Dwight Thomas’ Harvest Thanksgiving homily (https://wp.me/p89n5f-bO) drilled down past thanksgiving reaching further to the anatomy of gratitude. He was unraveling a lie–the lie of self-sufficiency. Inherent in gratitude is the honest recognition of arrogance and foolishness when thinking we are masters of ourselves and the world.
The Arrogance of Self-Sufficiency
Life as we know it lies bare in the wake of tumult and chaos and shakes us to the bone. If we build our security around possessions, money, job, profession, social power, and even the people we hang with what happens if, and when, things and people go away? Power we perceived as ours–rulers of our own destinies–disappears and cripples our sense of self-sufficiency.
Cataclysmic global events are touching more people than ever before dampening the arrogance of our species, waking us to self-awareness. Forces of nature–hurricane winds blasting, flood waters rising, tectonic plates shifting, volcanoes steaming–remind us the physical truth is humankind does not rule the earth. And the spiritual truth is we are not self-sufficient. Dependency lies in on our connectedness to the planet and each other. Even more–we are nothing without God.
The warning in Deuteronomy is no less relevant today than in the plus of two thousand years since it was written.
17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth… Deuteronomy 8:17-18 (NIV)
When beholden to someone or something there is a certain discomfort, a sense of disadvantage that goes against the grain, ruffles pride and threatens perceived autonomy. And maybe the reason only one of the ten healed lepers turned back to thank Jesus (refer: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+17%3A11-19&version=NIV). Perhaps the nine feared the healer would expect recompense. They did not want to acknowledge a debt owed for their freedom from disease. But Jesus asked for nothing only instructing they present themselves to the local authorities for examination to be deemed acceptable for a return to society.
The Anatomy of Gratitude
But what did the one who stopped in his tracks realize? He turned around before being cleared by local authorities.
There is a difference between receiving a healing and having a relationship with the healer. The man understood more than healing was at stake. As a Samaritan he was despised by Jews and the man who healed him was Jewish. His enemy had just healed him. Who would do that?
Robbed by disease of self-sufficiency this man-god restored his life. Only someone with power to move heaven and earth could do that. Jesus had such authority. Now the man could return home but not before he honoured the one who had saved him. There was more to discover about Jesus.
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:15-19 (NIV)
The Untruth of Self-Sufficiency
When life goes well we forget. Our self-reliance lures us into a false sense of security. Chaos drives us back to the truth: faith makes us well.
A relationship with God resets our lives from the storms that topple us. Out of chaos and darkness God manifest in Jesus brings us healing, hope and a new world order.
Thank you for that well written article. Praise God!
Thank you, Lynn.