Thanksgiving day 

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  (My underlining.)

This is the day after our annual Thanksgiving Day.  For us, it was a family day, full of memories, good food and a central desire to be truly thankful.  This year our circle was a bit wider with some new faces among us, all around Jane and Glenn’s laden table, food for the occasion, in the best of our family’s tradition. After reading together Ps 100 (our favorite thanksgiving psalm)  and a hearty, very familiar “God is great,” we shared the most delicious meal, prepared by loving hands.  It included cranberry sauce, ham and turkey, goulash and much, much more, with fresh cider and cheery talk and laughing, things that make such times great, and pleasingly memorable.

In the Lord’s Prayer we plead, “Give us today our daily bread.”  For bread, we surely give thanks, as we did yesterday.  But the heart of Jesus’ prayer has to do with forgiveness. He asks us to forgive others, several times.  In fact, the Lord’s Prayer has much more to say about forgiving others than for “giving thanks.”  We do need daily physical bread – food, shall we say – but to do the will of the Father we must be first and foremost “forgivers,” not eaters.

I have wondered at times what Jesus means when he warns of “temptation” in this context. Could it be that a huge temptation is to withhold forgiveness?  Even physical bread does not do its work if we hold grudges.  Our stomachs work best when we forgive others.

Maybe we should call this day, “Forgiveness Day.”  Jesus would certainly approve of that because that is what he taught always.