Thanksgiving: Week 25 of Ordinary Time
Look: Psalm 67, John August Swanson - Source
Listen: The Bounty Is Come, Kenny Meeks for the A Rocha Project - Spotify | YouTube
Read: Daniel 12:1-4; Daniel 12:4-13; Psalm 16; Hebrews 10:31-39; Mark 13:14-23
Readings for the rest of the week*: Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 100; Psalm 145; Luke 17:11-19; Colossians 1:1-14; Revelation 22:1-7
Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Twenty-Fifth Week After Pentecost
Stir up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people, that bringing forth in abundance the fruit of good works, they may be abundantly rewarded when our Savior Jesus Christ comes to restore all things; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Do: For the final seven weeks of Ordinary Time, we’ll consider God’s gifts of work and rest - both spiritual acts of worship.
Bobby Gross introduces this week’s chapter:
“Our texts this week call us to thanksgiving. We give thanks for the bounty of the earth: common grace. We give thanks for the blessings of Christ: spiritual grace. We give thanks for the promises of God: eschatological grace. We remind ourselves that all we have comes from God, not our own hands (Deut. 8:7). We express our gratitude by giving a portion back to God and sharing generously with others. We also celebrate God’s generosity by feasting with gratitude in anticipation of the great feast in the age to come."
Simply put, this is a week to reflect on God’s blessings, physical and spiritual, past, present and future, and express our thanksgiving with joy. Consider sending a card of thanks to one or two people - whether a close acquaintance or neighbor or business owner - who has blessed you this year.
Related: Advent begins 2 weeks from today! Starting November 28 through January 6, you’ll begin receiving a daily Daybook Meditation right here! Returning by popular demand, you can also pre-purchase the entire Advent and Christmastide Daybook as a one-time pdf download here. The pdf download includes one free registration for a virtual Advent retreat on December 2!
*During Ordinary Time this year, I’ll be sharing readings from the excellent devotional guide, Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by Bobby Gross. While it’s not necessary to purchase the book to follow along with us, it’s an excellent resource we’ve dog-eared so often the pages are falling out of our copy!