Can you believe that Thanksgiving is almost here? And that means that Advent and Christmas are close behind. I was shopping in Kohl’s the third week of October and saw a couple of sales associates putting up Christmas tinsel. Doesn’t it seem that the Christmas shopping season comes earlier every year? It still “officially” begins the day after Thanksgiving, but I guess the stores just want us to get in the shopping spirit earlier than that.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, did you know that the first post-Revolution Congressional Thanksgiving proclamation was in 1782, and it asked only for a one-time observance to be done on Thursday, Nov. 28 of that year? Congress at that time did not consider it had the authority to mandate holidays, so the proclamation only recommended that the States observe the day as requested.

The Congressional proclamation said that the day was to be one of,
… solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.

Who can argue with that?

It was not until 1939 that Thanksgiving was set as the fourth Thursday of November. Since Lincoln’s day it had always been the last Thursday of the month. In 1939 that day fell on Nov. 30.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was still grappling with the Great Depression and decided to move the date to the fourth Thursday so that – you guessed it – consumer spending for Christmas would have an extra week. Congress did not approve this decision until 1941. And so Thanksgiving has been set as the fourth Thursday ever since.

This is a good time to remind everyone that our Community Thanksgiving Service will be held on Nov. 26 at 7 p.m., here at Sango UMC. We join every year with the good people of Bethel Cumberland Presbyterian Church, just a couple of blocks away, to “testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness,” just as the 1782 Congress recommended.

Brother Tom Wilkins, pastor of Bethel, will preach that evening. I hope everyone reading these words will come, remembering that our Christian faith “is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.”

Let me advise you as well of the church-office schedule for Thanksgiving week. We will be open Monday-Wednesday, Nov. 24-26 and closed Thanksgiving Day and the day after.

As we look ahead to December, please mark down to come to our Hanging of the Greens service at 7 p.m., Dec. 7.

The Chancel Choir will perform a cantata during both services on Dec. 14. The children’s musical will be on Dec. 17. The youth-group Christmas party will be Dec. 21. And finally, our Christmas Eve service will be held at 5 p.m. on, well, Christmas Eve.

A word about the Israel trip: Our Israeli tour director, Ari Marom, will be here at Sango to give information and answer questions on Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m. If you have the slightest interest or hope of going on this trip, please come on Nov. 11 and feel free to invite others. The dates of the trip are June 19-28, 2009.

My closing thought is from the Psalms:

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. – Psalm 50:14-15