Seventy-five years is a long time, but our second step takes us back two hundred and fifty-four years. In 1750 this church was built. A cornerstone was laid and the building was blessed for holy use. Two and a half centuries of prayer have risen from this place. Countless people have been blessed in their baptism, their marriage, their living and their dying. Two hundred and fifty-four years is a long time but our third step is an even larger leap.

Over two thousand years ago Jesus came as a living word of blessing to change the direction of the entire world. He conquered not just hedgerows and fences but sin and death. It is in His name that we will break the bread, say the prayers, and later bless the riders of the Hunt. In three steps we have moved into a timeline that extends far beyond our everyday horizons.

Now let us take a long running jump over even the time of Jesus all the way back to the days of Moses. As we land in the sand we see the Hebrews in the desert moving behind Moses who has lead them out of Egypt and away from captivity. This is the story from Deuteronomy, our first reading this morning, a time thousands and thousands of years ago.

We are far from the desert but the words of Deuteronomy are wisdom meant for us as well as for the ancient Hebrews. Whether one lives in Monkton or Moab it is possible to wander off the paths that lead to life and deeper relationships and into places that offer only dust and death.

It is also possible to choose to walk in the ways that the Lord has prepared for us so that we might be formed by that journey and then discover that our vision is becoming aligned with God's desires for us.

Our journey is like the long slow oscillation in the desert - our vision of God's presence in our life comes into focus, blurs for times of varying lengths, then clarifies again.

The narrator of Deuteronomy counsels "Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you." If we think back over our own life we will see that there are times in which the bread of heaven has been offered and taken and other times in which we may not have even recognized the sustenance that God was raining down into our lives.

God desires to give us good things just as God did for the desert travelers in Deuteronomy. Yet we crave things of all sorts, confusing that which will truly nourish us with that for which we simply have desire. The ancient Hebrews have nothing on us. We can get as confused as they ever did. Thousands of years have done little to change the variability of our human nature but it is the unchanging nature of God to keep calling us all back into the journey that begins and ends in God. This is the journey that really matters - the hunt for abundant life.

God spoke us into being while were still in our mother's wombs. We did not make ourselves. None of us are truly self-made men or women no matter how skilled, learned or naturally brilliant we may be. God is the author of our lives, the source of our gifts and worthy of acknowledgement in our daily travels.

We may believe that the reins are in our hands, that our lives are like horses and our wills are sufficient to control our destiny and our direction. Allow me to suggest that our lives are indeed like some horses - those unbroken ones who spook at shadows and bolt at the most inopportune times; horses that balk at jumps and dump us unceremoniously into the mud when we least expect it. We are astride lives that are more like wild horses than like the well-trained mounts we imagine them to be. We may think we have domesticated our lives and made ourselves the masters of them but therein lies the challenge. The master of our fate and the author of our salvation is God, not we ourselves. If we place our trust in God's grace and loving-kindness we will find solace and support when things turn out other than we may have planned. If we make our plans our God we will have only disappointment when the unexpected occurs.

In the reading from Matthew Jesus spoke of the human predilection to get our priorities reversed and our roles confused. God gives us our very life and yet we often breeze past this essential cause for gratitude and instead worry about clothes and food and where we will live and a thousand other things that are ephemeral and of no lasting consequence. Clothes wear out. Food passes through the body. Houses are ultimately just buildings.

The household of God is our true dwelling place. This is why Jesus tells us to seek the righteousness of God first. A right relationship with God is the only foundation strong enough to bear the real weight of our actual lives.

God can bear us. God can hold us even when the ground around us shakes. Everything other than the love of God passes away or fades over time. We cannot stake our lives on youth, or power, or wealth. We cannot safely build our lives on lesser things.

All three readings offer counsel on right relationships and clear priorities. But hearing the stories is not the same as living out the words in our lives. Wisdom heard but not applied is ineffectual. This is the theme of the Letter of James. We are challenged to be doers of the word not just hearers.

We will not be formed by passively consuming sacred stories. Our formation as faithful people takes place as we attempt to practice in our lives the words we have heard with our ears.

It still comes down to the same things. The ways we actually spend our time, money, energy, attention and affection either turn us inward upon ourselves or outward towards God and our neighbor. When we attempt to build lives that center on our own desires alone we are building on sand. Such foundations cannot support real lives.

When we focus instead on caring for others, and not becoming too attached to the things of the world, we begin to see God ever more clearly. As we act we will remember who we are and discover more deeply who God has always been. Think of the blessings in your life. Think of the opportunities to be a blessing for someone else. We have work to do individually and we have work to do as a community.

Our annual stewardship campaign continues here at St. James, as does the opportunity to grow in generosity. If you already pledge, please consider increasing your pledge for 2005 by at least ten percent over last year. If you have never pledged, now is the time to act. A meaningful gift builds up our shared ministries in the church, and acknowledges our gratitude to God. Together we have tremendous potential. Generous giving is a spiritual disciple that engages our hearts and extends our vision. The dedicated men and women of the Saint James ministry communities are ready to be doers of the word. They await your commitment and participation in our shared ministry. If you are a visitor, a member of another parish, pledge generously to your home church so that Christ's work in the world may grow where you worship.

When we process outside for the blessing after this liturgy, members of the Hunt will be taking up an offering in the field for the benefit of Peggy Ingles, a member of the wider community who was badly injured in a fall from her horse. This too is a way of acknowledging our gratitude to God and extending God's blessing to others.

Today is Thanksgiving Day. "Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you." Let us remember the grace upon grace that God has poured into our lives - our families and friends, our work, and times of rest and leisure. Let us give thanks for the food on our tables, the heat in our houses and the good things that God has enabled us to possess.

Then let us remember those around us in need of loving care and resolve to be doers of the word and not just hearers. May our gratitude to God blossom into action like crocuses blooming in the desert and springs rising in a place where there was no water. May the work of our hands and hearts be a blessing for others - an offering of thanks giving - this day and always. Amen.