; and so this Thanksgiving season feels tenuous, maybe a little off-center. Some among us are concerned about their employment, or their health benefits in a time when companies are making decisions no one ever expected. Some of us have buried loved ones this year. This Thanksgiving season does not automatically, easily lead us to name all the things we're thankful for.
We're a lot like those Pilgrims in 1621 when they looked up and saw Native Americans coming—the tribe they had been fighting less than a year before; until they saw that the tribe was bringing fresh meat to the feast. There's a famous painting titled "The First Thanksgiving" by Jennie A. Brownscombe,[7] showing a rough table spread outdoors, the bay stretched out behind them, with Pilgrims and Native Americans sitting together, and the leader of the community William Brewster standing, offering a prayer of gratitude. Many had died. Home and family were far away. This new life in a new land peopled by those who were different, this living differently—all was off balance. But they knew one thing: even in the middle of this mess, they were living in the palm of God's hand.
And so are you. And living with this knowledge, we have something to stir our gratitude—that we have come this far, that we have received blessings beyond the comprehension of most of the people in the world even today, that we have been and are surrounded by love and respect and faithful friends. This year we are like those Americans in Lincoln's time, and like our parents and grandparents during Roosevelt's first administration. The world is unsettled, but we know something: that we are living in the palm of God's hand. And for this great gift we give thanks.
AMEN
