Jubilee-shaped Thanksgiving

Jubilee-shaped Thanksgiving

Jubilee-shaped Thanksgiving

Jubilee Preaching Aid for October 12, 2025

On Thanksgiving weekend, Canadians gather to share food, to celebrate harvest, and to give thanks for God’s abundance. At its best, Thanksgiving reminds us of a truth that is foundational to our faith, and which is found in the refrain of a hymn often sung at this time of year “All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above, then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all his love.” 1 Our scripture lessons for today challenge us to remember the source of all we have, and to ensure that gratitude for what we have should be expressed – not just by words spoken around the family table—but by a way of living that is shaped by Jubilee justice.

In the passage from Luke’s Gospel, ten people suffering from leprosy cry out to Jesus. All ten are healed, but only one—a Samaritan, “this foreigner”—returns to give thanks. Why is that so important that Jesus specifically comments on the Samaritan’s actions? Because true gratitude should not stop just at receiving; it should transform us into people who live differently. True thankfulness should lead us to worship, to witness, to changed relationships.

On Thanksgiving, and every day, we are called not just to name what we are grateful for but to live gratitude as the healed Samaritan did—turning our thanks into faith-filled action.

Our text from Psalm 66 recalls the story of a people burdened and tested, then led by God “through fire and water” into a “spacious place.” This is not just survival—it is flourishing, abundance, and renewal, not just individually, but in community! Thanksgiving is not only gratitude for our own blessings; it is communal joy for God’s power to free us, restore us, and bring us into a place where life in all its fullness can be shared.

Throughout the arc of the Bible, scripture connect gratitude with justice. Leviticus 25 reminds Israel that the land belongs to God, not to us. That is why the people were commanded to practice Sabbath and Jubilee: to let the land rest, to forgive debts, to free people who are enslaved, to restore balance. Gratitude without Jubilee becomes hollow, a thanksgiving feast that forgets the hungry.

We as 21st century people of faith here in Canada must face this truth as well. We as settlers celebrate harvest on land that has been stewarded by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years, often without acknowledging their ongoing struggles for justice and land rights. We enjoy abundance in an economic system where the Global South—nations who contributed least to climate change—bear the heaviest burdens of drought, flood, and famine. This is what many call ecological debt: the imbalance between those who have consumed the earth’s resources and those who pay the price.

To give thanks without addressing ecological debt is like the nine lepers who went their way without returning. Real gratitude must look Jesus in the eye, fall at his feet, and be changed.

So, as we reflect on these texts during this time of year, we are called to ask: what does a Jubilee-shaped Thanksgiving look like?

• It begins with gratitude, naming God as the source of all that is good.
• It honours creation, remembering that the land itself needs rest and renewal.
• It acknowledges injustice, recognizing ecological debt and standing in solidarity with those most affected.
• It practices generosity, sharing what we have so that others may flourish.
• It bears witness, like the psalmist, saying “Come and see what God has done.”

Thanksgiving is not just about feasting; it is about living in ways that make room for all creation to thrive.

This Thanksgiving, as we gather at tables filled with good things, let us hear again the Samaritan’s lesson: gratitude that does not return thanks to God and change our lives is incomplete. True gratitude, as expressed by the Samaritan as an “outsider,” leads us into Jubilee living—where debts are forgiven, creation is honoured, neighbours are welcomed, and justice flows.

“Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth,” cries the psalmist. Not just some, but all—the hungry and the well-fed, the Global South and the Global North, the earth itself and every living creature. That is the vision of Jubilee-shaped Thanksgiving: true gratitude, which overflows into justice, healing, and joy for all.

Rev. Marianne Emig Carr is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC), serving the two-point Brockville-Caintown Pastoral Charge in Eastern Ontario. Prior to becoming a minister, Marianne was a corporate lawyer for 19 years at General Motors of Canada. Marianne serves on the Steering Committee of KAIROS, is a member of the PCC Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Committee and has been actively involved in refugee sponsorship efforts.

1 “We plow the fields and scatter”, words: Matthias Claudius, tune, J.A.P Schulz, translator: Jane Campbell