November 25, 2014
Dear St. Paul’s Family,
For this week in which we gather with family and friends to give thanks to God for the many blessings in our lives, I offer to you a trifecta of passages to guide you in your gratitude. The first is the presidential proclamation in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, officially designating the last Thursday of every November as the day of Thanksgiving. You will want to listen to our local KCHE radio station at 9:15am today (Tuesday) and 1:15pm Wednesday for a five-minute broadcast by myself, Rev. Ethan Sayler (Memorial Presbyterian) and Rev. Larry Ostercamp (Meriden Evangelical Free). We did a joint recording of our reading of this proclamation, to remind residents of this community of the sacred focus of this secular holiday.
The second is a poem by the great e.e. cummings, whose trademark playfulness with punctuation and grammar is evident in this immersive description of a life centered in gratitude to God.
The final selection is a prayer of thanksgiving, adapted from the Book of Common Prayer, which is suitable for use at your Thanksgiving gatherings this Thursday with family and friends.
1. PROCLAMATION
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
2. POEM
“i thank You God for most this amazing”
by e.e. cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
3. PRAYER
A Thanksgiving Prayer – adapted from the Book of Common Prayer
Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you’ve done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for our successes, which satisfy and delight us — but also for the disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ — for the truth of his Word and the example of his life.
We thank you for his dying, through which he overcame death — and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your Kingdom.
God, may we — at all times and in all places — give thanks to you in all things. Amen.
On behalf of the staff and lay leadership of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, I wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!
Magrey
The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
Email: mdevega@sp-umc.org
AVAILABLE SLOTS FOR RINGING BELLS
The following time slots are still available to ring bells for the Salvation Army. With Black Friday this weekend, this is a prime time for you to help raise money to help local people in need. For those concerned about the cold weather, Fareway has allowed us to be inside the store this year, rather than in the entryway. Please contact Mary Jo Carnine to sign up.
Friday:
Fareway -10am- 2pm
Kmart – 12:00 to 1:00pm
Hy-Vee 12:00 to 1:00pm
Saturday:
Fareway -10:00-1:00pm
Kmart – 10:00-1:00pm
Hy-Vee – 11:00-2:00pm
SIGN UP TO #PICTUREADVENT AND RECEIVE DAILY MESSAGES
Go to www.lecfamily.org/advent to sign up for #pictureadvent, which will deliver daily devotions to your inbox, along with family-oriented crafts and activities for you and your children. You can also participate by uploading pictures for the daily key words and joining hundreds of people across the country in this special journey.
COMMITMENT CARDS
Thank you to all who have already submitted your commitment cards for our most recent “Building the Kingdom” stewardship campaign. You can still turn in your cards to the church office or the Sunday morning offering plate.
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