Thanksgiving is one of those rare moments in our year when we intentionally pause as a nation to give thanks.  

Giving thanks is an act that is deeply spiritual, no matter your faith tradition. Gratitude, after all, is at the heart of every authentic spiritual life.  It softens our hearts, opens our eyes, and grounds us again in the reality that life itself is a gift.

But as people of faith, especially in a progressive church, we also know that giving thanks means telling the truth about where our blessings come from and at what cost.   We know now that the story of the first Thanksgiving is more complex than we were taught as children.  The meal shared between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people took place during a time of deep tension and misunderstanding. Disease brought by European settlers had already devastated Native communities, and fears and mistrust ran both ways.  Yet despite that painful backdrop, the two groups came together around a shared harvest.  They ate, talked, and, for a brief moment in history, found common ground in gratitude for the abundance of the earth.

That complicated history reminds us that gratitude does not require perfection.  Thanksgiving is not about pretending everything is fine.  It is not about ignoring painful truths.  Thanksgiving is about finding grace in the midst of imperfection and, yes, even hardship.  It is about remembering that gratitude can bridge divides, even in difficult times.

For us today, that means giving thanks not only for the food on our tables but also for the possibility of healing, reconciliation, and renewed understanding.  It means being grateful for the courage to tell the full story that includes both the light and the shadows.  It means being grateful for the Spirit that still moves among us, calling us toward compassion and justice.

As we gather around our tables this year, may we give thanks with open hearts.  May we remember the first peoples of this land, the gifts of creation, and the hard-won blessings of community.  

And may our gratitude inspire us to be peacemakers who strive to build a world where everyone has enough and where grace, truth, and thanksgiving live side by side.

“Give thanks in all circumstances,” the Apostle Paul wrote.  That can be a tall order.  We aspire to do so, however, not because all things are good but because gratitude opens the door to the recognition of God’s presence. 

That is the spiritual power of Thanksgiving: it helps us see what is sacred, even in the complicated story of who we are today.

See you in church,

–Rev. Dominic Taranowski