The turkey is steaming on the table, the children are wriggling impatiently in their seats, and we're feeling grateful. Thanksgiving has arrived, and we're glad our family is so well off -- especially since so many others are lonely or hungry on this special day!
If we can utter the previous statement, Christ might have a few choice words for us. As a matter of fact, He already spoke them: "Two people went to the temple to pray, a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee prayed: `O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity -- greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and tithe.' But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed, `O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.' I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former" (Luke 18:10-14).
When we glance around our Thanksgiving tables and raise our thoughts to heaven, it's often in comparison to others: "This turkey is the biggest one yet!"..."The news said they couldn't find enough volunteers to serve dinner to the hungry. Thank God we can always depend on Uncle George to bring dessert!"..."I'm glad I wore a new dress. Looks like everyone else did, too."
But in all our thanks for material goods and gratitude that "I'm not like that tax collector -- or drug addict or homeless family -- over there," we're closing ranks against inviting someone else to our table.
He's not well off and certainly wouldn't have new clothes for the occasion. He wouldn't arrive bearing apple pies or feeling grateful for the financial wealth that allowed his family to gather around a loaded table. But he'd sure know how to say Grace. It might go something like this:
"Father, we thank you for life. We thank you for the faith that helps us to grow and for the promise of eternity with you when we leave this earth. Most of all, we thank you for sacrificing your son's life for all the times we forgot what to really thank you for."
Actually, that guest probably wouldn't be sitting at our Thanksgiving tables. He'd be out on the streets, huddled around a steam grate with the folks who didn't make it to the homeless shelter before they ran out of food -- you know, the folks too many of us just gave thanks to God for being so unlike.