All Good Gifts Around us Are Sent from Heaven Above

  

1 We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land,

but it is fed and watered by your almighty hand;

you send the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,

the breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.

All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above;

we thank you, God, O holy God, for all your love.

2 You only are the maker of all things near and far;

you paint the wayside flower, you light the evening star;

the winds and waves obey you, by you the birds are fed;

much more to us, your children, you give us daily bread.  R

3 We thank you then, O Maker, for all things bright and good,

the seed-time and the harvest, our life, our health, our food;

accept the gifts we offer for all your love imparts,

and, what from us you long for, our humble, thankful hearts.  R

                                  Voices United 520 

I find many of the newer hymns and praise songs refreshing and some of the older hymns deserved to be kicked to the curb because of suspect theology and turgid tunes. At the same time, some of those newer pieces are rather insipid and the older ones are rich poetry set to music. 

 I do love some of the traditional hymns for Thanksgiving, in part because they remind us that we shouldn't take eating for granted. Celebrating the harvest may seem to a long way from our everyday experience in an urbanized and digital society, but isn't that a good argument for what Thanksgiving is about? God created the Earth and blesses us with its bounty. We give thanks and recommit ourselves to care for Creation. 

One of the older hymns, We Plough the Fields, was given a shot of creative energy in the 70s musical Godspell, with the spoken addition of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6. In the early 1960s one of the traditional tunes was graced with lyrics that invite us to be responsible stewards of extraction in mines and forests, industries that are more and more mechanized and potentially destructive. 

 “Therefore 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 which of you by worrying can 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?

Matthew 6: 25-30 NRSVue 

When we lived in Sudbury, a mining city in Northern Ontario, I brought chunks of nickel ore into the sanctuary for one Thanksgiving Sunday (no small feat of persuasion and engineering) and placed them in clear view on the steps to the dais. The Sudbury Basin is known for its rich deposits of nickel, copper, gold, and an enormous smelter smokestack. When I arrived on the Sunday morning there was an additional rock, essentially a small boulder, that had been added to the array. I was puzzled but carried on with worship, only to learn later that our music director, a guy with an off kilter sense of humour, had picked it up from the roadside of a construction site on his way to the church. Blessed are the pranksters. 

1 Give thanks, my soul, for harvest,  for store of fruit and grain;

but know the owner gives so  that we may share again.

Where people suffer hunger, or little children cry,

with gifts from God's rich bounty may thankfulness reply.

2 Give thanks, my soul, for riches of woodland, mine, and hill;

but know that gold and timber are the Creator's still.

God lends to us, as stewards, abundance we might share,

and thus provide earth's children the blessing of God's care.

3 Give thanks, my soul, for labours,  that strength and days employ;

but know the Maker's purpose brings toil as well as joy.

Show forth, O God, your purpose; direct our will and hand

to share your love and bounty with all in every land.

                                                   Voices United  522