"All that we have and all that we are is from you, O God; we give you but your own." We pray this weekly after taking up the offering. It's not worded exactly the same, but it's from 1 Chronicles, chapter 29, where David is trying to bless the gifts the people brought to build the temple. This little piece of a prayer actually reflects a really big truth. God provides all good things in our lives and in our life together. We might call that providence. Another word for it is "blessing." God blesses us. Then, we have things. From the things we have--all of which came from God--we give some back to God. We give some of our money in the offering plate, but where could we have gotten money if God had not blessed us? We give some of our time when we volunteer at the church, but who is the author of all time for all eternity? We give some of our energy when we volunteer to help strangers, but what energy would we have if God did not first breathe God's Spirit into the pile of dirt which is our bodies? We share love with each other and with the world, but "we love because God first loved us." How could we love if God had not come down incarnate as Jesus Christ and showed us what love really means?
I think of this motion in a slightly science fiction way. God gives us blessing. What does a blessing look like? In it's most abstract I think of God's blessing as being a positive thought from God about us, but a thought doesn't film well for my science fiction version of it, so I think of a blessing as looking like a ball of light. That ball of light comes down from God into our world, into our lives, and it turns into something. It turns into grain brought forth from the land by God to feed God's people. It turns into fruit on the vine created by God to nourish us and delight us. It enters our bodies as we breathe in God's breath and turns into the hormones and neurotransmitters needed for us to feel emotions and love for each other. It turns into gold or other precious "things" that eventually become what we think of as money that we can share with those less fortunate. It turns into silicon and electrons that drive our modern communications and computing resources--the technology of our civilization. In all these ways and so many more, God provides for our needs and blesses us with all we need to not just live, but thrive. In my science fiction movie version of this, the special effects department makes many balls of light come down into our lives and turn into all sorts of matter.
Then, in gratitude, we want to give back to God. We take inventory of our lives to figure out what comes from us that we can give back to God as God has given to us what comes from God. What we find is that there's nothing. All that we have and all that we are comes from God. God created us and gave us life and blessed us and all creation. God blessed whatever we might have inherited from our family before we were even born. God blessed school teachers before we ever learned the first thing. God blessed our society and culture with inventors and entrepreneurs before we ever got a job to earn any money. We make a big pile of stuff that we might give back to God and realize that all of it is from God to begin with.
Hebrews 13 says, "let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." This is a hint of how to solve our problem. What can we give back to God? Our praise and thanks. In the science fiction movie, all the things that blessings turned into change again into balls of light as a church choir sings and a congregation prays and a grateful person utters a prayer of thanks under their breath. These balls of light go up. We "return thanks" to God in response to all the blessings God sent to us.
The same happens in the horizontal plane: we bless each other with gifts and love and care. We return to each other thanks for these blessings in our lives. I know all the staff and I are grateful for all you do in this congregation. We're grateful for colleagues in ministry with whom we work to accomplish God's purposes in the world. We're grateful for kindred souls with whom to worship God. We're grateful for the love we feel from and in this community. We're grateful for people who "do good and share what they have;" whether financial support or talents of all kind to use for God's work or care and love for each other.
On this thanksgiving, we're grateful for all you do and all you are. You have been instruments of God's blessing. "Such sacrifices are pleasing to God." For all these blessings from God shared among our community we return thanks.
--Chas
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