On this Thanksgiving Day, I’m thankful that I’ve learned the absolute necessity of giving thanks. I’m thankful for many people and many circumstances and many things that God has put into my life. But all these people and circumstances and things are all gifts of God. Yes, I’ve worked hard most of my life. Yes, we’ve invested wisely. Yes, we’ve lived within our means. But without intelligence, opportunity, education, loving parents, and wise mentors my life would have been very different.
Some years ago, a US president set off a firestorm of fury when he suggested that our interdependence was an essential element of our prosperity. “You,” he said, “didn’t do all that.” That was deeply offensive to our cultural belief in our own self-sufficiency. The howls of protest against his statement laid bare our pride in that avowed self-sufficiency. But not only was he right, he was biblical.
In Moses’ extended farewell address to the people of Israel (a.k.a., the Book of Deuteronomy), he issues this warning:
When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then 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 know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
(Deuteronomy 8:12-20)
Yet even if we accept our utter dependence on God’s gracious gifts, we dare not let it rest at that. What of those who are not so blessed, whose needs are not met, whose lives seem filled with sorrow and want? There is a theme shot through the Tanach and the New Testament that speaks to their needs. That theme is our responsibility for each other. Our abundance is not solely for ourselves. We dare not hoard what God has freely given.
Our response to God’s graciousness is to be our own acts of generosity and care. When we share our substance, our time, our caring, we are exercising thanksgiving to God for our ability to share these things. Generosity is built into God’s creation. So be thankful and act thankfully for in so doing we reveal the glory of God through His children.
The Apprentice Priest 