Turkeys for Thanksgiving
Soon it will be time to celebrate Thanksgiving. A traditional meal with family and friends around a table full of mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberries and stuffing and, if you are lucky, some pumpkin pie for dessert. But it wouldn’t be much of a Thanksgiving meal without an oven roasted turkey to share. Somehow turkeys and Thanksgiving go together.
I heard somewhere that turkey farms are in trouble. It seems the turkey population has been affected by a medical emergency and the availability of turkeys may be questionable this year. At the same time, while on a Sunday afternoon drive, Joan and I were surrounded by a large bunch (flock, rafter, gang or brood) of wild turkeys. While it’s true commercial turkey farms are dealing with a shortage of commercially grown birds, apparently wild turkeys in Minnesota are thriving.
I mention this because we all probably grew up in the church where there was a bunch (flock, rafter, gang, and brood) of people who used to come to worship. Our pews were full, the choir members wore brightly colored robes, the Sunday School programs were bulging at the seams, and our churches were constantly in the middle of a building project. Even before Covid, the tide was changing and numbers were falling. Then Covid hit and things have been different. Different yes, but mostly just in a numbers way. The question that remains is this: is it also different in medical or theological shift sort of way?
Strangely enough, a turkey is still a turkey. Commercially-grown or wild, a turkey walks the same, gobbles the same, and tastes the same. Yep, the commercial turkeys are mostly white in color while the forest turkeys fit into their environment. But a turkey is still a turkey.
People are a bit more complicated. But people also tend to fit into their environment. Members who left may have been searching for a space where they could be of a different color and still be included. They may have realized that commercially-grown faith didn’t give them much room to think independently and to just be themselves. Roaming from one church community to another may have fed that wild independence in them and they found meaning there.
Perhaps as a church we need to celebrate and give thanks for a faith and a church that is finding ways to welcome turkeys of all colors into the flock (bunch, rafter, gang). A turkey may be a turkey, but diversity can bring renewal, a sense of honoring the uniqueness that affirms all of us in our place in the world.
I have been encouraged by our college and post- secondary students who have been worshipping at Kenwood. I have been feeling refreshed by conversations of their travels in the wild theological forest out there in the world. These conversations have made me think more critically about where we need to take the church and what things will feed a new and growing church. We will need to feed with a more diverse pallet so that all turkeys can grow and be healthy.
Conclusion: I want to be a part of a healthy, colorful and thriving flock (gang, rafter, and bunch) of turkeys, and I hope you do too.
Gobble, Gobble,
Pastor Jeff
