God Blesses as Gift
Thanksgiving Eve – November
27, 2019
“Dear God, we paid
for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing!”
·
The words of the great, young theologian and reluctant meal-time
pray-er, Bart Simpson, when pushed by father Homer to offer grace
·
It’s funny because it’s all too true
This temptation to think
that everything we have is ours because we have earned it is a tale as old as
the human race
·
Moses sees it in the people he has been leading lo these past 40 years
o Deuteronomy is a collection
of Moses’ final words to the people of Israel as they stand on the cusp of
finally entering into the promised land, the land they have been waiting 40
years of wandering in the wilderness to go into
o And now here they are, about
to receive all that God has promised
·
And Moses has a word of warning to them:
o Don’t forget your history;
Don’t forget where you have been and how you got to this place
o "Do not exalt yourself,
forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an
arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions.
§
He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the
wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not you…"
o Do not say to yourself, “My
power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.”
·
In other words, don’t say: “Dear God, we paid for all this stuff
ourselves, so thanks for nothing!”
It’s a strong temptation
though, to forget the gifts and blessings of God, to let our history get kind
of hazy and fuzzy and to just somehow look back and see our own efforts in
getting or achieving wherever we are in life
·
Even if we’d never pray Bart’s prayer out loud or even consciously,
sometimes we are tempted to act as if we believe what he says, that we are the
ones who are responsible for our own successes
·
To somehow fail to see all of the ways that God is involved in bringing
blessings to our lives
GW/GT: The day and season of
Thanksgiving offer us a chance to remember; to recalibrate our lives, and
re-center our vision on the giver of all good gifts
·
Both the story from Deuteronomy and the story from Luke remind us that
God’s blessings come first
o Before anything they ever
did, God chose the Israelites
§
God led them out of slavery in Egypt and into freedom, and now finally
to this land that has been promised
o This amazing land: a land with flowing streams, with springs and
underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley,
of vines and fig trees and pomegranates (ooh, pomegranates! Yum), a land of
olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where
you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you
may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the
good land that he has given you.”
·
Whew, what a description of the abundant blessings God is going to
continue to pour out on them, as if bringing them out of slavery wasn’t enough!
o And all out of love, not
because of what they’ve done (their grumbling and complaining in the wilderness
certainly didn’t merit this!)
·
And the gospel too – the lepers approach Jesus and ask for mercy, and
just like that, Jesus heals them as he sends them on their way to the priest
o There’s no quid pro quo here
– just generous gift, sheer blessing, a willingness to make them whole, just
because
It
reminds me of Martin Luther’s explanation of the 1st article of the
Apostles’ Creed:
·
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.”
·
What does this mean? I believe that God has made me and all creatures;
that God has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my
reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. God also gives me
clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, spouse and children, land,
animals, and all I have. God richly and daily provides me with all that I need
to support this body and life. God defends me against all danger and guards and
protects me from all evil. All this God does only out of fatherly, divine
goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is
my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey God.
·
This is most certainly true.
In
baptism, God calls and claims us as God’s own children and God continually
rains down blessings, just because God loves us.
·
“…it is [God] who gives you power to get wealth” – and all other good
things that bring meaning and joy, not just our own efforts
So
as we think on this night and in this season about what we are thankful for,
what we have been blessed with, may we turn back, praising God with a loud
voice and giving thanks to the One who blesses us with all good gifts.
And
maybe we can adapt Bart Simpson’s prayer
·
Dear God, we may have paid for all this stuff, but we know you are
behind it all – so thanks for everything!”
Amen.
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