Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! This is a unique Thanksgiving for me since it's my first away from home. This morning Melissa and I went to a Thanksgiving service at St. Paul's Cathedral. I was a little wary of going because I've never been able to reconcile how I feel about mixing patriotic type holidays with church. I'm also skeptical of attending any Church of England* services since I know that many of its leaders don't believe in Biblical Christianity or that everything Jesus said was true. It turned out to be pretty much what I expected, here are a few of my observations.

The man who spoke to open the service (whatever his crazy title was) said this was his first time to be involved in a Thanksgiving service but if it meant a full cathedral (as it was today) he would be involved all the time. Well, after sitting through the service I can see why the building isn't always overflowing.

The American ambassador to England said a few words. He mostly talked about family and not surprisingly, giving thanks. He called the service "a celebration of Americans in London." Fair enough, but then why are we meeting in a cathedral and calling it a church service?

Finally, the leader of the American Church in London gave the sermon based on 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 about sowing generously. He said that Paul's gospel meant that living a thankful and generous life "was the path to life as God intended it to be." He stated something along the lines that "no matter who you believe Jesus is- a prophet, cool guy, or Lord and Savior...his teaching tells us how God wants us to live our lives." Hmmm...I think he got it backwards. The Bible actually states that Christ is the path to life as God intended and that through his grace we are enabled to live thankful and generous lives. At the end he had everyone say aloud with him,"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift." Unfortunately the sermon never mentioned what that indescribable gift really was. I can see why that church isn't full. What they preach is not different than any other religion that teaches I can make it to heaven on my own, so why bother believing anything at all?

At least the offering was to support the International Justice Mission: A Christian human rights organization that advocates justice for those who have no support - including those enslaved by human trafficking. Now that's something I can get behind. The man told a story of a girl who had been rescued from a brothel in Thailand. While she was held she had scratched into her wall Psalm 27, "The Lord is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid? When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall." After her rescue she quoted Psalm 34, "I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips...I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears." Wow.



*I also think it's a little ironic that the pilgrims left England in pursuit of religious freedom, but today Americans were gathered in the Church of England to celebrate.