Each recognizes the wealth they have as belonging to themselves, as something that they have earned and deserve, and do not see themselves as people who have been blessed.
By Rev. Raymond Hodgson
A letter is printed in a local newspaper from a woman who has a good job, happy and healthy family, and financial security.
She has “worked her butt off to get where we are” and is offended when others suggest that she is “blessed”. God, in her opinion, has nothing to do with her success.
How do we feel about her perspective? How do we feel about our own relationships, material possessions, and health? Do we understand ourselves as being “blessed”, or have we independently earned (and deserve) all that we have?
These are important questions for people of faith to address — do we really acknowledge the role of God in our lives through these kinds of concrete ideas?
Dr. Walter Brueggemann writes about how “the illusion of autonomy” is addressed in scripture, as it has always been a seductive idea for those “who have prospered in an unjust system”.
My Nile is my own; I made it for myself (Ezekiel 29:3)
The prophet imagines Pharaoh expressing this attitude, just as Jesus would later tell the parable of the farmer who tore down all his barns in order to build larger ones, because his land had “produced abundantly” (Luke 12:13-21).
Each recognizes the wealth they have as belonging to themselves, as something that they have earned and deserve, and do not see themselves as people who have been blessed.
Dr. Brueggemann suggests that “it is the work of the church to foster an alternative perspective that affirms that life is grounded in gifts generously given”, the most generous of which is the self-giving of God in Jesus Christ. What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? (I Corinthians 4:7)
St. Paul was neither the first, nor the last, to address these questions. If we are to foster that alternative perspective, we need to begin by acknowledging God’s role in our own lives: we rely on God’s grace for all that we have, and all that we are. The way in which we are in the world needs to reflect this understanding.
The way in which we think about our possessions and our relationships can announce to the world that we recognize that we are truly blessed. In Jesus Christ we have received a gift which is never deserved, but always a blessing. The ways in which we offer thanks to God for all that God has done proclaims the Good News.
Rev. Dr. Raymond Hodgson is a member of the Diocesan Stewardship Committee and the rector of St. Bartholomew's, Sarnia.