One of the more interesting character studies in scripture is that of Moses. In infancy, he was literally 'sent down the river' by his mother, lived in slavery, became a murderer, fugitive, freedom fighter and, finally, leader and sage. 

Late in his life, as he prepares to bid his people farewell, he sends them into their 'promised land' with a warning about human forgetfulness. "When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and lived in them, and when . . . your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God.....Do not say to yourself, 'My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me [all] this.'"

It was an important word then; it is an important word now. The notion that we are recipients of good gifts beyond our earning and deserving, that we belong to and are accountable to God, has become foreign to a large percentage of Americans these days. Jean Bethke Elshtain, a thoughtful political philosopher, writes, "We no longer think of ourselves as belonging to anyone or anything. We do not belong -- we own; we possess." She agreed with Albert Camus' assessment of a society that has lost the sense of "any kind of transcendence." When "the sky is empty," said Camus, "the earth [is] delivered into the hands of power without principle."

I think that's one reason Jesus taught so regularly about gratitude. Gratitude undercuts all human pretension. When we give thanks, we are reminded that we are not self sufficient. The act of being grateful leads us into a world in which God is active and alive shaping our existence, a world in which we are not now, nor will we ever be, completely on our own. In this week's passage, which you can read here, Jesus suggests this awareness, this spiritual paradigm, brings nothing less than salvation. 

We'll explore it in more depth this weekend at all services. Come, and bring a friend.

 

Warmly,