THANKSGIVING: CLASH WITH OUR EXPERIENCE?

•    does Thanksgiving fit with your present story?

ASSUMPTIONS ASKEW

•    setting: spot-picking, well-to-do religious elite
•    assume will be part of feast in Kingdom of God
•    do we avoid the present by escaping into “the sweet by-and-by”?

INVITER INSULTED

•    double-invite method: rejecting 2nd = snub / insult
•    excuses flimsy: land / oxen not going anywhere
•    host’s response: anger, “furious”
•    are we thankful for false idols, wrong priorities?

WEAKNESSES WELCOMED

•    hall filled with those ‘without’ (poor, crippled, etc.)
•    who else are we inviting to our table besides “just us”?
•    Eat central in B.L.E.S.S. (Dave Ferguson): we all have to!
•    host further welcomes homeless, transients - not AFFLUENT but AFFLICTED
•    Jesus calls disciples who bear crosses / burdens

THANKING GOD FOR OUR IMPERFECTIONS

•    qualified for feast by our weaknesses: can we be thankful for these?
•    when weak, sense Christ’s power rest on us

LICE IT OR LUMP IT

•    Corrie Ten Boom found reason to be thankful for pests