Our Power and Might
A sermon in The Other Six Days social justice series
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
November 23, 2008--Thanksgiving Sunday
Deuteronomy 8:7-18; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15; Luke 17:11-19

Deuteronomy 8:7-18 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.
Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.

2 Corinthians 9:6-15 The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written, "He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Luke 17:11-19 n the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

I.  BEGINNING

Thanksgiving is a great American holiday.   It's our oldest holiday.   Not in terms of official holidays--it didn't become an official holiday until the FDR administration--but in terms of actual practice, it pre-dates the Fourth of July by 150 years.   The Canadians may have their Thanksgiving in October, but ours is the older of the two.

Thanksgiving is thus the Great American Holiday.

And yet, would we as a country be thought of as a "Thanksgiving People"?   If we were to ask people to define America based on one of our holidays, which one would they pick?   Would they pick Thanksgiving?   How far behind in the running would it be behind the Fourth of July and its fireworks and fervent displays of patriotic pride?   Or Christmas and its non-stop consumerism?   Actually, how far behind SuperBowl Sunday would Thanksgiving rank as an expression of our national culture?

Are we really a Thanksgiving people?

In the Gospel lesson we read tonight, Jesus heals ten lepers on the way to Jerusalem.   One turns back to give thanks.   Jesus asks: "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?"

As a culture, which are we: are we the one who turned back? Or are we the nine who did not?

II.  The Israelites

One of the reasons, perhaps, that it is hard for us to remember an attitude of Thanksgiving is because we have so much.   We can far too easily be convinced that the good things we have are the result of our own industry and efforts.   It is an attitude warned against in the text we read earlier from Deuteronomy.  

Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.

The book of Deuteronomy is cast as Moses' final speech to the Israelites before they are about to enter the Promised Land after forty years in the Wilderness.   They have just been through a time of great hardship, when all the food and drink they had was provided by God's providence and grace.   But now they were about to enter the land God had promised:

a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper.

Compared to what they had been going through, it would be an amazing abundance of blessings.   They would surely thank God for what they now would have.   But Moses knows that after a while, perhaps after another generation, the people would be tempted to say "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth."  

After living in a land of plenty, it would become increasingly difficult for the people to remember to be grateful to God for what they had.   They would convince themselves that all the blessings they had were their own doing.

III.  The Pilgrims' PROgress

The founders of our Thanksgiving holiday had no such delusions.   The pioneers and pilgrims who first came to these shores and who scratched out a living from the earth, had extremely difficult lives. The author Bill Bryson has said, "It would be difficult to imagine a group of people more ill-suited to a life in the wilderness." He continues:

"They packed as if they had misunderstood the purpose of the trip. They found room for sundials and candle snuffers, a drum, a trumpet, and a complete history of Turkey. One William Mullins packed 126 pairs of shoes and thirteen pairs of boots. Yet they failed to bring a single cow or horse, plow or fishing line."

None of them, except perhaps Captain Miles Standish, knew how to hunt. And since "farmer" meant one who owned land rather than worked it, even the "farmers" on the Mayflower were of little help. Of the 102 pilgrims, 6 died in the first two weeks. Eight in the next month, seventeen more in February, 13 more in March. By April, just 54 out of the 102 were left to begin the colony, half of them children.

For the first couple of months, every time they tried to make contact with the natives, the Indians ran off. Eventually they were visited by Samoset, himself new to the area, and a friend of his named Tisquantum from the local Wampanoag tribe. These two Indians showed the pilgrims how to plant corn and catch wildfowl, and helped them to establish friendly relations with the local chief. Thanks to the teaching of Samoset and Tisquantum, (made possible due to the highly improbably fact that these men already spoke English!) the pilgrims survived their first year, had a plentiful harvest. At the end of the year, they joined with the Wampanoags in a feast to give thanks for the harvest and for God's providence, that we still commemorate as Thanksgiving.

IV. The Americans' Regress

But do we still have the same appreciation for Thanksgiving that our pilgrim forebears had?   Or have we become convinced of our "own power and might" and lost the ability to be thankful, truly thankful?

I think it would be almost impossible for those early pilgrims to fathom the nation that has grown upon these shores.   That those 54 survivors of the Mayflower expedition should be the forebears for a nation of more than 300 million, the mightiest republic the world has ever known.   A vibrant democracy that inspires billions around the world.   And an economy of such abundance that the average American would be considered incredibly wealthy in any other age of human history.   A nation of such fabulous wealth, that we actually have spare food enough to make gourmet food for cats.   Compared to the course of human history, the wealth that the average American has at her fingertips is staggering.

Moses' warning to the Israelites could just have as easily been given to us at the beginning of our national life: "Do not say, 'My own power and wealth has gotten me this wealth.'"   We have become very easily convinced that this is all our own doing. We have lost historical perspective, and as the generation that lived through the Great Depression dies off, we are in danger altogether of being cut off from an understanding of just how fortunate we are, and how thankful we ought to be.

But it is not simply our wealth that makes this difficult for us. There are other forces at work.

A.  A Culture of Consumerism

This coming Friday is "black Friday", so called because for most retailers, it is the first day of the year that they actually start to make a profit.   It is the day that their ledger sheets go out of the red and into the black.   And so it is that our great holiday of Thanksgiving is followed by a season of Consumption.

Indeed, the patron saint of Consumerism--Santa Claus--shows up on Thanksgiving day right at noon to tell everyone that the Christmas season is here: it's time to start shopping.   Where?   Well, how about Macy's?   It's right over there.

It's gotten to the point where consumerism and consumption are part of our patriotic duty.   Keep the economy afloat: spend, spend, spend.

And then on the other side of the equation is the enculturation that we receive that we should accumulate material goods.   What's that, you have a Playstation?   No, I'm sorry, you need to get the PlayStation 2.   What's that you just bought one?   Well, it turns out you'll need to buy the PlayStation 3 now if you want to watch those games in High Definition.   Oh, you don't have an HD television?   Well you're going to need one.   Everyone's got one.   You should too.   The Office looks amazing in high def.   And why not get a flat-screen while you're at it?

They start early with us, too.   I was indoctrinated early.   By the JCPenney company.   Every September or October they would mail out these catalogs that were full of all these toys that could be ours, if only Santa would just listen to what I need!   Christmas will be a failure if I don't get the toy Millennium Falcon for my Star Wars(TM) action figures!   If you thought Ralphie in A Christmas Story pining for his Red Rider BB Gun was something, you haven't seen anything until you saw the 10 year old version of me just plain coveting.

But we have become so acculturated to a culture of consumption that nothing about it strikes us as odd.   The accumulation of material goods, especially the newer, improved versions of the stuff we already have, seems perfectly natural.   Time was, when "older" and "long lasting" was the expected norm for a product.   The idea of "planned obsolescence" was an innovation that has really taken hold.   In fact, the idea of continuous consumption has become so much an essential part of our economy that one commentator I heard on the radio was saying that the reason the auto makers in this country need a bailout is that their cars are "too well made" and don't need to be replaced as frequently.   As if that were a bad thing.

V.  A return to Simplicity

So, let me ask: how bad will the economy have to get before we understand Thanksgiving as something other than the day we start shopping for Christmas presents?

Will the unemployment rate have to hit 30%?   Will we have to see soup kitchens popping up throughout the city?   Will we have to return to the Depression that made our grandparents' generation so grateful for the things they had?   Or is it possible for us to reclaim a culture of Thanksgiving without worldwide economic meltdown?   To use the Israelite example: do we have to leave the Promised Land and return to the Wilderness before we can remember what Thanksgiving is all about?

I hope not. I believe it is possible for us to reclaim an attitude of Thanksgiving, but only if we are willing to testify to something greater than our economic power and might.

We are not saved by the strength of the dollar against the yen.   We are not saved by a favorable retail season.   We are not saved by the possession of the latest and greatest consumer products.   We are not saved by the accumulation of material goods and personal wealth.   We are saved by the grace of God.

And it is out of thanksgiving for that grace that we are called to live our lives.   Our lives are about grace and the response to grace.   Our response is to be a people who live lives of Thanksgiving.   Lives that understand just how precious God's grace is.   Lives that understand that the material benefits we have are not things we are owed, but things we are fortunate to have.

VI.  END

John Wesley believed in the value of hard work.   John Wesley believed in being successful.   He believed that as Methodists, you should "earn all you can".   But he also said that we should "save all you can to give away all that you can." For Wesley, wealth was simply a means to a greater life of thanksgiving and service for others.   Wealth was not an end in itself.

For so many of us, we have looked at the unchecked accumulation of material goods as the end in itself.   We have conditioned ourselves to be unsatisfied with what we have and to want more.   Simply for the sake of having more.   And then we have convinced ourselves that what we have is the result of our own industry, our own power, our own might.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday.   It is truly the most thoroughly American holiday: dating back to a tradition of our pilgrim forebears, celebrated by people of all races, religions, national origins.   But as American as the holiday is, perhaps as a country we need to be reminded of the Americanness of giving thanks, of never taking for granted the wealth we have been so richly blessed with.  

If we can learn not to trust in our own power and might.   If we can let go of the need for the accumulation of material goods.   If we can move toward an economy based on production not on consumption.   If we can stop taking for granted our material blessings, and become not just people who observe a holiday called Thanksgiving, but lived lives of thanksgiving, we can become a Thanksgiving People.   And we can begin to develop a more perfect understanding of grace, and of the God who by grace provides for our every need.