Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. [Hebrews 12:28]

More than an annual holiday, but certainly expressed in a kind word or handwritten note or an unexpected gift, thankfulness is first a disposition. A person chooses to be thankful and then readily expresses gratitude and gives thanks. But it starts with the person. And that person is confident that this isn’t all there is…and is thankful!

For your listening accompaniment two days before Thanksgiving…
“Now Thank We All Our God” by the King’s College Choir. 

If you want something done…
Artificial intelligence probably approved your recent credit card application. Good chance a human didn’t read your x-ray. It’s possible one didn’t even create your college student’s class syllabus. AI is responsible for more and more things these days, from driving cars to establishing the odds for Sunday’s game. AI is not going away anytime soon. Not with the billions of dollars being invested in it. This is not a grouchy rant against the dangers of modern technology (though maybe a caution). But know this: AI can’t call and comfort your friend when they are down. It can’t teach and hug our kids in Sunday School class. AI can’t go outside and throw the frisbee around with a group of teens. AI won’t pray for you or harmonize with you when you are worshipping our God. All that to say, though AI is here to stay, we still desperately need each other and real relationships and the Church. David Erlandson, Trinity’s worship pastor, gave an excellent and balanced appraisal of AI some months ago. To watch the seminar or hear it again, click here. 

Pass the sweet potatoes and…
boundaries…and a sense of humor.

This Thursday, when your opinionated cousin from Peoria starts going off about American politics or the “war du jour” and you are tempted to argue back and raise the room temperature even higher, pause and pray first. And before you speak, ask yourself: Do I need to chime in? Should I absorb the angry rhetoric and change the subject? Can I be kind and truthful in my words if I do speak up? The Lord doesn’t want us to be doormats, but we are called to be wise and to know when to speak and when to be silent. That’s all I’ve got to say about that. Please pass the lasagna!

Speaking of edgy conversations…
Baptist pastor, sociologist, and author Tony Campolo died the other day. We brought him to The Chapel many years ago and he caused a bit of a stir. His messages always included the importance of the Christian addressing issues like caring for the poor and marginalized and not ignoring the ugliness of racism. On mixing the church and politics, Campolo recently said, “Putting religion and politics together is like mixing ice cream with horse manure. It doesn’t hurt the horse manure; it ruins the ice cream. And I think that this merger of church and state has done great harm to religion.”

A couple of good sports…

1. My favorite tennis player, Rafael Nadal, hung up his sneakers last week. An amazing athlete (in the running for the men’s tennis GOAT, in my opinion) and, from all I have heard, a real gentleman. I love this sequence where he accidentally hit a ball girl with his shot. Watch his delightful response here.

   Nike also produced a classy tribute ad for Rafa that you can see here. 

2. Browns QB Jameis Winston is a breath of fresh (and clean) air. Christian athletes sometimes make it awkward on the sportscasters, but I just love this! Maybe it’s the drastic contrast with what preceded him.

Just a little butter please…
A new movie recently came out about the life of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. I have read a lot by and about this complex man who was a deep thinker, a churchman, and a German citizen (who was eventually hung by the Nazis). While the film’s title might imply that he used his faith for violent political means, it seems more accurate to understand Bonhoeffer as someone preoccupied with how God is calling the church to stand faithful and not succumb to the temptation to redefine its faith in line with its politics.

Here are a couple of books that I would recommend to you by Bonhoeffer:

1. On the importance of fellowship and the communal practices of prayer and worship and service this is a beautiful read: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community.
2. And his most famous work: The Cost of Discipleship. If you haven’t, you really ought to read this classic. 

What Bonhoeffer had to say:

• About grace: “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves…grace without discipleship… Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again… It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.”
• About our vertical faith and horizontal love: “To confess and testify to the truth as it is in Jesus, and at the same time to love the enemies of that truth, his enemies and ours, and to love them with the infinite love of Jesus Christ, is indeed a narrow way…”
• About Thanksgiving: “In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”
• About Advent: “A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”

Here’s hoping you have a meaningful Thanksgiving with those you love.

“We give Thee thanks, our Father, for the Resurrection which Thou hast manifested to us through Jesus, Thy Son; and even as this bread which is here on this table was formerly scattered abroad and has been made compact and one, so may Thy Church be reunited from the ends of the earth for Thy Kingdom, for Thine is the power and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” [St. Athanasius, fourth century]