Thanks and Grace*

This week we Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day, arguably our favorite national holiday. This traditional harvest festival traces its roots to 1621 when the English settlers in Massachusetts Colony celebrated an abundant harvest with a three-day banquet and invited the Wampanoag Native People to join them as their guests. For the next 320 years, motivated by custom, spiritual instinct and numerous presidential proclamations, Americans celebrated Thanksgiving irregularly on a variety of days. In December 1941, the U.S. Congress finally made it a legal national holiday to be observed on the fourth Thursday of each November.

As I contemplate the approaching holiday, I think of the biblical connection between God's grace and our giving thanks. Throughout the Bible, God's people note the relationship, as Paul does for example in writing to believers in Corinth. The gospel message is God's treasure entrusted to human messengers, Paul says, "so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God" (2 Cor. 4:15). The sense is clear: God gives us his grace and in return we give God our thanks. Thus our thanksgiving brings the movement full circle. From God's glory flow his gratuitous gifts -- which stimulate our gratitude -- which we express by giving thanks -- which brings glory to our gracious God.

The notion also fascinates me on another level as a lover of words. I am struck by the linguistic connections found in many languages between the words for "grace" and "thanksgiving” and my point is illustrated in the Hellenic/Greek, where "grace" is charis and "thanksgiving" is eucharistia (giving our word "Eucharist"). So with the Latin, where "grace" is gratia and "thanksgiving" is gratiarum. This Latin connection even finds its way into English in the word-pair "grat-uitous" and "grat-itude" used in the paragraph just before this one. I can think of no similar root-yoking in native-born English, but we do maintain the verbal connection between grace and thanksgiving when we use the expression "say grace" to mean "give thanks." However, the major Romance (from "Rome") languages faithfully display the theological point made earlier by their parental Latin, as well as by their "Aunt Hellen" or "Uncle Greek." If we look at Second Corinthians 4:15 in New Testament translations of the Romance languages we will find that "grace" in Spanish is gracia and "thanksgiving" or "giving of thanks" is gracias. The French New Testament has grace for "grace" and graces for "giving of thanks." Similarly, "grace" is grazia in Italian, where "thanksgiving" is ringraziamento. Not surprisingly, the Portuguese translation of our passage has graca for "grace" and gracas for "thanksgiving" or "giving of thanks." So whatever the date on the calendar, regardless of our national homeland, no matter what may be our native tongue -- as citizens of the Kingdom of God and recipients of his grace through Jesus Christ, let us always give thanks to the glory of God!

* Used by permission from Edward Fudge

Ten Tables

Our theme in this study of Luke is the Table, and for weeks we have talked about how in Luke’s narrative we are continually seeing Jesus coming to or going from a meal. Here are ten examples as broken down by John Mark Hicks in his book Come to the Table:

Luke is a narrator. He tells stories, and through the stories he seeks to inculcate the values which he wants his community to embrace. The “table etiquette” presented in these instances (and others) is kingdom etiquette. The significance we see in each of these meals above is what we are to see as significant in our community, and the teaching we see is to be a large part of the teaching we present to others and reiterate to ourselves.

MM

Faith and the Fatherless

But this time, Jesus, how can I be sure
I will not lose my follow-through
Between the altar and the door?
~Casting Crowns

So simply stated above is the struggle all of us in this walk with Jesus face. Here in the midst of brothers and sisters, we are encouraged, inspired, and motivated. But how can we maintain our faith, more importantly put it in action, beyond the doors of this building?

My mind can’t help but immediately go to the fact that this is National Adoption Month. Surely you’ve seen the poster downstairs and the flyers in the foyer. In James there is no mincing of words: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (1: 27). We are to care for the fatherless.

The most obvious and direct response is to adopt. Prayerfully consider this incredible journey and blessing. The foster care system is in desperate need of stable homes for children who are often described as social orphans. Many of these children are available for adoption as well. Does your heart draw you to this avenue of love?

You may not be called to adopt or provide foster care, but the opportunities to live out such a pure and faultless religion are numerous! Sponsor a child through any of the organizations that care for children around the world. Be a part of a mission team which helps build children’s homes. Get involved in a program such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Have the home that all the neighborhood kids come to for wholesome fun. Walk alongside a young person who may not have the support they need at home. Be a guide for a new Christian who comes from a family of non-believers. Each of us can discover the ways God has prepared us for expressing His love. Just ask Him to show you!

CTL

In the Midst of Darkness, LIGHT!

Having just “fallen back” with our clocks, we can anticipate the earlier onset of darkness in the late afternoon / early evening. Days will continue to get darker until December 22 for us Northern Hemisphere folk. After that shortest day, hours of light will increase for the sun is coming back! My mind relishes the symbolism of this astronomical event . . . Perhaps it’s because my thoughts can’t help but run to darkness and light imagery these days as I prepare with others for the upcoming Super Saturday “Light of the World” which is inspired by Isaiah 9:2a: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light . . .”

A person who is thrilled by making connections, having what I’m studying in one place be reinforced in another, I am delighted to be encountering bible verses and passages concerning light. In our Sunday morning adult class, we read how Jesus told the crowd “You are the light of the world . . .” (Matthew 5: 14). [Sorry, David, but this sent me off on an illuminating search to gather more “light” verses!] One evening recently I walked into the teen classroom and was drawn to what was penned on the dry erase board: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1: 3). In the beginning God’s light had shattered the darkness of the physical world.

John’s gospel speaks of the spiritual: “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world” (1: 9). We have God’s Word as “a lamp to [our] feet and a light for [our] path[s].” Jesus called himself “the light of the world” and said, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8: 12). Beautifully, in Revelation we discover the New Jerusalem “does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp” (21: 23).

I’m enjoying my “light load” these days and hope that you, too, will focus on the Light as our days get shorter, physically darker. Also, may we pray to ever more eagerly look forward to the Son coming back . . .

CTL

Joining the Army

There was a movie when I was young called Private Benjamin. Goldie Hawn was a rich girl who joined the Army, and the humor in the film is based around the fact she has no idea what she has gotten herself into. She asks if she can sleep in one day and asks for a uniform in a different color that looks better on her. It is humorous to us because we all know that joining the army is not a picnic. Even those of us who have never served realize good and well that when a person signs his or her name on the line, Uncle Sam has a clear cut set of expectations. The recruiters may talk about the great benefits, but they also tell you clearly that you are turning your life over to a larger cause.

In the latter part of Luke chapter nine, Jesus tells everyone up front what the expectations are for joining his crew. He tells one guy, “Look, we won’t be staying in the best hotels.” Another guy does not ask for much, he says, “I’d like to join as soon as I bury my father.” In his reply Jesus is not trying to be mean; he is just being clear. He tells the guy in no uncertain terms that joining his army means a surrender of personal freedom.

The United States military asks for this surrender of personal freedom because they realize it is required for them to accomplish their mission and be effective. Perhaps Jesus’ warnings are rooted in similar concerns for organizational effectiveness…but in a larger sense they are not sacrifice for the sake of effectiveness in the same way that most organizations and businesses require. Jesus, as the maker and crafter of the human machine, the maker of life, knows what is required for true life, and he has come to put together an organization that allows for people to truly live. He is a good and honest recruiter: he does not soft sell it; he speaks clearly and directly.

Today we look at some tough language from Jesus, and we look at the amazing opportunity for life that comes for those of us willing to listen and submit to his requirements.

Mark

Luke Chapter 9

There is about a 400 (or so)-year time period between the Old and New Testaments. During that time, we know from world history that the Greeks took over the world. One of the most famous Greeks is Plato, and his most famous book is called the Republic. We were assigned to read it in graduate school, and, to be honest, I found it tough going. There was one part of it, however, that was very easy and exciting to read; it was called the “Allegory of the Cave.”

Most of us are familiar to some extent with this story. It presents a group of humans chained in a cave so they can only look ahead at a wall. Behind them a great fire rages, and in front of the fire, slaves carry objects carved of clay and wood and ivory, and the light of the fire projects shadows of those objects upon the wall. The people in the cave, there from birth, think the shadows they are seeing are the only reality there is. They can't see the fire or the slaves, so they assume that the shadows are what is real. Plato then asks his students to consider what it would be like for those people to leave the cave and see something real for the first time. The students reply, "They would say that the reality they saw outside of the cave would make the shadows on the wall look like foolishness."

In Luke chapter nine we have something like that going on with Jesus and his disciples. Peter figures out who Jesus is, and as soon as he does, Jesus takes him and James and John up on a mountain for a transfiguration. They are, in effect, led out of the cave to see the real thing! They are absolutely stunned by his glory and power.

Today we will look at why Jesus did this, and how important it is for those who are his disciples to be "on message" . . . that is, getting the point of what he expects his disciples to relay to the world.

Mark

Spiritual Reading List

Want to dig in deeper on your own? Here's a list of good books to work through. Put your own thoughts about these books in a comment...

The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible
New Revised Standard Version



Pilgrim Heart: The Way of Jesus in Everyday Life
by Darryl Tippens















Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth
by Richard Foster















Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home
by Richard Foster




The Practice of the Presence of God
by Brother Lawrence



Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense
by N.T. Wright