I am scrambling this week...working hard. I'm running all over the place trying to tie up loose ends, planning ahead for the 1st Sunday of Advent, working ahead on the December 8th Session meeting, and a dozen other things...in general, going pretty close to full throttle. I know that a handful of you may be surprised by this. You may find yourself asking, "Why? Why would you, a notorious procrastinator, suddenly become a motivated, plan-ahead go getter?" The answer, my friends, is simple:I love Thanksgiving.
I don't want anything bothering me/distracting me/hovering over my head next week. I want to enjoy the festival that is Thanksgiving in all of its glory...no distractions of duties. I want to enjoy spending time with my family and friends. I want to enjoy watching football. I want to enjoy the food. It's all quite simple, really, Thanksgiving is rapidly becoming my favorite holiday.
Now, I know. Put away the comments for a second. I know you've started writing them. Comments like: "Uh, pastor...how about the celebration of the birth of OUR LORD AND SAVIOR!?!?!?!?" and "Hey, pastor pagan, how about you worship your cornucopia on somebody else's time, eh?" Hear me out. Let's first establish a theological baseline: I am in no way claiming that Thanksgiving can touch Christmas or Easter with a ten-foot cattle prod from a standpoint of theological/religious significance. Advent and Christmas are importation celebrations that represent key foundations of eschatology, incarnation, and the like. And Easter...is Easter, the reason for it all. But especially when it comes to theology, they win that bout by knockout every single time. But...that said...let's look at this honestly. When's the last time your hear somebody say, "You know what I love about Christmas? The Theology." Yeah.
What I'm talking about here is the practice...the observation of the holiday. Where the rubber meets the road. And while there are undeniably wonderful traditions associated with Christmas (think candlelight services, caroling, and children's' Christmas plays), there are wonderful benefits to Thanksgiving, too. And, on that sheer practice front, I think that I can argue for my greater appreciation of the 4th Thursday of November:
1) Better football. Everybody talks about bowl games being meaningful and yadda yadda yadda. Give me the rivalries of that weekend in November any day. Give me John Madden giving away a 8-legged turkey to Lions' offensive line. Give me Leon Lett kicking the ball around. Many of the pros are wrapping it up/playing the backups come December, and the December bowl games are...well, December bowl games. Great if you're really pumped about that Kansas State-East Carolina matchup that will end up at 7-2 because they haven't played real football for a month...but for the rest of us, bad news.
2) No party at work. Or, even better, the "Spouse's work party." As much as I love watching complete strangers get absolutely mowed...I'll pass, thank you. Let's all just calm down, scale back on the Nogg, and enjoy the spinach dip, salmon platter, and deli-sliced ham and cheese tray, OK?
3) No over-exposure. Heard Cheryl Crow's new Thanksgiving album? Seen "Thanksgiving with the American Idol All-Stars on Ice?" Perused a copy of "The Thanksgiving Shoes?" Caught the hilarious Tim Allen in "The Pilgrim Clause 3?" Did radio stations in your area start switching over to 24/7 Thanksgiving songs two months ago? Do you receive stacks of Thanksgiving mailers from merchants four-feet deep in your Post Office box? The prosecution rests, your honor.
4) Better food. Let's get something right out of the way here...I did not say "better cookies." That's a battle Thanksgiving doesn't even want to start. But when it comes to the traditional spread, Christmas has no chance. Ham? Ham? Yeah, right. Sausage wanna-be. And, as much as I love eating cinder blocks with Mike-N-Ikes crammed into them...fruitcake? Come on people. Roll out the turkey with stuffing and gravy. Pile up the yams with marshmallows. And then top it all of with glorious pie of the pecan or pumpkin variety. Then sit back and enjoy the divine genius of God infusing these foods with sleep-inducing chemicals, providing for a five hour coma...and then wake up for the no-further-preparation glory of cold turkey sandwiches that await as you slowly return from the dead. How do you top this? And Christmas knows this. In fact, Thanksgiving is so rockin' that we now just do "Thanksgiving II: Turkey's Revenge" for Christmas.
5) No presents. Maybe the best one of all. I like giving gifts, I really do. But the combined pressure of finding something "perfect," playing the over/under on how much Mr. Don't-Know-You-All-That-Well is going to spend on you, and then braving the apocalyptic vision that is shopping anywhere on a weekend in late November or December...and there you have it. One of my enduring memories of Christmas shopping is being in line at a Toys R Us in Kansas City about 6 years ago at 5:00 waiting in lines 13 deep as child after child went completely nuclear around us...screaming for toys they wanted, screaming to go home, screaming screaming screaming screaming as their parents fought over who was in line first, yelled snide remarks to the cashiers, and made sideways threats over the last Barbie corvette. Good times. Ho ho ho.
6) Fewer Expectations. Tied for the best one of all, I think. The older I get, the more I realize that we place so much pressure on Christmas that it produces an unheard of amount of stress on the average person. Combine equal parts pressure to decorate, cook, buy presents, send cards, and travel with that strange "everything must go perfectly" vibe that floats around come December...and it really gets out of control. I've seen it completely destroy perfectly good trips, meals, and visits. If we visit our families in, oh I don't know, mid-June, you don't see people running around, pulling their hair out, and muttering, "The hamburgers are dry!!! But (gulp) the whole family is here and it's Flag Day honey. Flag Day! I've ruined Flag Day!!"
It's not Christmas, I know that. And I love the lights, the celebration, the excitement from the kids when they get their presents. But there's something about a relatively low-maintenence holiday that sneaks up on you a bit...that lets you sit back and just be with family. There's something about everybody with enough money for some turkey and mashed potatoes being able to celebrate it without feeling as if they're missing out or shorting their kids. There's something about going around the table and giving thanks instead of buying more stuff. There's something to be said for simplicity.
I love Christmas...but I can't tell you thankful I am and how ready I am for Thanksgiving.
