"We Give Thanks" --"Beyond the Thanksgiving Myth"

"The Story of Thanksgiving" (story narrative from http://www.nmai.si.edu/education/files/NMAI_Harvest_Study_Guide.pdf)
Since November is American Indian Heritage Month, this is a good time to learn more about the Native Americans, without whom there would not have been that first Thanksgiving. The traditional foods we eat at Thanksgiving were all foods grown and harvested by the Native people of the Americas. The Native Americans at that first Thanksgiving were the Wampanoag and their ancestors had been in the area for thousands of years by the time the Pilgrims got there. Giving thanks was a central part of everyday life for the Wampanoag and for many of the Native people of the Americas.
The Wampanoag offered their thanks back to the earth in the form of offerings like shell beads and other items. According to their beliefs, it wasn’t possible to take from the earth without giving something back. Life just didn’t work that way. When they enjoyed an abundant harvest, they gave thanks. During their ceremonies, they would feast, dance and play games with a “give away” where families gave away personal items they had to others in the community who were in need.
The Pilgrims who landed in 1620 were not prepared for life in the Americas. They didn’t bring enough food and the planting season was over by the time they arrived. The Wampanoag had other problems with a neighboring tribe and many of them had been killed by diseases that previous European explorers brought. One survivor, known in our history as Squanto but whose real name was Tisquantum, taught the settlers how to survive and he also introduced one of the leaders of the Wampanoags, Massasoit and the governor of Plimoth, John Carver. They later signed a peace treaty.
By the fall of their first year, in 1621, the settlers had a successful harvest and they planned a Harvest Home celebration similar to one that would have been celebrated in England. This was what we typically think of as the First Thanksgiving though there is no mention of giving thanks. The settlers included typical Wampanoag foods and the Wampanoag contributed other food to the feast. This three day celebration was a symbol of how the Native people and the Europeans could live together peacefully.
The Wampanoag people still exist today and they continue hunting, fishing, gardening and gathering as their ancestors did. Many Native artists create baskets, carve wood, make pottery and wampum just as they did hundreds of years ago. Many of the children now learn the Wampanoag language and maintain their culture.
The first Thanksgiving was a mixture of Puritan religion and the European Harvest festival with the addition of Native foods. Thanksgiving still emphasizes feasting and plenty. Knowing more about that first Thanksgiving and the practice of the “give away” ceremonies, may instill in us a greater sense of gratitude and thankfulness—not just now but throughout the year.
Homily “We Give Thanks”—"Beyond the Thanksgiving Myth"
So what does this story beyond the usual Thanksgiving myth have to tell us about Thanksgiving today? Our Call to Community at the beginning of this service expressed thanks as the Wampanoag and other Native people often do –feeling gratitude for the earth, the sky and the wind, the plants, the animals, the water and how all life lives and dies as shown in the living plant and the fallen leaves.
Our skit about the Guest at your table program reminds us of the ways we can work together with people from different areas of the country and the world to help make positive changes that the people in need determine for themselves—like drinkable water, getting a fair price and safe working conditions for the women picking and harvesting bananas, and finally returning back home after being in refugee camps for years, rebuilding farms and homes, and healing the sore spots where hope lights up one family’s life after another.
Just coming back from India, I am still reeling from what I saw and experienced in the slums of Delhi where the Self Employed Women’s Association of India (http://www.sewabharat.org) provides a means for women to make a decent wage by sewing traditional beads onto clothing and selling them overseas. The dignity and the courage of these women and young girls learning their craft and gaining from computer training will remain with me forever.
I am in the process of sorting out in my mind the degree of poverty and need in this country and abroad. Certainly, there is hunger and need in this country that we need to address. There is oppression and injustice and that is something I have pledged my life to work on. This church has often prioritized local charitable works and justice. I understand that but something is shifting in me after spending six days hearing about Mark Kiyimba’s experiences in Uganda, after seeing our Unitarian Universalist Holdeen Partners Program in India, and reading the Stories of Hope that the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee works with.
I am aware more than ever that those with the least resources in this country have more than most of the people in many areas of the world. There is no denying that those of us with very modest incomes here are seen as wealthy by most of the world’s citizens. It puts this Thanksgiving into a whole different perspective for me. At the very least, I feel a need not to take for granted the many gifts I have, to feel grateful to the people who grow the food I eat, that harvest it and package it.
I hope that all of us, the members and friends of this church, and all of our community partners, can be grateful and give thanks. I think of the Wampanoag Indians who believe in the “give away” of personal possessions to those in need. We are exercising some of that with our food to El Centro, toys for Seaman’s, and to expanding our generosity and service to others, including the planned youth service trip to New Orleans.
I have a prayer this Thanksgiving that we each find ways to make the spiritual practice of gratitude a part of our daily life, to witness even when we’re cold and feeling sad, that life is precious and fragile. It is not guaranteed. It is a gift that each of us experiences and we can become more aware of the gifts of life or stay oblivious to them. Let us choose to move beyond what comes with the Thanksgiving myth—that we are takers, exploiters, that we use everything up until there is no more. Let us investigate how to do a “give away”—in terms of sharing, caring, and being thankful as often as we can remember how we are blessed.

The Guest At Your Table boxes—

These Guest at your table boxes show four people highlighted in Unitarian Universalist Service Committee eye to eye partnerships in Uganda, Afghanistan, Ecuador and Guatemala. We have told some of their stories this morning. You can read more about them on the Unitarian Universalist Service committee website.
The Guest at your table program hasn’t been real popular here at this church.
I've heard people say they can just write a check—what’s the point anyway in really taking in the Guest At Your Table program? The point is that we need reminders to think outside the box—to be more generous, to open our hearts more often, to think about others and how we are all connected. The Guest at your table box is a way to do that during the holidays—to place this colorful box on your dining room table and put your spare change in it—to say to yourself—today, the Guest at our table is coming—How can I understand a little better what life is like for him or her? How can I be a good host? How can I share what little I have with someone else?
And when we sit down to eat, we can really think about Carmen in Guatemala, Maral in Afghanistan, Opoka in Uganda, and Carolina in Ecuador and the thousands of nameless and faceless people in the US and abroad that our coins empower to do good work in their communities. We pass out these boxes in that spirit and I hope that every one of you will spend the coming holiday season with a Guest at your table and return the boxes full as you can the first two weeks of 2011.

Closing Words—Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address
"We have now arrived at the place where we end our words. Of all the things we have named, it was not our intention to leave anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each individual to send such greetings and thanks in their own way.
And now our minds are one."