Wow! It was just a couple of weeks ago when Susan and I were strolling through Williams-Sonoma Store out at the Briargate Shops, when we found what has to be considered a "life-saver". A little booklet titled, "The Perfect Thanksgiving"! With Martha Stewart in prison, what's an average, ordinary household supposed to do to plan, prepare for, and put on the table the perfect Thanksgiving Dinner? Well, you're supposed to go to Williams-Sonoma and get their handy little booklet--that will guide you, step by step through preparing for, and shall we say, "executing", the perfect Thanksgiving. Which, of course, is the goal of every person, household and family in America, isn't it? The perfect Thanksgiving? The perfect bird, together with the perfect trimmings, on the perfect table, in the perfect home, served to and appreciated by, the perfect family and friends.

     That is the goal, isn't it? Perfection? That's what we're told, anyway. That's what we're taught. That's what TV, and magazine articles and, well, Williams-Sonoma would have us believe and desire. And my guess is--you have Thanksgiving perfected! Don't you? Isn't Thanksgiving, for you, perfect? At the end of the day, don't you sit in your perfectly comfortable chair and conclude--that was--PERFECT!

     In a perfect world, the commercial says, that's what Thanksgiving would look like--but this is us--you and me--and we are living lives, most of us anyway, that are anything BUT, perfect. In most of our worlds, we're happy to get food on the table, and to have the table uncluttered enough to serve from. In most of our worlds we're happy if we can get our families all to the table in a good mood, and get through the meal without someone getting angry, or hurt or upset. In most of our worlds, we're not trying to stage the perfect Thanksgiving--we're aiming more realistically. We'll be happy to have a decent Thanksgiving, and even that, for some of us, will be a stretch.

     Not because we're unthankful--not because we don't want a pleasant Thanksgiving Day--it's just that we don't live in a place called, "perfect". We live in the real world, which is anything but perfect. Because in the real world, turkeys over-cook and undercook. In the real world, teenagers don't stop being irritable and difficult just because it's a holiday. In the real world, cancer and illnesses don't respect what day it is, nor do strains in marriages, or tensions with the in-laws. And all of this makes a text-book perfect thanksgiving--improbable, if not impossible.

     Which, on the one hand, can leave us feeling distressed and disheartened and disappointed. Without a doubt, there will be some of us here tonight, who will sit at home tomorrow night, distressed, downhearted and disappointed.

     On the other hand, we will only be so, if we choose to be so. We will only be let down by Thanksgiving, if we buy into the illusion that life can be, or should be, perfect. Because perfection in this life, for you and for me, is nothing but, an illusion--and a sinful, self-destructive illusion, at that. Because it's only Williams-Sonoma, and the Home and Garden Network, and Martha Stewart Omnimedia who foster the notion that human life can be perfect. And why should they hold any power over us? Why should they sway our thinking? Because the only real power, indeed, the only real authority that matters, ultimately, is God's. The only power that has the authority to declare us acceptable or unacceptable, is God's. And what God says is, "all have sinned and fallen short--no one, not one is perfect." In fact, for any one of us to aspire to perfection, or to presume perfection, on our own, through our own skills or prowess or culinary ability, would be arrogance at best, and blasphemy, at worst. For who alone is perfect? God--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And though we will one day be perfected--though we are, even now, being perfected, it doesn't come from a Williams-Sonoma guidebook, nor does it come through our own striving and obsessing and well, home-making. Perfection, for us, will only come through the creative power of God at work, through the presence of Christ in us, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Perfection, from God's perspective, has to do with our growing into the likeness of Christ, with us reflecting in our thoughts, words and deeds, Jesus Christ. In that regard, the Holy Spirit--dwelling in us couldn't care less about the bird! The Holy Spirit couldn't care less whether the turkey and the yams and the dressing are all perfectly cooked at precisely the same moment. Nor does the Holy Spirit really care whether the kids behave perfectly, or whether dad unbuckles his pants at the table after dinner.

     Rather, what makes the holiday, is what makes every day--the presence of Christ in our lives. And Christ comes to us, ready or not, perfect or not. Christ comes to us in the only meal that ever really matters--the Lord's Supper, where Jesus, the Host, becomes the Bread of Life for us, and gives us His presence for our lives--not to make us perfect little homemakers, or perfect cooks, or perfect housekeepers, or perfect moms and dads, or perfect people--but to make us perfectly forgiven, and so perfectly redeemed, and so perfectly renewed. And it is that, for which we give thanks. We give thanks for the Break of Life, who gives life to the world, and to us. We give thanks for this Eucharist--this thanksgiving dinner, that gives us something to be really thankful for. Oh, of course, this time of year, we also take time to look around us and to give thanks for, home, and family, and our nation and our community. We pause to give thanks for work, and an income, and for good health, and for productive years. We stop to give thanks for the mountains, and forests, and oceans and lakes and rivers--and for the sky above and the sun overhead.

     But more than anything else, we give thanks that in this meal, we are forgiven for not being perfect--and we give thanks that God does not expect us, now, on our own, to be perfect. We give thanks that we can give thanks, in spite of the fact that things may not be picture perfect tomorrow--that in spite of the fact that the turkey is dry and the stuffing isn't the way Grandma made it, and the spouse isn't helping and the kids are fussy, and the out-of-state family doesn't call and Uncle Frank talks with his mouth full--still, we can give thanks...in spite of the imperfection of life. Because of the imperfection of life.

     Tonight, you will receive the very Bread of Life--the meal of Christ's presence--in the Eucharist--the Great Thanksgiving--the meal that really matters. And because of His presence in your life--tomorrow, celebrate and give thanks!

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.