Over the River and Thru the Woods

Over the years I sang “Over the RIver” with my family.  At first I sang the song as we drove over Biscayne Bay to spend Thanksgiving with my grandmother.  Later I sang this song with my children as we traveled to either grandparents in the east across the James River; or the grandparents in the west across the Arkansas River.  Our trips wer fun, the food was great, and it is always fun to be with family.

Thanksgiving is a festival which calls us to remember our God and our faith. Traditionally we remember our Pilgrim forefathers on this holiday.  These English Puritans and separatists crossed the river called the Atlantic Ocean to find religious freedom in the colonies.  When you read the story of hardship as these colonists settled in New England you can really understand why they would gather with the Indians in gratitude to worship God and give thanks for their first rich harvest season.

Our Pilgrim forefathers looked to the people of Israel as they talked about faith.  The people of Israel also crossed a river, the Red Sea, as they crossed out of Egypt and set the foundation for their harvest festival, Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles.  Every year this festival is celebrated to remember how my ancestors were cared for by God during forty years in the wilderness before crossing a river (the Jordan) into the promised land.

Thanksgiving is a festival for people who launch out in faith, departing persecution in order to find a new home.  This Christmas we will remember how Joseph and Mary took Advent Journeys to pay taxes in Bethlehem and to escape the intended murder of their Son at the hands of King Herod.

Many in our world still travel over the river and through the woods because of religious persecution.  We must pray for them, care for them as God said, “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.” and give thanks to our God that we have been cared for and enjoy bounties of this life because of His Giving.

Thanksgiving Day

Forty years of wandering … Just as the Feast of Tabernacles symbolized a time of hardship for the Hebrew people, the Pilgrim movement was a period of hardship for a group of English Separatists. Both groups of people searched for a place where they could practice their faith without hindrance from government opposition. Opposition for the Hebrew people came in the form of slavery. The Egyptians feared rebellion from this “foreign” people. They forced them into hard labor, and refused to allow them to gather for true worship. God sent Moses to Pharaoh with this request: “The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert.” (Ex 5:1; 7:16) Pharaoh refused, and a struggle resulted. A struggle resulted, where God fought for His people. Following ten plagues, the nation was freed.

Following their freedom, the Hebrew people still struggled. First from lack of water (which God provided), then from lack of food (God gave Manna), and then from ignorance of their faith (God called Moses up to Mt. Sinai). Rebellion among the Hebrew people resulted in forty years of wandering in the wilderness. God used the crucible of hardship to forge a faith that would endure for centuries.

The Pilgrim movement was born out of a struggle in England. In unsettled times, The Church of England was formed to allow King Henry to divorce his wives. A battle ensued between Catholic and Reformed factions to determine the doctrines and worship of the church. The religious settlement emerged in the reign of Elizabeth I which resulted in a Church that consciously retained a large amount of continuity with the Church of the Patristic and Medieval periods. Catholic creeds, its pattern of ministry, its buildings and aspects of its liturgy (a rite prescribed for public worship). Embodying Protestant insights in its theology were all used in the overall shape of its liturgical practice. The way that this is often expressed is by saying that the Church of England is both 'Catholic and Reformed.'

Not all were pleased with this resolution. Within England there were some who desired to practice their faith in the Calvinistic tradition of the Reformation. They sought to remove some of the liturgical enslavement forced upon them in the form of Episcopal Church government and required readings from the Common Book of Prayer.

At first these men sought to practice their faith from within the church. As this met resistance, some clergy separated from the church. In 1602 one such minister, John Smyth was dismissed by the Bishop of Lincoln and moved to Gainsborough, where his group of 60 or 70 Separatists were allowed to worship secretly in Gainsborough Old Hall. The number of Separatists grew. In late 1606 a second Separatist church was founded at Scrooby Manor. Some of the men who joined this movement were John Robinson (a Cambridge professor who was forced to resign because he got married), William Brewster (worked for the government), and William Bradford.

In 1603, the Millenary Petition was presented to the new King James I by a number of Puritan ministers. King James convened the Hampton Court Conference in January 1604. Through the conference the Puritans established their strong belief in the words of the Bible, resulting in King James commissioning a translation of the Bible into the English vernacular. Following Hampton Court, King James sought to enforce ceremonial conformity and the use of the Book of Common Prayer within England.
Because of arrests in 1608, both congregations moved to Holland. While there, the Separatists struggled with the culture and language, so in 1619, they decided to immigrate again, this time to America. They obtained passage on two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell. Leaving from the Dutch port of Delfshaven, they met others in Southampton. The Speedwell was determined not to be seaworthy and returned. The Mayflower was blown off course and arrived at Cape Code in November, 1620. Actual landing did not take place until December.

Forty five of the 102 emigrants died the first winter. Additional deaths during the first year meant that only 53 people were alive in the fall of 1621. Friendly relations developed with the Indians who were invited to celebrate the harvest feast which modern Americans know as "The First Thanksgiving.