The Democracy of Gratitude

Reading:  Deuteronomy 8:7-18

(As the people of Israel enter the Promised Land, they are told their new home will be fertile and "you will have all you want to eat."  And along with this promise, two things: one, a command to give thanks to God for the land and its plenty that they will enjoy; and two, a warning about the inevitable temptation of thinking that they have made or earned this bounty themselves, and that they are especially entitled to it.)

As we prepare for Thanksgiving, what does it mean that we are blessed with so many good things?

There's a whole stream of the Christian church (and of humanity in general) that sees material blessing and physical well-being as a reward for moral goodness -- expressed in secular terms as "you get what you work for," and in religious terms as "God rewards the faithful."

But if that's the case, what does it mean when Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, that "your Father in heaven ... makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous"?  (Mt. 5:45)  And when he likens the kingdom of God on Earth to a wedding banquet to whom everyone is invited, "both good and bad alike"?  (Mt. 22:10)

I wonder ... in Thanksgiving, do I fall into the entitlement-trap of happily thanking God for especially blessing me and my house?  Or do I manage to find my way instead to a more humbled thankfulness to God for graciously being given a place at the universal feast, along with all other people and creatures of God's love?

"The Angelus" by Jean Francois Millet

And one other, kind of related thought.  Even though it's not our story, we know (and kind of enjoy) the American Thanksgiving legend of the early English colonists being saved from starvation by local native tribes -- tasting the goodness of God in a feast that the natives shared with them, and ever since then celebrating Thanksgiving with a feast at which thanks is given.  

One question, though: who are we in that story?  That's always an important question to ask about any familiar story we see as a story about life.  So in this story, given where we are in history and the world, what is our role in this life-story: are we the hard-pressed settlers in need of help?  or are we the local tribes, who have what others need to be able to survive?