" Acknowledge whence you have existence, breath, and understanding. Acknowledge whence you have what is most important of all, your knowledge of God, your hope of the kingdom of heaven, your contemplation of glory which in this life is, of course, through a glass darkly but hereafter will be more perfect and clearer. Acknowledge that you have been made a son of God, a co-heir with Christ... From where and from whom have all these benefits come to you?

          Or, to turn to lesser matters, what you see with your eyes, who gave you the power to gaze on the beauty of the sky, the course of the sun, the circle of the moon, and the multitude of the stars? Who gave you the power to discern the harmony and order that shines out like music in them all?

          From whom do you have the rain, agriculture, your food, crafts, dwelling houses, laws and constitutions, civilized life, friendship and intimacy with your relations? To whom do you owe it that some of the animals are tamed and subject to us, and others are given over for our food? Who made you lord and king over everything on earth? Without naming all the individual items, who gave man all the gifts by which he is superior to other living beings?

          Surely the answer to all these questions is quite simply God---and God now asks you before all things and in return for all things, to show kindness. When there are so many benefits which we have either received from him or which we hope to receive from him in future, surely we would be ashamed to refuse him this one point in return, namely kindness and love. Although he is our God and our Lord, he is not ashamed to be called our father, and will we shut ourselves off from those related to us?"

          These words of Gregory Nazianzus from the fourth century remind us what we are about today. At thanksgiving we especially focus our attention on the great variety of gifts we receive from God. Because of the season much our interest today is on food, the harvesting of crops on the farms around us, the produce from our gardens, those last vine ripened tomatoes, the feasts we will share later today or tomorrow of turkey and all the trimmings. But even with this specific focus on food I think its easy to fail to be truly thankful. Most of us are too isolated from reality. In North America and Europe, at least, few, if any of us will starve. I doubt that any of us here will ever truly go hungry. Even here in New Brunswick, as rural as we are, we are so protected, buffered, by our relative affluence, that the life and death nature of a good harvest seems irrelevant. What do we care if most of the North American grain crop fails? Next year it will probably be a bumper crop and the farmers will complain because the price is too low. How many of us approach each growing season with the thought,"with a good harvest I can live to see next year. But If the crops are down I will die?" So it is understandable if we sometimes fail to come to this feast with the sense of relief and thankfulness that we should, knowing that God has given us the means to make it through another year. Its understandable, but its not right.

          When I was in the Parish of Denmark, every year during the rogation days in the Spring, I went around the parish and blessed all the fields and herds I could find. This is an ancient tradition that I choose to restore because in that parish where virtually everyone is a farmer It was a highly visible way to remind the people once more that ultimately God decides what will grow, not us or the fertilizer salesmen, and it was greatly appreciated by those God fearing farmers who already knew that God was in control. The prayer that I said over each field was the following:

          We beseech the, O Almighty God, that of thy great goodness thou wouldst vouchsafe to pour upon the first fruits of this field the continual dew of thy blessing; that, nourished by gentle winds and rain, the earth may bring forth her fruit in due season. Grant likewise unto thy faithful people that they may show forth their thankfulness unto thee for the same, by filling the hungry with good things which the fertile earth hath brought forth, so that the poor and needy may ever praise thy glorious Name.

          God has given us the harvest. It may not be as plentiful as in other years, but in this land of plenty we will have enough to eat. Let us give thanks for this. And as Saint Gregory reminds us, let us also give thanks for our homes, crafts and industry, laws and civilized life, our friendships and loves. But more important, much more important than these gifts which are transitory, which are here today and tomorrow pass away, is the gift of eternal life which God gives us through his Son Jesus. If it is important to thank God for the mortal gifts that give us life in this world, how much more important is it to give him thanks for the gift of immortality, eternal life? We thank Him, as Gregory tells us, with kindness and love. We do this, not just privately and always, but as the Church, the bride of Christ, publicly in our worship together. That is what we about to do in the sacrament of Holy Communion. The prayer of consecration is also known as The Great Thanksgiving. In our giving thanks, the bread and wine which we offer up to God are sanctified, made holy, and returned to us transformed into the body and blood of Christ. So too with the less sacred gifts we receive. As we give thanks for the fruits of the earth, they are made holy for our use. As we give thanks for all things they are sanctified.

          Let us pray that we be made truly thankful for all things, offering all things, our selves, our souls, and our bodies up to God in thanksgiving that they may all be returned to us sanctified and made holy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.