A Word from Pastor Nathan

On the first Sunday of Advent, Linda and John Bohnert sang and Evan Collins played a beautiful piece for the offertory. Something about the lyric and line was deeply moving for me. When I was editing the videos from worship, I texted Linda to ask the title. She answered, “’Thanksgiving Song’ by Mary Chapin Carpenter.”

Mary Chapin Carpenter is one of my favorite contemporary folk singers, but I didn’t know Thanksgiving Song was her composition. I immediately googled the lyrics, watched a video of her singing it while playing her mother’s piano, and bought her 2008 holiday album, Come Darkness, Come Light, which includes Thanksgiving Song.

Here are the opening lyrics:

Grateful for each hand we hold / Gathered ’round this table
From far and near we travel home / Blessed that we are able
Grateful for this sheltered place / With light in every window
Saying, “Welcome, welcome, share this feast come in away from sorrow”

I was gobsmacked at reading these words. Her lyrics capture exactly who we are and what we do every time we “gather ‘round this table.” Though I don’t know the faith tradition of Mary Chapin Carpenter, I can hardly imagine another “secular?” song that captures Disciples of Christ theology and highlights the table as the centerpiece of worship.

Later that Sunday evening, I tweeted Mary Chapin Carpenter about Linda, John, and Evan singing her composition in worship. She replied:

Secular singer-songwriters often preach the very best, most beautiful, gospel-good news of Jesus Christ. Mary Chapin Carpenter’s Thanksgiving Song is one example on an album that’s full of hope, peace, joy, and love, themes of the Advent season that help us wait with grateful hearts for the one who is the host at the table of thanksgiving.