Luke 14:33 "In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple". I've been reading a little book on the Pilgrims. What an interesting group, those "Separatists". They were persecuted by the Church of England and driven to nearby Holland. Seems they enjoyed Holland up to a point; Holland was rich, strong in business, more tolerant of religious folks. But the Separatists left Holland. Why would they leave a place that gave them all the freedoms they wanted? They had it made!
The answer is: HUMANISM. The Separatists, though devout in their worship and in raising their children, were losing those children to the culture around them. Their children were seeing the selfishness, wealth, and comforts of an "open society". They realized that the Christian culture of their church would eventually be lost in one or two generations.
By 1617, Edward Winslow said:
'How hard the country was . . . How grievous to live from under the protection of the State of England. How like we were to lose our language, and our name, of English. How little good we did, or are likely to do, to the Dutch in reforming the Sabbath. How unable to give such education to our children as we ourselves have received.' Thoughts of the Separatists turned to a 'New England' far across the Atlantic ocean:
'They cherished a great hope and inward zeal of laying good foundations . . . for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the world, even though they should be stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work.'(Show that quote to anyone who says our land wasn't founded by Christians.....)
The Separatists realized that in small numbers they were not going to be able to change the Holland culture around them, but they could save their future generations. They saw the promise of hope in a far-off land with many unknown dangers. They thought the risk of animals or nativs lesser than losing their precious children to a worldly, self-centered culture.
WOW.
Sound familiar?
I like those Separatists. They didn't care if everyone else lived a selfish life; they had standards for their families and no one was going to change them. They lived from the extreme of persecution to the extreme of complete freedom. Yet they stayed the course.
Yes, the Pilgrims were not perfect people. They fought so badly on the Mayflower that they had to put some rules down in writing called the "Mayflower Compact". They admittedly stole from the Indians that first winter just to survive. First they took a basket of corn they found in the forest. The stealing grew from there. A few Pilgirms felt guilty about it and promised to repay the natives the following year. They made up for it at the first Thanksgiving dinner. I would suggest that the basket in the forest was from God, but then again, I wasn't there.
Yes, these were real and flawed people. But their faith was incredible. They only had the Bible and their prayer life and each other. No beautiful churches (they met in a fort), no Christian books or DVD Beth Moore series, no Christian bookstores with cute odds and ends, nothing but the Word of God and the Spirit of God.
So simple.
William Bradford was one of these Separatists. A devout Christian, he led the rag-tag team to the new world. He wanted to spread the Christian gospel in some distant part of the world - in truth to be a pilgrim. Having noted that the twelve year truce between Spain and Holland would expire in 1621, William also realised a new war would turn Leyden into a bloody battleground.
He and his wife left their only child behind. When they finally arrived after the horrible 2-month journey, off the coast of Cape Cod, Bradford watched his wife slip off the deck and drown. Right before his eyes. All that way...to lose your soul mate. Did Bradford give up? No, his faith pulled him through. God pulled him through. He rose to be a great leader and created peace between the Pilgrims and the native tribes.
How did he do it without therapy, without Christian counselling? Without Sunday School? Are all the "programs" we have today producing rock-solid people like William Bradford?
That first Thanksgiving has God's fingerprints all over it. He chose to honor a small group of people who refused to let their children be lost to a selfish culture. He allowed them to endure great suffering, sickness, discord, and starvation. Yet all these things perfected their faith. Their struggling is our strength to carry on and to not complain about the little things.
In October, 1621, 50 Pilgrims, 90 natives, Chief Massasoit sat down together. They had fowl, 5 deer, fish, vegetables, and stewed pumpkins. The also ate stewed eels, ducks and geese. Ladies, remember that only 4 married women survived the long winter. So those ladies and the children had a lot of cooking to do!
By remembering, we become thankful.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
