On November 19, 1863 (148 years ago yesterday) President Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield in south central Pennsylvania and delivered the most famous speech in American history. He spoke then of how important it is to remember not words, but deeds. “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” In other words, remembering heroic deeds should stir us to increased devotion.

This week I was reading some works of St. Basil, a 4th century bishop and theologian. He described the fall of Adam from Paradise as a state of forgetfulness. “There was a time,” said St. Basil, “when Adam was set on high, not in place but by free choice, when having just then been given life, he looked up toward heaven and became exceedingly glad at the things he saw. He greatly loved his Benefactor…” In short, Adam was paying attention to the gifts given to him by God.

What happened later was that Adam stopped remembering and paying attention to God’s blessings. In the saint’s words, “Immediately he was outside paradise and outside that blessed way of life, becoming evil not from necessity but from thoughtlessness.” (Quotes from “Homily Explaining that God is Not the Cause of Evil” in On the Human Condition, transl. Nonna Verna Harrison, p. 74). People do not choose to be evil; they do not wake up one day and say, “I am going to the dark side.” Instead they descend in small steps, one of which is forgetting God’s blessings. To use St. Basil’s word, it was “thoughtlessness.”

Orthodox Christian Tradition uses remembrance of God’s blessings over and over again. Perhaps its repetition can seem tedious, but we view it as necessary. In the Liturgy that we celebrated today, we prayed, “You brought us into being out of nothing, and when we fell, You raised us up again. You did not cease doing everything until You led us to heaven and granted us Your kingdom to come. For all these things we thank You…”

In the prayers of Holy Baptism we say, “for You, being boundless and beginningless and unutterable, did come down on earth, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; for You O Master, through the tenderness of Your Mercy, could not endure the race of men tormented by the devil, but You did come and saved us.” In the sacrament of Marriage we remember couples blessed by God in ancient times and we ask God to give those same blessings to the new couple. “Bless them. O Lord our God, as you blessed Abraham and Sara. Bless them, O Lord our God, as You blessed Isaac and Rebecca...  Bless them, O Lord our God, as You blessed Joseph and Asenath.  Bless them O Lord our God, as You blessed Moses and Zipporah.  Bless them, O Lord our God, as You blessed Joakim and Anna.”

Perhaps you have heard these prayers so many times that your mind begins to wander as they are read. But our Tradition is very strong in remembering God’s past blessing as the basis for seeking new blessings.  The examples of this in our printed texts are abundant.

We remember God’s mighty deeds and many blessings as a community, a collective body, but we also remember them as individuals. St. Paul tells the story of his own conversion over and over again. He does so to explain himself to the Christians who do not know what to make of him, to the authorities who are judging him, and to keep himself humble by remembering where he came from, spiritually, and to where God had led him.

We all have been blessed: no one can say that God has abandoned him or her completely. If anyone could say that he was abandoned by God, it would have been the ancient prophet Job. He was given health, wealth and a beautiful family, and then all were taken away. His wife went to him in despair and told him, “Say a word against the Lord and die.” She denied God’s benevolence, and encouraged Job to curse God so that God might strike him dead. But Job would not, and responded, “If we have accepted good things from the Lord’s hand, shall we not endure evil things?” (Job 2:14-15 SAAS). Remembering God’s blessings enabled Job to endure the hardships that came in life.

We owe it to God; and even more so, we owe it to ourselves to remember this week how God has blessed us, the miracles great and small that He has given to everyone of us. We owe it to ourselves to be specific, in what concrete ways God has blessed us. We owe to ourselves to pray as the Psalmist did of old,

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
         And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
         And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
         Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
         Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies (Psalm 103 NKJV).
May your Thanksgiving holiday indeed be blessed!