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Anne Tyler is one of my most favorite authors as she speaks profoundly about living life and living it authentically. Her work, which includes novels such as The Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons and Digging to America, is typically focused on middle class families and their dreams, secrets, ambitions, hardships and crises. Each story speaks about life and the reality of living in ways that make you sometimes laugh out loud and other times weep with compassion or heartbreak.

My all time favorite Tyler novel is entitled “Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.” It is the story of Pearl Tull, an 85 year old women who, while blind and on her death bed, desires to make peace with her life and her choices about living. In doing so, she also seeks reconciliation with and forgiveness from the three children who endured that living. Throughout the novel, each of her children speaks about the effects of living in an unconventional, turbulent family. As you listen to their stories, you wonder if healing and peace between them will ever come.  However, towards the end of the book, just as you begin to lose hope, the family gathers to share a meal at the local diner called “The Homesick Restaurant.”

I often think about this story at this time each year when we all begin to anticipate the annual institutionalized American meal which will gather people of differing ages, cultures, religions and economic spectrums around beautifully and abundantly adorned tables to give thanks for the many blessings which have been bestowed upon us.  Gathered around the table, we will experience many stories, some filled with life’s joys, triumphs and blessings and others peppered with life’s sorrows.  From some we will experience non-verbal stories told through inaudible body language, which speak of life’s continued struggles. But as we gather, stories we will tell—stories about living and loving.

The Rev. Mark Totter suggests that stories about the past, especially biblical and spiritual, help us interpret the present. They help to define who we are and in a sense who we have the potential to become. Our lives, and our faith for that matter, have been touched and shaped by many stories like that of Mary and Martha, of Jacob and Esau, of Sarah and Abram, of Jesus and his disciples, of Mary, Mary and Mary. Each has become a piece of who we are.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, grateful for having survived and having been blessed by a bounty of grace, there is one biblical story common to us all, that is the story of the Exodus. We cannot escape the fact that God heard the cries of our people, all of our people and led them to a new life in this new land. Some of us come from a lineage of pilgrims who escaped religious intolerance, some of us escaped the bondage of slavery, while others escaped the oppression of poverty and still others are refugees who escaped the ravages of war and injustice.  You might say Thanksgiving is an occasion for us to pay homage to our people, their faith and their endurance while we celebrate “our sea-crossing of wide waters.” Whether by choice, forced choice or no choice, we have all journeyed from where we were to the place where we are now. And yet, in this country, we continue to struggle with issues of immigration?

Generational stories, biblical and contemporary, continually shape our lives, even the tall tales told by exuberant family members. To some degree or another, these stories become a piece our own story—shaping our life and the way we live it.

Luke’s gospel this morning depicts the story of endurance. To some, it may sound like a bleak story in the way it talks about the end times. But is it a story about endurance and strength nonetheless.

Standing in the courtyard of the temple with its lavishly adorned inner and outer beauty, Jesus teaches about the coming of God’s reign. The eyes of some in the crowd are transfixed on the temple and its beauty so much so that they had become preoccupied with admiration for its adornments and could no longer see what was truly most important. When they seek to draw Jesus’ attention to the temple’s glory, Jesus warns of the day when the temple will be no more, the day when not one stone on the building would be left standing upon another. All of it, he told them, will topple down! Now this got their attention!

Hearing that Jesus was talking about the end of the age, about God’s reign on earth, they want to know specifics, when will it happen, what exactly will happen and how will we know for sure its happening?  In response, Jesus does his Jesus thing. He does not answer their questions—directly anyway.  Instead he teaches them…saying watch out! You will hear stories told by some folk who seek to have you move in the direction of their thinking, but they are not on track—they seek to build their own ego rather than guide you in faithful living. So, do not be led astray by those who claim to be me, for their sake. Don’t fall for any of that! Some will preach doom and gloom as a way to get your attention on them.  Don’t go after them, but follow me.  Jesus told those who were gathered in the courtyard of the temple -- the endurance you build up by walking in faith, by following me, will strengthen your soul and enhance your living.

Once (and I wish I could say only once) when engrossed, gazing at my woes, I called a friend and colleague to let him know that everything, and I mean everything in my world, was falling apart.  I declared there was no end to it.  He listened to my doomsday story for a while and with care.  I knew he heard and sympathized with every word.  However, when I finished he did not address the details, instead he simply said, imagine yourself in a boat in the middle of a storm with Jesus right in front of you.  Now, keep your eyes on Jesus.

While teaching those who gathered around the temple, Jesus did not tell them specifics about the date and time of God’s reign.  Nor did he specifically forecast the end of time.  Instead, Jesus speaks of the inevitable and of those who seek to lead them astray.  He tells them the story of what is to come as a way of refocusing their gaze on what is most important -- the endurance of their faithfulness.  When we empty ourselves of the things that cause us to be distracted and create an open space within us, we will see that the space is already full of the presence of God.  Creating that space within, builds faith-filled, spiritual endurance.

Luke’s gospel tells us of the significance of building endurance so that we can live life authentically.  I dare to say the author knows about authentic faithful living from the stories he has heard and experienced about God and God’s people throughout time. Their stories are a piece of his own.

Thanksgiving, the beginning of the holiday season where we await and then celebrate the in-breaking of God’s presence in our midst, is a joyous time for most and an anxiety producing time for many.  And yet, we all come to the table somewhat homesick for hope and peace, for love and joy. I pray that as we gather to share a meal of gratitude we will intentionally tell the stories of life and living, of your people, of our people from exodus to freedom, from generation to generation, continue to become an intricate part of our living shaping our faith and enhancing our endurance.

Thanksgiving can be a time for reconciliation and renewal and an opportunity for each of us reassess our relationships with God, with one another and with the world. There will be a new heaven and a new earth!

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