The
great Swiss theologian Karl Barth once said that the best way to preach the
Gospel is with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. So I will
take his advice tonight and do that. On Saturday, as I was eating my eggs and
drinking my tea, I was reading The New York Times. I ignored the
articles on how to make cranberry sauce and how to avoid political discussions
at the dinner table, and came across an opinion piece entitled, “Why Gratitude
is Wasted on Thanksgiving.” Well, that piqued my curiosity, so I read it. It
was written by a psychologist named David DeSteno. After affirming how
important and healthy being thankful is, he says this:
But truth be told, gratitude is wasted on Thanksgiving. Don’t get me
wrong: I love the rhythms and rituals of the day as much as anyone. It’s just
that the very things that make Thanksgiving so wonderful — the presence of
family and friends, the time off from work, indulging in that extra slice of
turkey — also make gratitude unnecessary.
Why?
Because, he writes, “one of gratitude’s central purposes is to help us form
strong bonds with other people.” He goes on to contend that giving thanks helps
us get to know other people better, makes us more attractive to others, and
strengthens our ties with them. But except for the occasional crazy relative or
friend of a friend, most of us will spend Thanksgiving with people we already
love and feel close to. And that’s great, but the author does not want us to
forget the social benefits of giving thanks that extend beyond our immediate
circle.
He
writes from a secular point of view, but I was struck by how much his piece
resonates with Scripture. Because in the Bible, gratitude is also all about
relationship. “Thank,” after all, is a transitive verb. I can’t just thank: I
have to thank someone. And when I do, I form a bond with that someone. Now,
some religious thinking both in the ancient world and now, sees thanking God as
a form of ingratiation, a way of staying on God’s good side. God has given us
all this stuff, so we thank God for it so that God doesn’t feel unappreciated
or get annoyed but continues to give us more stuff. But that is not the schema
laid out in Deuteronomy. As we just heard in our first lesson tonight, when the
Israelites offer to God the first fruits of their harvest, they do so
remembering all that God has done with them and for them over centuries. They
thank God as a way of deepening their faith and trust. For the Israelites,
thanksgiving is not transactional — “Here’s our thank offering, give us more
food.” — it’s relational — “Here’s our thank offering, we want to love you
more.”
I
can’t emphasize that enough. We don’t thank God to stroke God’s ego. As Jesus
reveals it, God has no ego to stroke. We thank God to grow closer to God, who
longs for us to be close. And I think this really helps us understand the
Gospel tonight. Jesus has just fed 5,000 people, and that crowd is not eager
for him to disappear when he leaves. But when they find him again, he points
out, correctly, that they just want more loaves and fishes. What they need,
though, is the food that leads to eternal life, the spiritual food which he
offers. Put simply, their gratitude should not lead to more bread, but to a
deeper relationship with God.
Most
of us here have lots of stuff. We have homes, cars, clothes, and ample amounts
of food. And of course it is good to realize that and appreciate that. But as
we thank God for all of it, we are called to look beyond our material abundance
to an abundance of relationship that God calls us into. For if there is one
thing that our acts of thanksgiving should lead us to, it’s the realization
that at the heart of all reality is an endless wellspring of love and life, the
God Jesus reveals to us. And the unconditional love of that God flows through
us at all times and in all circumstances. And it will forever, giving us life
forever. Giving thanks helps us to know this God, and the more we know God, the
more thanksgiving will pour out of us. This is why Paul can write so
exuberantly to the Philippians, urging them to Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Like so many
saints, like so many believers over the centuries, Paul comes to understand in
his heart, soul, mind, and gut that the food we eat is just the beginning of
what we have to be thankful for. As we grow closer to God in gratitude and our
hearts expand in love, we see the full abundance we enjoy: the sun lighting our
days; the moon and stars shining in the night; the astonishing beauty of
creation; every breeze, every raindrop; every breath of life we take; every
moment of love we cherish. And the more we thank God for all of it, the more we
know that God is in all of it, and that, in God, all of it is ours. We are one
with the Creator and with all of creation. Paul speaks the truth magnificently
in his first letter to the Corinthians: For
all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or
death or the present or the future — all belong to you, and you belong to
Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
In
just a few minutes, we will offer the Great Thanksgiving, and Mother Kathleen
will pray on our behalf, saying, “It is right, and a good and joyful thing,
always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven
and earth.” It is wonderful to be together in this lovely space, great to enjoy
each other and our time together, but the primary reason for us to gather here
is to deepen our experience of the Creator, and grow closer to the Holy One
whose endless love and grace flows through us every moment. If we can open our
hearts to God and rejoice in the intimate presence of God with us right now,
then our gratitude will not be wasted. Because thanksgiving is all about
relationship. The more we thank God, the more we will know God, and the more we
know God, the more we will thank God — always and everywhere.
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