Day of Thanksgiving

[alixtii]

The lessons appointed by the Episcopal Church for use on Thanksgiving Day.

I really should write a fic, since Thanksgiving is totally on the liturgical calendar (as evidenced by the lectionary entry above). But then, so is the Fourth of July, and the problem with American holidays is that my Watcher!verse fics mostly take place in London, so it'd be the C of E's liturgical calendar I should be using, and not surprisingly, Thanksgiving isn't on it.

Yesterday was my brother's birthday, so I didn't make it to the Thanksgiving Eve mass last night at my church.

In any case, I give thanks for the chance to be a student--both a student of the world, and more formally, as a grad student. I'm grateful for being able to work towards some end goal. For being able to stand in a school building and say, "I go here," to use an academic library that's ten stories tall and feel at home. That my remote access to JSTOR and the OED is back again.

I give thanks for the schools I've attended in the past, for the knowledge I learned, the person I was shaped into, and the friends that I made.

I give thanks for my family, for my parents and my grandparents, for what they have given me, both genetically and through nurture, for the sacrifices they have made. For my brother and my cousins, for friendship and companionship.

I give thanks for the source texts of fandom, for young women who fight vampires, who solve mysteries, who discover gardens, who save the world, who are awesome, and/or who should or at least could take over the world. I'm grateful for characters who are problematic like whoa, who rig elections, who have secret supercomputers in their attic, who belong to not-so-secret illegal extragovernmental organizations which amount to monarchist conspiracies, who decide who lives and who dies. I give thanks for lesbian subtext, for postmodern ironies, for will-to-poweriness, for the adolescent fantasy, for minor characters who return to play small but integral parts, and--once again--for heroines who rock.

I give thanks for the transformative works of fandom, the collaborative process which takes works and re-visions, which radically manipulates the wonderful world of textuality. I give thanks for the radical possibilities of pleasure. I give thanks for goggles of all varieties, but especially 'cest and femslash ones. I give thanks for fanfiction, for fanvids, for fan meta, for tl;dr and for people spamming their flists.

I give thanks for the world, for all that is the case, for the limits of language, for the never-ending process of signification. I give thanks for the slippages, for bastard reasoning, for the poetry of living, for revolution, for metaphor, for the cry of philosophy, for play, for bricolage, for Brownian motion, for language games, for religion and for religions.

I give thanks for my church, for my parish and for my church community, for the ECUSA and the Anglican Communion, and for the Church, one, holy, and apostolic. I give thanks for chora, for the pharmakon, for differance, for the crucified God and the mysteries of the faith. I give thanks for, and to, Ego, Chaos, and the Divine Mind of Our Goddess Eris Discordia.

I give thanks for each and every one of you reading this.

The Lessons Appointed for Use on
Thanksgiving Day

Deuteronomy 8:1-3,6-10(17-20)
James 1:17-18,21-27
Matthew 6:25-33
Psalm 65 or 65:9-14

The Collect

Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Old Testament

Deuteronomy 8:1-3,6-10(17-20)

Moses said to all Israel: This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Therefore keep the commandments of the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.

[Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.]

The Psalm

Psalm 65 or 65:9-14 Page 672-673, BCP

Te decet hymnus

1

You are to be praised, O God, in Zion; *
to you shall vows be performed in Jerusalem.

2

To you that hear prayer shall all flesh come, *
because of their transgressions.

3

Our sins are stronger than we are, *
but you will blot them out.

4

Happy are they whom you choose
and draw to your courts to dwell there! *
they will be satisfied by the beauty of your house,
by the holiness of your temple.

5

Awesome things will you show us in your righteousness,
O God of our salvation, *
O Hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the seas that are far away.

6

You make fast the mountains by your power; *
they are girded about with might.

7

You still the roaring of the seas, *
the roaring of their waves,
and the clamor of the peoples.

8

Those who dwell at the ends of the earth will tremble at your marvelous signs; *
you make the dawn and the dusk to sing for joy.

9

You visit the earth and water it abundantly;
you make it very plenteous; *
the river of God is full of water.

10

You prepare the grain, *
for so you provide for the earth.

11

You drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges; *
with heavy rain you soften the ground and bless its increase.

12

You crown the year with your goodness, *
and your paths overflow with plenty.

13

May the fields of the wilderness be rich for grazing, *
and the hills be clothed with joy.

14

May the meadows cover themselves with flocks,
and the valleys cloak themselves with grain; *
let them shout for joy and sing.

The Epistle

James 1:17-18,21-27

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

The Gospel

Matthew 6:25-33

Jesus said, "I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-- you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, `What will we eat?' or `What will we drink?' or `What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."