Gracious Father, teach us the joy of true grattitude for every gift we receive from your hand and grant us the joy of sharing our whole being with others.
As we approach the harvest season in rural Pennsylvania I would like us to pause for a moment to think about the concepts of gratitude versus indebtedness. When someone offers us a gift our response can be one of gratitude or one of indebtedness. Consider for a moment the difference between those two.
Gratitude moves us with a sense of joy into real thanksgiving for the gift or favor we have received. On the contrary it is, also, possible to react negatively with a sense of indebtedness. Feeling burdened to return the favor. Rather than thanksgiving this leaves us with a sense of uneasiness or maybe even suspicion of "What does this person want in return, “quid pro quo?” This is the difference between hearing God's gracious love in Jesus Christ as either "Law or Gospel."
Spiritually, this suspicion deprives us the true joy of and for the gift and the real blessing that it is meant to be. Instead of real passionate and exuberant thanksgiving we settle for a sense of obligation to God and a new burden, a new law. It is an expression of our sinfulness in the flesh that focuses on, "What will it cost ME to respond appropriately?"
The Gospel, the Good News, that we have been delivered from our sin and the sentence of death under the law of God through the death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection is the type of promise that transforms everything in our life. We who once were dead are now alive graced by God with a new life which can never be taken away from us again. What amazing news! What hope in the midst of the struggles of life! Even if we die in this life that is not the last word because God has raised from the dead Jesus of Nazareth so that we may have abundant life, so abundant not even death can separate from this loving act of God. What joy we must celebrate!
And yet, how many find no reason for joy in their lives. They find no reason to come to church filled with thanksgiving for what they have already received. In fact, the good news of the Gospel becomes just one more burden for them. Why? Often because they are suspicious of the gift. They want to know what the “quid pro quo” is. In fact, some Christians only come to church because they believe that is now their "obligation" for the great gift God has given. They treat the Gospel as some new obligation to the law as if it is some type of prepaid indenture. Christ died for us now we must REALLY work to keep the law. They ignore the logic that if we couldn’t keep the law before then it is unlikely we can keep it now. The law drove us to Christ but now we live in the liberty of the Gospel.
In contrast when one really hears the Gospel and its proclamation of grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ the only heartfelt response is real, true, abiding thanksgiving; thanksgiving in deep and true gratitude that we who have deserved nothing but death and damnation have received instead life. Life not just for today but for every day, new life in exchange for our old one of rags and shame falling short of the very glory for which God created us in the beginning. When we are filled with such gratitude we cannot wait to hear the story told again, we cannot wait to tell others of God’s love, we cannot wait to help at the local food pantry, give drink to the thirsty workman on the street, and bring a meal for the family of the neighbor battling cancer. When we understand the truth of the Gospel “quid pro quo” is the last thing on our minds because we have already received that which can never be repaid and we have received it freely from the hand of God.
Thanks be to God for all his good gifts, for creation and Spirit, for body and soul, for Law and for Gospel each in its right place and for God’s grace sine qua non. Thanks be to God for real “JOY and Thanksgiving!”
As we approach the harvest season in rural Pennsylvania I would like us to pause for a moment to think about the concepts of gratitude versus indebtedness. When someone offers us a gift our response can be one of gratitude or one of indebtedness. Consider for a moment the difference between those two.
Gratitude moves us with a sense of joy into real thanksgiving for the gift or favor we have received. On the contrary it is, also, possible to react negatively with a sense of indebtedness. Feeling burdened to return the favor. Rather than thanksgiving this leaves us with a sense of uneasiness or maybe even suspicion of "What does this person want in return, “quid pro quo?” This is the difference between hearing God's gracious love in Jesus Christ as either "Law or Gospel."
Spiritually, this suspicion deprives us the true joy of and for the gift and the real blessing that it is meant to be. Instead of real passionate and exuberant thanksgiving we settle for a sense of obligation to God and a new burden, a new law. It is an expression of our sinfulness in the flesh that focuses on, "What will it cost ME to respond appropriately?"
The Gospel, the Good News, that we have been delivered from our sin and the sentence of death under the law of God through the death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection is the type of promise that transforms everything in our life. We who once were dead are now alive graced by God with a new life which can never be taken away from us again. What amazing news! What hope in the midst of the struggles of life! Even if we die in this life that is not the last word because God has raised from the dead Jesus of Nazareth so that we may have abundant life, so abundant not even death can separate from this loving act of God. What joy we must celebrate!
And yet, how many find no reason for joy in their lives. They find no reason to come to church filled with thanksgiving for what they have already received. In fact, the good news of the Gospel becomes just one more burden for them. Why? Often because they are suspicious of the gift. They want to know what the “quid pro quo” is. In fact, some Christians only come to church because they believe that is now their "obligation" for the great gift God has given. They treat the Gospel as some new obligation to the law as if it is some type of prepaid indenture. Christ died for us now we must REALLY work to keep the law. They ignore the logic that if we couldn’t keep the law before then it is unlikely we can keep it now. The law drove us to Christ but now we live in the liberty of the Gospel.
In contrast when one really hears the Gospel and its proclamation of grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ the only heartfelt response is real, true, abiding thanksgiving; thanksgiving in deep and true gratitude that we who have deserved nothing but death and damnation have received instead life. Life not just for today but for every day, new life in exchange for our old one of rags and shame falling short of the very glory for which God created us in the beginning. When we are filled with such gratitude we cannot wait to hear the story told again, we cannot wait to tell others of God’s love, we cannot wait to help at the local food pantry, give drink to the thirsty workman on the street, and bring a meal for the family of the neighbor battling cancer. When we understand the truth of the Gospel “quid pro quo” is the last thing on our minds because we have already received that which can never be repaid and we have received it freely from the hand of God.
Thanks be to God for all his good gifts, for creation and Spirit, for body and soul, for Law and for Gospel each in its right place and for God’s grace sine qua non. Thanks be to God for real “JOY and Thanksgiving!”
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