Thanksgiving with Nancy and Randy Campbell

CALL TO WORSHIP:    
ONE: Come let us celebrate the wondrous gifts that God has given us. ALL: Throughout all our lives, God has blessed us with knowledge.         ONE: Praise be to God who provides for us.                              
ALL: May our hearts be truly grateful, and may we show our gratitude by the ways in which we live and care for others.                      
ONE: Hallelujah!                                            
ALL:  Hallelujah! Amen.

OPENING PRAYER:
Lord of bounty and blessing, we come to You this day in gratitude for all that we have been given. We are grateful for the blessings and for the opportunities to be of service to others.  Bless each of us here, that we may become truly blessings to others. We ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.


PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING & THE LORD’S PRAYER:

Bounteous God, you have lavished Your finest gifts on each one of us. We thank You for the many ways in which You have blessed our lives – with love, hope, friends, our church, and so many other things that we cherish. Help us to be a blessing for others – that they may come to know You and rejoice in Your love. Give us hearts of courage and confidence to step out into the world in service, bringing hope where there is doubt, peace where there is strife, love where there is discord. These things we pray in Jesus’ Name and continue to pray as we sing the words He taught us. 

Drama moment

REBECCA: ln Matthew 28:18-20 the Lord Jesus says: 'All authority in heaven and an earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in ttte narne of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." This is why we do, what we do, as Christians. lt is also the reason that we are all to be involved with the Harvest. 

SARAH: Loudly to the villagers) Wake upl Wake up For the Harvest is ready.
None of the VILLAGERS respond.  (snoring!)
SARAH: {a littte louder) Wake up! The Harvest is ready!
VILLAGERS: Go away! Be quiet! lt's too early! Go back to sleepl {Snore...)

SARAH walks over to VILLAGER #1 and speaks again!

SARAH: Wake upl The Harvest is readyl
V #1: {sleepily) What?l No - You're mistaken. lt is 4 months until the harvest.
SARAH: No, no! Just look at the fields! They are ripe for harvestl
VILLAGER #1 looks at the fields and sees that they are ready for harvest.l
V #1: Well, so they are. Hmmm. How about that? But, I don't care about a harvest that comes too early. l'm going back to bed.

VILLAGER#1 returns to her bed. SARAH goes to VTLLAGER#2.
SARAH: Wake up! The Harvest is readyl
V #2: (dreaming) Not now, Honey. Go back to sleep.
SARAH: (more insistentJ Wake up! The Harvest is ready!

V #2: What is it! Oh, it's you. Go away! lts too early. I'm asleep!
SARAH: But, the Harvest is ready.
V#2: Well, l'm not ready. l'm sleepy. Besides, a harvest is a lot of work. VILLAGER #2 returns to her bed. SARAH goes fo VTLLIAGER #3J
SARAH: Wake up! The Harvest is ready!
V #3: Oh, no! Not again! Please go away! You know I can't help you.
SARAH: But the fields are ripe and ready for harvest.
V#3: I know.,. And you want me to help. But I'm really not very good at
harvesting. You should get someone else. l'm going back to bed.
VILLAGER *3 retums ta her bed. SARAH goes to VILLAGER #4.
SARAH: Wake up! The Harvest is ready!
v #4: Nol I'm having a bad hair day! Go awayl
SARAH: But the fields are ripe and ready for Harvest!
V#4: I don't have the right clothes to wear.
SARAH: You look fine.
V#4: I might break a nail.
SARAH: What??!!
V#4: Look, I told you. t can't do... whathever it is you want me to do. Try that person over there. I'm going back to bed.
VILLAGER #4 retums to her bed. SARAH goes to VILLAGER #5
SARAH: Wake up! The Harvest is ready!
V #5: It's too cold!
SARAH: No, it's not. It's warm outside.
V#5: Then, it's rainingl
SARAH: No, its not raining. lts sunny!
V#5: Well, l'm not going out there.
SARAH: Why not?
V#5: Because there's a fierce lion out there.
SARAH: Really? Where?!!
V #5: Out there in the center of town.
SARAH: No, there isn't!!!
V#5: But, there could be. So, I'm not going out there! I'm going back to bed!
VILLAGER #5 returns to her bed. SARAH goes back to the center of town,
wondering what to do.
REBECCA ENTERS and speaks fo SARAH.
REBECCA: They have lots of excuses, don't they? You know what Jesus said: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Why don't we pray together, and ask Him to do that?

REBECCA and SARAH pray together. REBECCA says the prayer out loud!
REBECCA: Lord... we know Jesus said that the Harvest is plentiful. Please send out workers into your harvest field. We pray this in Jesus' name' Amen. 
{One by one, the VTLLAGERS put down their blankets and come to the center of town. They have come to work in the harvest]
V #1: I guess I care more than I thought.
Y #2: I guess l'm not as sleepy as I thought.
V #3: I guess I can try to help.
V #4: I guess these clothes will be alright.
V #5: Hey, there's no ferocious lion out here!
(Pause - The audience will laugh. )
SARAH: (To all) Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
ALL: Wake up! The Harvest is ready!

THE END

Offertory Prayer:        Heavenly Father, thank you for all the good things You continue to provide for us. Don’t let us take Your gifts for granted or abuse them. Instead, help us always to rely on You in faith. Use us and what You have given us for Your good purposes. Amen.

PASTORAL PRAYER:         God, Your blessings, Your bounty, have been poured out to us that we may be strengthened to be Your people in service to others. Today we have gathered here with an opportunity to step out of the race to possess, to praise You and thank You for the wonderful ways in which You have blessed our lives. We spend a lot of time looking for the big blessings, when all around us are the delightful blessings of everyday living – family, home, friends, the ability to enjoy laughter and share tears. There are so many ways in which You have touched our lives with Your love. Help us develop for all of our lives an attitude of gratitude, never failing to thank You each day for Your love and Your blessings. Help us reach out to one another and to all those in need with this compassionate love. For was ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Walk A Little Slower
          At this time of Thanksgiving, we all go through the motions of giving thanks for what we have, and many of us go to church – but are we really being sincere? Are we really thankful? Do we actually know what were thankful for?
          Life, as we know it today, is fast-paced. We put so many things on our to-do list that we barely get through the list, or we’re so busy, we only get a few hours of sleep a night – because we’re worried about tomorrow’s to-do list.
          How many times have you seen someone talking on the cell phone while driving down the highway? People are obsessed with multi-tasking. I’ve seen people putting on make-up, eating, texting, reading – and I’ve even seen a man shaving, all while driving!
          This morning we read Psalm 46 responsively. I hope you paid attention to verse 10: “Be still, and know that I am God.” There are several Bible passages that tell us not to ‘hurry, worry and scurry’ because it will have a negative effect on us. The Bible says, “Overwork makes for restless sleep.” In other words, you feel more stress. When you’re stressed out, you lose joy and happiness. When you’re stressed out, you’re less productive.
          You can’t keep going and going all the time. None of us is the “Energizer Bunny!” You have to take breaks – you have to slow down. Remember the old saying – “Take time to smell the flowers.” All this fast-paced living affects us spiritually, as well as physically. If we’re always running at high speed, we can’t hear God. “Be still, and know that I am God.” Being still is an action – not a lack of action. We have to work at being still, because it doesn’t come naturally to us. We have to learn to still our thoughts, still our emotions and still our actions.
          If we’re moving at a fast pace all the time, we can’t possibly know God. So let’s ask ourselves these questions. Why are we so busy? Why are we always trying to achieve so much? Why are there always so many distractions in our life? “Be still, and know that I am God.”
 
          Rev. Brian Polston describes it best. “Be still! When you’re not still, all your circuits are busy. You’ve got God on call-waiting. The circuits are on overload. You can’t hear God because you’re too busy and there’s too much noise in your life.” What Rev. Polston is saying is that we need to slow down to truly know the Lord. Most growth takes place in the quiet. It’s in the quietness of the soil that the seed germinates and grows. It’s in the quietness of the womb that a baby develops. And so too, it is in the quietness and stillness that our spiritual growth develops. We need some times of quiet, some times of solitude and some times of stillness in our life.
          We need to turn to our Bible more often. I’m just as guilty as the next person in pushing myself, taking on more than I can comfortably handle, being stressed out and losing sleep. If we turn to the Bible, we find that it is filled with instructions about living the kind of life God wants us to live. God made us. He understands us, and He knows us like no one else.
          God gave us a specific instruction in the fourth commandment: “You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is the day of rest dedicated to Me.” God instructed us to take the Sabbath off from work. Sabbath literally means a day of rest. We think we can keep going and going, but that never really works. We become irritated, which affects our family; we become over-tired; and in the end we don’t get as much done.
          So what do we do with our day of rest? Some people use it to catch up on other work! Wrong – that’s not what God wants. We need to rest our body and recharge our emotions. We need to take time to be alone with God. To be silent and still. We need to reconnect with our family and spend quality time with them.
          We also need to refocus our spirit and remember how great God really is! Psalm 127:2 says; “It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know that God enjoys giving rest to those He loves?”
          We just celebrated our 160th Anniversary a month ago. What would our ancestors think about the fast-paced life we live today? We fly to China in 13 hours, we send messages instantly to any place in the world, we have an endless variety of food readily available and the list goes on and on. Transportation for our ancestors was a horse and buggy or sleigh. A trip to town was to purchase tea, salt, sugar, molasses, tobacco and material to make clothing. They might have been able to visit relatives or attend a cultural event, such as a military band concert or even a circus.
          For the most part, each rural community was a close-knit group, depending on their neighbours for entertainment as well as for help in the time of need. Visiting, story-telling, singing and dancing were common means of social entertainment.
          The duties of the household were many. Food had to be grown and preserved, cream was churned for butter, berries & fruit were preserved and making bread was a daily chore. When wash day rolled around, water had to be pumped or raised by a bucket from a well, or carried from a brook or spring. Clothes were washed on a washboard, scrubbing by hand with home-made soap and pressed with an iron heated on the kitchen stove – a wood stove, wood being chopped and carried by hand.
          Today, we have machines which do most of these chores for us. We can move from place to place in a matter of minutes or hours, instead of days, weeks or even months. So why do we keep saying we don’t have time?
          On this Thanksgiving Day, let’s pause and be still. Take the time to  appreciate what we have. Take time to be with our family and to really listen to what they have to say. Take time to look around and appreciate all the glories nature has to offer. Take time alone with God. Let Him rejuvenate you and help you to refocus. Take time, my friends, to walk a little slower.
         
Let us pray: Today, Lord, as a church family, as a group of people supporting each other, we want to enjoy the life You’ve given us, not just endure it. We want to bring sanity and simplicity back into our schedules. We want to live balanced, healthy lives. We want to have time for the relationships that matter most – with You, with those we love, with each other in our church family.
Dear God, thank You for bringing us here. Help us to learn contentment and to stop comparing ourselves to others. We want to obey You and observe a Sabbath day of rest every week. Help us to pause and pray before making decisions. Help us to be patient and to trust Your timing. Forgive us for the times You’ve put up signs that we missed because we were in too much of a hurry. We invite You to be the manager of our lives. Not just setting the direction but also the pace. We want to spend time alone with You every day so You can set our pace. With Your help, Lord, we can take the time to walk a little slower. Amen.

BENEDICTION & CHORAL AMEN:        Beloved of God, place your whole trust in God’s absolute abundant love. Feel the powerful presence of God in your life and know that God’s blessings are with you. Go in peace, and may God’s peace always be with you. 

​“Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow”
Edward Sandford Martin