The Only Appropriate Response Is Thanks

This week people across the United States will celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. For me it is one of my favorite and least commercialized holidays that focuses on our connections to each other and our connections to food. It is a holiday that invites us to remember that everything we have in our lives is a gift – including life itself – and that the only appropriate response to that gift is to let it flow through us back into the world.

It is also important to remember that the Thanksgiving holiday is known in many Indigenous circles as the “Day of Mourning” due to the ongoing, devastating effects of colonization. If we celebrate Thanksgiving, there are steps we can take to make this history more present to us as we strive to reconcile with our past and take responsibility for it. Even being aware of and citing the “Thanksgiving Address” (the traditional prayer of thanks used by the Haudenosaunee of Upstate New York) is a move towards recognizing the rich and continued legacy that Indigenous people offer us in terms of gratitude, connection to all creatures and connection to one another.

Interestingly, I think our readings for today also offer us some perspectives that are in line with these themes.

In the first reading from Daniel 1, King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, has conquered Jerusalem. Among other things, he chooses a cohort of young people from the people he has conquered to “take their place in the king’s palace.” They are taught the Chaldean language, forced to eat different food and educated for 3 years in Babylonian ways. They were meant to be insiders who were taught the ways of the conquerors who would then be used to help the king rule over the people. Daniel was one of those chosen.

Daniel, however, did not want to defile himself by eating the foods that were served. He saw how the food and wine made the Chaldeans look (he thought they looked terrible) and said (and I’m paraphrasing), “Let me do an experiment. Let me feed your servants a plant-based diet for 10 days and see how they look after that.” We’re told that after 10 days, the servants who ate the plant based diet “looked healthier and better fed than any of the young men who ate from the royal table…” The people in the king’s court were duly impressed, and Daniel rose in prominence and status. He was found to be wise and prudent in his decision making and was unmatched in his skill by any in Nebuchadnezzar’s court.

Let’s pause for a moment.

While this is a story that highlights the wisdom, resilience and survival of Israel during a time of occupation by a hostile force, I find the parallels to our own history in the United States stunning. An occupying, settler force invades an area where Indigenous people were living. They then force some of the best and brightest to learn their ways. They make them speak a new language, force them to learn new customs, force them to eat new foods. 

I can’t help but think of the places like the boarding schools that took native children from their families and subjected them to many horrors. It is a painful part of our history that still requires much healing and accountability.

And at the same time, I am drawn to the part of the story where Daniel – recognizing that the ways of the oppressor made them less healthy – invites them to consider alternative ways to get healthier. He literally says that they need to eat “vegetables” (a plant based diet) and stop eating whatever they were eating.

The wisdom of eating a plant-based diet is so well demonstrated the world over and was what was practiced by so many Indigenous communities everywhere (wisdom that is being returned to over time). Learning from the diets of our Indigenous kin will make us healthier. Maybe this could inform what we eat at Thanksgiving!

And then in our gospel from Luke 21, Jesus is pointing out to his disciples the widow who is putting “two small coins” in the box (as opposed to the wealthy folks who were putting in a lot more). He highlights her offering because she was not giving from her excess but from “her whole livelihood.”

I have experienced this kind of disproportional generosity so often among people who have so little. I remember being on a mission experience many years ago in a Honduran village up in the mountains. The family fed us, their guests, with a chicken stew that night. We learned later that it was their last chicken and that they would go without meat for a time after that just to make sure that their guests ate well. I wept when I found this out.

Of course Jesus is telling this story today, in part, because he also wanted to point out the corrupt systems (including the temple) that drained economic resources from the most vulnerable and did not require an equitable contribution from the wealthier classes (not unlike our current systems of taxation). 

But it raises the question of what we might be willing to sacrifice or give to others and whether it comes from our “excess” or whether it requires something more substantial from us.

Obviously there are many ways that we might give to others that deeply impact us. Perhaps we’re willing to give our time or attention to someone that stretches us in significant ways. Giving money is not the only way that we can give to others. 

But today’s gospel invites into a deeper form of giving, sharing or generosity that asks us to give in ways that we will notice and feel. And, I think, this was modeled by so many Indigenous communities.

Account after account of the “first Thanksgiving” from an Indigenous perspective states that the original inhabitants of this land shared both essential food and knowledge with the settlers that made ALL the difference for the settlers’ survival of the first few brutal winters in this new land. It was not that the Indigenous people had extra so much as they were willing to share what was essential to their own survival which then made it possible for the settlers to live). And I say this not to portray all Indigenous peoples as being welcoming and friendly in some sentimental way. But so many accounts of how the Native people shared knowledge and resources with the newcomers aligns more wit giving from one’s essence versus giving from excess (or even trying to have excess).

Maybe we can be inspired to do the same.

If I had to summarize today’s readings (and some of the applications I draw from them – especially for this week), I might say:

During this time of giving thanks
May we grow to be more grateful 
And show that gratitude by letting
Life flow through us
Holding nothing back

And may we be more mindful
That our feasts
May be days of mourning for others
Because of haunted histories
That have never been reconciled

During these days
May we be reminded
Of a generosity that makes it possible
For others to survive 
And thrive
As we seek to live lives
That honor and respect

The very real gift of life
And the lives of those who were here before us
Lives that knew how to live
In healthy and aligned ways
Generous ways
Based on connection
Not conquest