The Application of Appreciation by Reverend Aaron Payson.
We are pleased to welcome Reverend Aaron Payson back to our pulpit.
Well-known theologian Walter Brueggemann writes about Thanksgiving: “Thanksgiving is a contradiction of the values of a market economy that imagines we are self-made and can be self-sufficient. When we give thanks, we commit an act of defiance against the seductions of our society. . . We may sing all kinds of patriotic songs and feast to satiation on Thanksgiving Day. Beyond all of that is our acknowledgement that life is a gift that evokes response. We are never self-starters. The drive for self-sufficiency is an unnecessary and futile idolatry.” On this Thanksgiving, unique among them in our lifetime, we pause to consider all those connections and contributions to our life for which we are most thankful.
Rev. Aaron Payson is minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester, MA, where he has served for the past 21 years. Aaron is delighted to be able to return to visit Pottstown, albeit remotely this year, as has been the tradition for many years when he returned to the region to visit family on this holiday weekend.