Grateful Hearts
Our Psalmist proclaims:
Give thanks to the Lord and call
upon his Name; *
make known his deeds among the
peoples.
Sing to him, sing praises to
him, *
and speak of all his marvelous works. (Psalm 105)
Gratefulness is the heart of Biblical religion. Yet, bracketing this call to gratefulness are two stories of grumbling, ungrateful folks: those who escaped from bondage and slavery in Egypt, and workers who believe they deserve more pay. It seems it is ever thus. Raising questions like: Are we ever satisfied? How much is enough? Hasn’t God done enough, already? Will we ever learn to have grateful hearts?
In Exodus 16, no sooner has Miriam and the sisters raised their tambourines in song and dance giving thanks for the fact that the authoritarian empire of Egypt can no longer tread water, than the people immediately complain about not having as much bread as they did around the “fleshpots” of the empire. Surely, we are meant to laugh. Fleshpots refers to “luxurious and self-indulgent” living! A world of conspicuous Consumption. These runaway slaves never came close to the lifestyle of the one percent at the top of the Empire. Yet, these escapees want more than freedom and a life lived with the God who arranged their great escape. No gratefulness here. The singing of Miriam and the sisters is so soon forgotten.
The Lord hears their cry once again, and instructs Moses on a new arrangement: God will provide “what is it.” That’s what “manna” means: whatisit! The manna will appear each morning as a kind of ground-frost. You may collect what you need for a day, and no more, except on the sixth day you may take twice as much so you do not have work on the Sabbath Day. There’s a caveat: if you take more than a daily share and try to save it up, it goes bad. Note, in God’s Shrewd Economic Plan, everyone gets enough, no one gets too much, or the worms and maggots settle in.
Jesus teaches his followers to pray for bread that is given daily. That is, Jesus calls for a return to Manna Season for everyone, no exceptions! This, coupled with his equally explicit call to forgive debts, constitutes what Jesus calls living in the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, here and now: a world of forgiveness, daily bread, and gratefulness where everyone gets enough, no one gets too much, and if you hoard more than your share, everything begins to go poorly, and the world of fleshpots takes over once again.
Some 1,300 years after the wilderness experience, and things, evidently, are going poorly. Now everyone’s labor is directed to feed the ravenous fleshpots of Caesar and the Herod’s new empire of Consumption, Rome. Those who wish to appease Rome challenge Jesus with meaningless questions about taxes, divorce and other minutia unrelated to Manna Season, Forgiveness and Grateful Hearts. Some children come bustling in, chattering, playing, noisily and interrupting the silly debate. The disciples try to chase them away. No, says Jesus. Theirs is the kingdom of Manna Season, Forgiveness, and Gratefulness! Let them come to me. He lays hands on them. He blesses them and leaves the debate to others.
Along come a young man who wants to know how to inherit eternal life. Jesus urges him to live out of the Ten Commandments. Oh, says the young man, I do all of that already! So proud of himself. Well then, says Jesus, give away all that you have and follow me! The young man goes away sad, for he had “many possessions.” The disciples are aghast! Jesus tells them, the first will be last and the last will be first. Still perplexed, still not understanding, he tells them a story; this one about the wideness of God’s mercy and some ungrateful workers. (Matthew 20:1-16)
A landowner hires workers for the day’s wage. By mid-day he needs more workers. He goes back to town and hires some more for the day’s wage. Mid-afternoon he sees he needs more hands-on- deck, and hires some more. At the end of the day, he begins to pay them, beginning with those who were last to be hired. They get the full day’s wage. Same with the noonday workers. And finally, those who worked all day get the day’s wage. They grumble: “We worked longer than the rest of these bums! We should get more!” But I gave you what I promised to pay you, says the landowner. I choose to pay everyone a day’s wage. Am I not allowed to do what I want with what is mine? Do you begrudge my generosity?
That’s the question for all of us, really. Why not be
grateful that everyone was taken care of? Fritz Kunkel, a psychologist, in his
book Creation Continues, acknowledges that the relationship between
freedom and causality is puzzling. With this parable, Kunkel suggests, “we see
clearly now that our endeavor is indispensable, but its success is a free gift
from Beyond. For a moment God seems to be unjust, unfair and arbitrary. But as
soon as we leave behind our egocentric claims and make the growth of the
kingdom our chief concern, the injustice disappears. God takes care of his
kingdom; God does justice to his creation; suddenly we recognize the infinite
difference between God, the great Beyond, and us. We think in terms of cause
and effect; more work brings more reward. God lives in categories beyond our
grasp.
“God is the Father who rewards his children for their little achievements, not according to their contribution, but according to their needs. Our work, therefore, should not be done for the sake of reward, or for fear of punishment; that would keep us on the level of egocentric bargainers for higher wages. We should do what we do for the sake of God’s kingdom. Whether we are admitted or not, the purpose of creation must be achieved. The paradox that the first will be last and the last will be first loses its appearance of injustice [and unfairness].”[i]
Saint Augustine once wrote that our hearts are restless
until we find our home in God – the great Beyond, whose vision of life in God’s
own creation is centered on Manna Season, Mercy, Forgiveness, and Gratefulness.
Grumbling is just not to be a part of it! This Homecoming Sunday we are invited
to be Welcomed into God’s vision, which is very different from our standard
view of life in this world. To live in what Jesus calls God’s kingdom requires
a whole new way of envisioning how we might live with one another – that our
journey in this world is not meant to be lived on our own, but with others –
ultimately, with all others. Only then can we hope to sing as the Psalmist calls
us to sing:
Give thanks to the Lord and call
upon his Name; *
make known his deeds among the
peoples.
Sing to him, sing praises to
him, *
and speak of all his marvelous
works.
No comments:
Post a Comment