Of Thine Own Have We Given Thee
This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada. In the Anglican Church of Canada, our Harvest Thanksgiving festival is a bit of a loose canon. It can fall at any suitable point on the calendar that a parish wants to schedule it. Most parishes schedule it at the same time as the civic holiday, keeping all of the gratitude-focused, gourd-heavy, family-gathering festivals in one place.
Similar to Christmas, we have two days with the same name, one secular and the other sacred. Also similar to Christmas, there are many superficial overlaps, but they're not identical holidays and it's important for Christians to stop and reflect on what makes our holiday different from the secular version. It's also important for us to make sure that we engage with the holiday through our faith. Nothing wrong with enjoying the secular festivities, but we owe our best offerings, whether that's material goods or of ourselves, to God.
In both festivals there is a theme of giving thanks. We're called upon to consider what is good in our lives and to be intentionally, consciously grateful for those blessings. However few or many they may be this year. This is a good and worthy practice for everyone. Spending time considering those things that we can be grateful for is widely understood to contribute to good mental health. Gratitude journaling and similar practices have been part of popular wellness culture for decades now. The phrase "attitude of gratitude" has, thankfully, disappeared from the churches I am a part of, but was a popular buzzword for a long time.
The secular and Christian attitudes toward Thanksgiving begin to diverge when we consider the source of the blessings for which we are thankful. For Christians, all blessings come from God. More accurately, everything comes from God. God is the maker of all things, seen and unseen, and, as such, all good things come from God. (Genesis 2:15, 19-20a) And all good things belong to God. Our blessings—our titles, our jobs, our talents, our accomplishments—are all gifts from God, given to us in trust for a while, but ultimately to be returned when we no longer need them.
Christians also make a habit of returning a portion of their blessings to God. This takes different shapes in different contexts. A person blessed with money returns a portion of that wealth to God to further ministry through the Church. A talented singer offers their gift of artistry in the worship of God. A person gifted with perception and technical skill offers their gifts in maintenance of buildings and property. In agrarian cultures, farmers come to church with produce and livestock to leave as offerings. This return of a portion of the blessing is summarized in the Canadian Book of Common Prayer in the prayer after the preparation of the altar:
Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, for ever and ever. All that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.
But, if what we said earlier about God being the maker of all things is true, then what use does God have for our offerings? If God made all of the chickens and has blessed a farmer with productive hens, what does God need with an offering of fowl at church? How is returning some of the blessing an expression of gratitude that makes sense?
Offerings given to the Church are meant to be used for the common good. One farmer has been blessed with many chickens and brings some to the altar as a thank offering. The Church can then give these chickens to a family who do not have enough food and alleviate some of their hunger and poverty. This is an expression of the justice and kindness to which Christians are called. (Micah 6:8) We believe that when we receive a blessing, contribute to it, then return it to God, God will return it to us again as an even greater blessing. This is the pattern in our Eucharist: God gives us the blessing of wheat and grapes. We take them and fashion them in to bread and wine which we return to God. God then makes it so that the body and blood of Christ are present in the bread and wine so that his beloved people can commune with him as he has commanded. A blessing returned is a blessing increased.
Working for the common good and increasing blessings is important, but there is another motivation for returning a part of God's blessing to God. From the earliest days of humanity's relationship with God, it has been understood that returning a portion of the fruits of our labours is a good practice. A reminder that our work is a small contribution to those fruits. A practice to recall the source of all our blessings. A warning about forgetting God's blessing is spelled out in Deuteronomy:
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, Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained 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. (Deuteronomy 8:10-14, 17-18)
We are called to give to God from the produce of our labour, even sacrificially, for the benefit of our neighbours, but also so that we do not forget our God. There is abundant evidence in the world today of billionaires whose wealth is built on the exploitation of others and the generosity of previous generations. But they claim to be "self-made men" and have worked their own way to their positions of unprecedented privilege and power. I cannot claim to know the faith of such billionaires, but it is evident that they count themselves as the origin and destination of all of their blessings. The words of Mary's song of praise are heavy when thinking of such ungrateful hubris:
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.(Luke 1.50-53)
Thanksgiving is an opportunity for Christians, like anyone else, to set aside their labour for a time and count their blessings. For Christians it is also a call to humility in the light of those blessings, to consider their neighbours who have fewer blessings to number, to remember the source of all good things, and to give humble and hearty thanks to their loving God from whom all blessings flow.
For the many blessings of this life, Lord, make us truly thankful. Amen.
