For many this is a season of thanks-giving. For others a season of mourning. Feasting and weeping, gathering and grieving sit side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Discoverers of the land bump against inhabitants of the land and it is as messy and complicated as a holiday meal…but Jesus too had a messy gathering with family around a table…feasting and weeping, gathering and grieving. He wrapped a towel around his waist and stooped to wash their feet. Jesus washed all of the feet. What if feasting and gathering ended with a towel around the waist? What if weeping and grieving ended with washed feet? That would be thanks-giving re-imagined.

Healing God, we weep with those who weep and mourn the history that divides us one from another. Give us strength and power to speak hard truths until they have lost their sting, and give us resilience to repair what we have broken. Let us not rest until all tears are dried and all God’s children can gather round the table and give thanks. Amen.