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TRANSCRIPT
November 2013
First Matters____________________________
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving highlights of the Oleens 2012
Hayrack at brother's farm last year
Adding a celebration of our mom's 83rd birthday
Needing a nap, but no time to take one
Kicking around on some ATV's
Sharing a turkey with all the trimmings
Giving thanks for our many blessings
Intending to eat less than we did
Valuing the time to share with family
Interacting with three generations
Noting how the "kids have grown"
Gaining the satisfaction of a memorable time!
Thanksgiving 2012
By Lana Oleen
“Why am I here?” he asked. A group of us had gathered at one of the nursing homes here in town. On this particular day, Jadon kept asking, “why am I here?” (To preserve his privacy, we will call him Jadon*.) Over and over again he asked, “why am I here?” Whether from Alzheimer’s Disease or senility, his memory was impaired. He kept smiling, but his eyes betrayed a feeling of being lost without a memory to anchor him to his past and no words of explanation seemed to help his make sense of the moment.
We proceeded with the communion service. He listened to the Bible reading. He prayed the Lord’s Prayer. He ate the bread and drank the wine. I looked at him and noticed tears in his eyes. A prayer of thanksgiving was said and the benediction spoken. We all sat in silence for a moment. And then Jadon spoke. “I feel like my sins have all been taken away.” His face beamed with joy and thanks-giving and we all rejoiced together.
For good reason we call this Holy Meal the “Eucharist.” The word Eucharist comes from a Greek word meaning “thanksgiving.” This Holy Meal is our Thanksgiving Meal.
Each Sunday, as we prepare for this Meal, the pastor says, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God,” and we all respond, “It is right to give our thanks and praise.” It is right! Just think of all that our Lord Jesus Christ has done for you through his life, death, and resurrection. It is right to give thanks! Remember that the Risen Lord is Present in this Meal. It is right to give thanks! Know that your future is in the Lord’s hands. It is right to give thanks. Always!
Fed by this Meal, we respond with thanksgiving for all our Lord has done and continues to do for us. This Meal touched Jadon at a deep level. He was moved to tears of joy and thanksgiving as he re-ceived the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.
We Christians don’t have to wait till the fourth Thursday of November to have a Thanksgiving meal. Each week we enjoy a Thanksgiving Meal as we gather at the Lord’s Table. And this Meal produces an outpouring of thanks. It creates a new spirit within us. It gives us faith and hope and love. It moves us to be thankful people.
It can even lead us to say “thank you” a little more often to the people around us.
*Jadon is a Hebrew name which means “thankful.”
Jadon
By Pastor Keith Wiens
A Thanksgiving to Remember
By Linda Davis
When I was newly married and living in a new place, I did not expect a Thanksgiving din-
ner with relatives or any big event at all. But when I realized that it might be just the two of
us for Thanksgiving, the prospect felt lonely. No one invited us, and several people turned
down my invitations.
Determined to share the day with more people, I asked our pastor if he knew anyone who
would be alone and who might appreciate an invitation to dinner. He told me he would
think about it. I did not hear back from him, but the next week Margaret called me. Marga-
ret and her husband were also new in the church and far from family, and she had asked the
pastor the same question! We made a plan to celebrate Thanksgiving together.
Thanksgiving morning we all attended the 10 o’clock service at our church and then went
to their apartment for a noon dinner. It was a cold, gray day, and the heat in the small
apartment was welcome. The joy of being together was even warmer. Margaret and Byron
had a two year old boy, and the men entertained him while Margaret and I concentrated on
the dinner. Between us, we had made turkey and vegetables, cranberries, salads and pies.
We set a very fine table that nearly filled the room. When dinner was ready, I was taken
aback to see Margaret go to the kitchen one more time and make a peanut butter sandwich.
She set Steven, the two year old, in his high chair. Byron offered a prayer for the occasion,
and we began to eat. Margaret gave Steven the peanut butter sandwich and said, "This is
the dinner that Steven will be the most thankful for." And indeed it was. While all of us en-
joyed the meal, Steven exulted in his. No fork or knife or fancy napkin, no cranberries or
gravy, just one wonderful sandwich in his hands, and he beamed! We all got acquainted,
told stories, and laughed, Steven laughing with us.
I was glad to be spending the holiday with others, and not alone as I had feared. I was
thankful, quietly, for new friends and for the dinner.
But in celebrating Thanksgiving, the two year old at
the table outdid me. He put his appreciation on full
display, thankful for the day and for his peanut butter
sandwich.
Thanksgiving and Lincoln
By Tweed Ross
Why is Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November? As a part civil and part
religious ceremony Thanksgiving wasn’t established by the church calendar. In the
early colonial times the local governors set it the date. It wasn’t an annual affair till
1660’s. Washington proclaimed the first nation-wide Thanksgiving at November 26,
1786—a Thursday. Lincoln set Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November dur-
ing the Civil War. However in 1939 there were five Thursdays in November.
Franklin Roosevelt, in order to provide for more holiday shopping and a boost to get-
ting out of the Great Depression, by executive order set Thanksgiving on the fourth
Thursday. Many states rejected this intrusion and celebrated on their own dates.
Congress finally addressed the issue and set the fourth Thursday as a federal holiday
in 1958. In these times it is useful to consider Lincoln’s Proclamation.
“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 deal-
ing 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 grate-
fully acknowledged as with one heart and 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 singu-
lar deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our na-
tional 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 interposi-
tion 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 enjoy-
ment of peace, harmony, tranquility
and Union.”
“Oh God, you have given us so very much. Give us one thing more – a grateful heart. Amen” The prayer printed above was one that my father prayed at our Thanksgiving table. There is such power in its brevity and, particularly at this later stage in my life, causes me to pause and think. It provides me with a profound humbleness; thoughts of the journey my life has taken and the people who have been and are blessings in my life. But at this time of year, especially, it evokes for me memories of the man who held our hands while repeating that prayer and who exemplified a life filled with genuine gratitude. His hands were what people often remembered. Weathered, permanently stained with the remnants of a machinist’s labors, two fingers mangled and crippled had long since healed without returning to their original shape, and though squeamish as I am, their misshapen sight never bothered me. I remember his hands as so very strong. Hands that could grip scalding hot iron without flinching, hands that could lift hundreds of pounds, and hands that never showed the nuisance or pain of an injury. I remember going with him on Sunday mornings high into the tower of the church where he would pull again and again the huge rope that rang the bell calling us to worship. It looked so easy. My two hands could scarcely reach around the diameter of the massive rope, though he let me think that my simultaneous pull was needed on those mornings. Mostly I remember those hands in an enormous bear hug or a gesture of welcome or intro-duction. As a child, I took for granted that those strong hands were easily like a tool or a fine instrument that could perform at any octave as they fixed a broken clock, repaired a bi-cycle, threaded wires through a socket or polished our Sunday shoes. As the cycle of life moved through its seasons, Dad’s strong, yet gentle hands gradually changed. The stained skin of his hands became a translucent white on the underside. Where his palms were once rough and warm, they gradually became smooth and cool to the touch. The backs of his hands, though, remained as a testament to a life of hard work and took on the appearance of an artist’s palette in much used shades of brown. Yet even as the last season of his life emerged, he greeted one and all with a genuine handshake. As we gather to give thanks this year, I will close my eyes and see his hands folded in pray-er. I shall remember how truly grateful I am.
A Grateful Heart
By Ingrid Logan
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Manhattan, KS 66502 Return Service Requested
First Lutheran Church 930 Poyntz Avenue
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Phone:785-537-8532
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“Rooted In
Christ, we are
growing in faith
to bear fruit in
the world.”
Pastor Keith E. Wiens
Kyle Olson
Director of Spiritual Growth
Sarah Dick
Church Admin./Dir. Of Congregational Life
Kathryn Focke
Director of Evangelical Outreach
Becky Marsh
Communication Specialist
Susan Schindler
Bookkeeper