Some might consider Thanksgiving “the American family holiday.” It might even surpass Christmas as the occasion for which family members gather together in greatest numbers. Each year, we hear on the news that more people travel over Thanksgiving weekend than at any time during the year. And that travel often involves family members of multiple generations joining together at the home of their member for a traditional meal centering around roast turkey. Part of the tradition frequently includes starting the day with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on television, and then after the sumptuous early afternoon feast, watching an afternoon football game while eating cold turkey sandwiches, and then getting started on Christmas decorations in the house and Christmas shopping in the stores on “Black Friday.” And of course, throughout the day, everyone is taking turns helping out in the kitchen! Right?
But as the real meaning of Christmas is too often lost amid the commercialism and consumerism of our increasingly secular culture, so too is the real meaning of Thanksgiving too often lost amid the increasingly self-centered hedonistic and entertainment-oriented atmosphere of modern America. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the revival we all pray for could begin by Christians leading the way, putting the Lord back at the center of these two holiday events, both of which had their origins in celebrating what God has done for us? After all, the word thanksgiving has little meaning unless there is some conscious understanding of what it is for which we are thankful, and to whom our thankfulness is directed.
Many of us can remember gathering at church on Thanksgiving morning for a pancake breakfast prepared by the men, followed by sharing testimonies of thankfulness in the sanctuary. Or perhaps, it was a service on Wednesday night, when those testimonies were shared after the pastor’s brief devotional “primed the pump.” Perhaps this is perpetuated in your church today, or if not, could be revived. For many of us, Psalm 100 is “the thanksgiving psalm,” with its clear call in verse 4, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving.” The church members’ expressions of thankfulness ranged from appreciation for parents’ love and attention to words of gratitude for the national blessings of freedom, from appreciation for family and friends to material things that have made life pleasant, from “thank yous” to pastors and other church leaders (including musicians!). But of course, in all of this, the primary thanksgivings were extended to the Lord, “the giver of every good and perfect gift” (James 1:17).
Days of thanksgiving, that is, days set aside to give thanks to God, have been common in Christendom for hundreds of years and long predate the European colonization of North America.
Documented thanksgiving services in the United States were conducted as early as the 16th century by the Spaniards and the French. These days of thanksgiving were celebrated through church services and feasting. It has been suggested that St. Augustine, Florida was founded with a shared thanksgiving meal on September 8, 1565. Michael Gannon wrote, “It was the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent [European] settlement in the land.” “Numerous thanksgivings for a safe voyage and landing had been made before in Florida by Ponce de Leon (and others)…. But all of the ventures, Catholic and Calvinist, failed to put down permanent roots. St. Augustine’s ceremonies were important historically in that they took place in what would develop into a permanently occupied European city, North America’s first….” The thanksgiving at St. Augustine was celebrated 56 years before the Puritan Pilgrim thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts, but it did not become the origin of a national annual tradition.
In colonial days, numerous thanksgiving services were routine in what became the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607. The first permanent settlement at Jamestown held a thanksgiving in 1610. On December 4, 1619, 38 English settlers celebrated a thanksgiving immediately upon landing at Berkely Hundred, Charles City. The group’s London Company charter specifically required “that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantation in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.” This early commemoration created the groundwork for what would later become a national custom, emphasizing the immigrants’ strong religious faith and thankfulness to God for their survival in the New World. Thanksgiving has developed from a local event in Virginia to a more generally known holiday across the United States.
The Plymouth colonists, today known as Pilgrims, had settled in a part of eastern Massachusetts formerly occupied by the Patuxet Indians who had died in an devastating epidemic between 1614 and 1620. After the harsh winter of 1620-1621 killed half of the Plymouth colonists, two Native intermediaries came in at the request of the leader of the Wampanoag to negotiate a peace treaty and establish trade relations with the colonists, as both men had some knowledge of English from previous interactions with Europeans, through both trade and a period of enslavement.
The Wampanoag leader had hoped to establish a mutual protection alliance between the Wampanoag, themselves greatly weakened by the same plague that had killed so many of the Patuxet, and the better-armed English in their long-running rivalry with the Narragansett, who had largely been spared from the epidemic. The Wampanoag reasoned that, given that the Pilgrims had brought women and children, they had not arrived to wage war against them. One of the native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter for them until he too succumbed to disease a year later. They also gave food to the colonists when supplies brought from England proved insufficient.
Having brought in a good harvest, the Pilgrims celebrated at Plymouth for three days in the autumn of 1621. The exact time is unknown, but James Baker, a former Plymouth Plantation vice president of research, stated in 1996, “The event occurred between Sept. 21 and Nov. 11, 1621, with the most likely time being around Michaelmas (Sept. 29), the traditional time.” Seventeenth-century accounts do not identify this as a day of thanksgiving, but rather as a harvest celebration. The Pilgrim feast was cooked by the four adult Pilgrim women who survived their first winter in the New World, along with young daughters and male and female servants.
According to accounts by Wampanoag descendants, the harvest feast was originally set up for the Pilgrims alone (contrary to the common misconception that the Wampanoag were invited for their help in teaching the pilgrims their agricultural techniques). Part of the harvest celebration involved a demonstration of arms by the colonists, and the Wampanoag, having entered into a mutual protection agreement with the colonists and likely mistaking the celebratory gunfire for an attack by a common enemy, arrived fully armed. The Wampanoag were welcomed to join the celebration, as their farming and hunting techniques had produced much of the bounty for the Pilgrims, and contributed their own foods to the meal.
Most modern imaginings of the celebration promote the idea that every party involved ate solely turkey, which were common in the American woodlands. “While the celebrants might well have feasted on wild turkey, the local diet also included fish, eels, shellfish, and a Wampanoag dish called nasaump, which the Pilgrims had adopted: boiled cornmeal mixed with vegetables and meats. There were no potatoes (an indigenous South American food not yet introduced into the global food system) and no pies (because there was no butter, wheat flour, or sugar).”
On September 28, 1789, just before leaving for recess, the first Federal Congress passed a resolution asking that the President of the United States recommend to the nation a day of thanksgiving. A few days later, President George Washington issued a proclamation naming Thursday, November 26, 1789 as a “Day of Publick Thanksgiving,” the first time Thanksgiving was celebrated under the new Constitution. Subsequent presidents issued Thanksgiving Proclamations, but the dates and even months of the celebrations varied. It wasn’t until President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Proclamation that Thanksgiving was regularly commemorated each year on the last Thursday of November.
In 1939, however, the last Thursday in November fell on the last day of the month. Concerned that the shortened Christmas shopping season might dampen the economic recovery, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a Presidential Proclamation moving Thanksgiving to the second to last Thursday of November. As a result of the proclamation, 32 states issued similar proclamations while 16 states refused to accept the change and proclaimed Thanksgiving to be the last Thursday in November. For two years two days were celebrated as Thanksgiving; the President and part of the nation celebrated it on the second to last Thursday in November, while the rest of the country celebrated it the following week.
To end the confusion, Congress decided to set a fixed-date for the holiday. On October 6, 1941, the House passed a joint resolution declaring the last Thursday in November to be the legal Thanksgiving Day. The Senate, however, amended the resolution establishing the holiday as the fourth Thursday, which would take into account those years when November has five Thursdays. The House agreed to the amendment, and President Roosevelt signed the resolution on December 26, 1941, thus establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the Federal Thanksgiving Day holiday.
In our church gatherings for Thanksgiving, we draw from a handful of well-known hymns, especially like “We Gather Together,” “Now Thank We All Our God,” and “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.” Less familiar is the hymn “Sing to the Lord of Harvest,” written in 1866 by John Samuel Bewley Monsell (1811-1875). Born in Londonderry, Ireland, he was educated at Trinity College in Dublin. He married Anne, daughter of Bolton Waller, of Shannon Grove and Castletown in 1835. Their eldest son Thomas Bewley Monsell, a Lieutenant in the 19th Regiment, died on the way to the Crimean War at the age of 18 in a shipwreck off Italy. The oldest daughter, Elizabeth Isabella, died in Torquay at the age of 28 in 1861. Another daughter, Jane Diana, married the Rev. C. W. Furse in 1859. Through his son William Thomas Monsell, a magistrate and inspector of business finance, Monsell was grandfather to the artist Elinor Darwin. His brother Charles, was also a clergyman. Through Charles and his wife, Harriet, John Monsell became influenced by the Oxford Movement and was an admirer of Edward Bouverie Pusey, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Monsell also became acquainted with William Ewart Gladstone, with whom he maintained a correspondence.
He served as a chaplain and rector of several churches in Ireland after his ordination in 1835, including successively Chaplain to Bishop Mant, Chancellor of the diocese of Connor, Rector of Ramoan, Vicar of Egham, diocese Worcester. Transferred to England in 1853, he became rector of Egham in Surrey and was rector of St. Nicholas Church in Guilford from 1870 until his death, which was caused by a construction accident when he fell from the roof of his church, which was in the process of being rebuilt. He was inspecting the work on this, one of three churches rebuilt while he served them. He died from an infected wound suffered at that fall. A prolific poet, Monsell published his verse in eleven volumes. His three hundred hymns, many celebrating the seasons of the church year, were issued in numerous collections.
“Sing to the Lord of Harvest” brings to mind the harvest sights (and tastes!) of the fall season, with the browns of cornstalks, the yellows of ripe squash, and the oranges of pumpkins in the fields. From that colonial harvest in 17th century America, we think each year of the bounty that fills our Thanksgiving tables, perhaps picturing a Norman Rockwell painting of a family praying and eagerly awaiting the first slices into the steaming and aromatic turkey on a platter in the center of the table between the candles.
And while the hymn is about the literal agricultural harvest season, the astute reader/singer will remember that there is a greater harvest season that those of us who know and love the Lord can’t help but remember. The first indication that comes to mind is Jesus’ saying “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38). Several passages in Scripture use the language of harvest to refer to the in-gathering of the elect when the Lord comes to separate the chaff and wheat. And we can also apply that imagery now when we hear missionary reports of individuals and people groups coming to faith in Christ.
In stanza 1, we call on one another to lift our eyes to see the harvest, and to “sing to the Lord of the harvest.” As we do so, the orientation of our hearts will be that of great joy and love as we see and consider the wonderful things the Lord s doing. Monsell’s text reminds us that there is an on-going pattern of God’s harvest as “the rolling seasons” move on, one after another, to produce what He has intended.
Sing to the Lord of harvest,
sing songs of love and praise;
with joyful hearts and voices
your alleluias raise!
By Him the rolling seasons
in fruitful order move;
sing to the Lord of harvest
a joyous song of love.
In stanza 2, we call on one another to look around to see the dimensions of this harvest in the fields coming about as the Lord makes it possible through “the clouds” that “drop fatness.” Those rains give us such things as deserts blooming, hills leaping up in gladness, and valleys laughing and singing. Language like this matches the Psalms speaking of mountains dancing and stars singing. And this stanza goes on to see a harvest of goodness and peace.
By Him the clouds drop fatness,
the deserts bloom and spring,
the hills leap up in gladness,
the valleys laugh and sing.
He filleth with His fullness,
all things with large increase;
he crowns the year with goodness,
with plenty and with peace.
In stanza 3, we call on one another to respond to all of these harvest images by turning to the Lord to “heap on His sacred altar the gifts His goodness gave.” In other words, we give back to Him all that He gives us. We lay our hearts before Him, falling at His feet, committing our lives to Him in adoration. And we do this for the one “who gave His life for all.” This completes the idea of thanksgiving by remembering that what we are most thankful for is His gift of his Son.
Heap on His sacred altar
the gifts His goodness gave,
the golden sheaves of harvest,
the souls He died to save.
Your hearts lay down before Him
when at His feet you fall,
and with your lives adore Him
who gave His life for all.
In stanza 4, we call on one another to make our thankfulness even more specific. How can our thanksgiving ever be complete without focusing on the blood of Christ. It’s by imputing Jesus’ righteousness to us that the Father has made us “very good,” language that recalls the words of creation in Genesis 1. And notice the Trinitarian fullness of this final stanza: the Father made us good, the Son restored us with His blood, and the Holy Spirit who pours “His blessed dews and sunshine” on us.
To God the gracious Father,
who made us “very good,”
to Christ, who, when we wandered,
restored us with His blood,
and to the Holy Spirit,
who doth upon us pour
His blessed dews and sunshine,
be praise forevermore.
The tune, WIE LIEBLICH IST DER MAIEN, was a love song at first, celebrating the joys of springtime. “How lovely is May,” became a popular hymn in Germany. It comes to us from Johann Steuerlein (1546-1613) in 1575. Born in Schmalkalden, Thuringia, Germany he studied law at the University of Wittenberg. From 1569 to 1589 he lived in Wasungen near Meiningen, where he served as town clerk as well as cantor and organist in the Lutheran church. From 1589 until his death he lived in Meiningen, where at various times he served as notary public, mayor, and secretary to the Elector of Saxony. A gifted poet and musician, Steuerlein rhymed both the Old and New Testaments in German and composed a number of hymn tunes and harmonizations.
The musical arrangement found in our hymnals today is a 1959 setting from Healey Willan (1880-1968), a famous British Anglican and then Canadian organist and composer. Most of his work came during his many years in Toronto, especially at an Anglo-Catholic high church, the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene. He wrote more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano as well as choral anthems. He is best known today for his sacred church music.
Here is a link to an anthem arrangement of Monsell’s hymn using first three stanzas.