The beauty and promise of our first lesson from Deuteronomy 8, “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates”, and so forth, needs some further reflection, especially if, on this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, we plan to apply it to Canada as, I am sure, many generations of Canadian preachers have done.
In the original context, the Israelites are returning to their ancestral land after exile in Egypt. Others have occupied this land in their absence and they are given power over them. However, this gift comes with a warning, not to forget God: “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 this day”. And later, “Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth’”. Of course, from time to time the returned exiles did forget God; chaos and God’s punishment ensued.
The suggestion of this reading for Canadian Thanksgiving inevitably seems to suggest that the settlement of Canada was a bit like the Israelites coming into the Promised Land since Canada does have the agricultural, mineral and aquatic bounty described in this passage, though too cold for olive and pomegranate trees. However, here we must be careful, lest we put forward a kind of Canadian Christian nationalist theology and forget history.
The settlement of Canada was a colonial enterprise, as with all the great settler nations: the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In the Canadian case it was a search for a passage to Asia, a search for valuable furs and other wealth, the search for new agricultural land, development of new markets, a freer political and religious climate and, of course, souls to win for Christ. (One of my great-grandfathers fled conscription in the army of the German Kaiser to settle on a farm in Iowa; many of us have such family stories.)
But, of course, there were already First Nations peoples in North America (as there were aboriginal peoples in Australia and Maori in New Zealand) and the story of defeat and colonization and settler-governments was often not a happy one. At the time, the European expansion was understood as part of God’s divine plan – the so-called Doctrine of Discovery – but now we realize otherwise, especially as settler exploitation of the land and natural resources has been so destructive and unsustainable.
Thus, I believe any celebration of Canadian Thanksgiving is inevitably tinged with an element of penance and sorrow, aware that what we think was given to us was often taken from another who was here first. We need to be aware that the words of Deuteronomy 8 are also directed to Canada’s First Nations peoples, and encourage them to claim their proper rights and land. And, aware that we have been given the privilege of sharing the wealth of the land, we do well to stand with them in solidarity as they seek to enjoy the bounty of their land.
As Christians, this realization should not be too difficult for us. Christian teaching has never encouraged the accumulation of wealth in land or possessions. Indeed, as our second lesson, from 2 Corinthians, points out, we are about giving away – generosity – rather than selfish accumulation. What Paul is calling for is a generous heart: generosity towards those in need, generosity of spirit to all, being a cheerful giver, not giving under duress. He suggests that out of this generosity, more abundance will flow and we need not fear for the future.
Here there is another danger: the risk of seeing Christian giving as a kind of divine bank with a very high guaranteed rate of interest, what we sometimes call “the gospel of prosperity”. Televangelists use this interpretation to encourage people to give beyond their means, with miraculous stories of people becoming wealthy overnight after they have given to the church. The problem with the prosperity gospel is that it is self-interested giving, even selfish giving, focusing on the material wealth that is supposed to come back later. For genuine Christian giving, we do not know precisely what will be the result – perhaps it will be a call to a different lifestyle or a new ministry – but it will be the one God wants and the church will flourish. We give because we are thankful for creation, for our lives, for God’s love to us in Jesus Christ, for the blessings of the church – not because we hope to get a high return on our investment.
Today’s Gospel, the eloquent story of the healed Samaritan leper, a hated outcast, who returns to give thanks after he is healed, while other nine privileged ones do not, reminds us, again, that Christian life is all about thanksgiving. Privilege sometimes blinds us to God’s healing work in us and the need to give thanks. We can be sure that the healed Samaritan leper never forgot what happened to him and was an agent of love, generosity and healing for the rest of his life.
As we know, St. Luke liked human interest stories, so let us dwell a bit more personally on this story. It has always been one of my favourites: the marginal one returning to give thanks. More than once I have found myself literally going back to a person or place where I have felt divine intervention or protection in my life. So, for a moment, think of a person (the leper goes back to a person, Jesus), place or a situation where you have felt Christ’s love in your life and, even if you have not revisited the site, think of it, and say “thank you” to God. . . . Let each of us be like the leper who returned to give thanks in today’s Gospel.
We say “thank you” about God’s healing and love in the past not to be fixated on the past or backward looking but because thanksgiving about the past is the ground for our future. If strangers meet us and find us sour and bitter, lacking the joy of forgiveness and thanksgiving, we are not good representatives of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Putting all this together, we rejoice in the exultant praise of Psalm 65. Even though we and our ancestors have sometimes made of mess of things, even if we have sometimes been begrudging and not cheerful in our giving, even though we have sometimes not returned to give thanks like the faithful leper, we can join in praise of God; with the hope that that praise and thanksgiving will become a permanent part of our lives.
Finally, of course, we come together in the Eucharist or Great Thanksgiving, where we offer all our lives and thanks to God. We say sorry, we promise to do better, we receive God’s grace, and we are sent out as part of the new and thankful creation to do God’s healing work in the world. Thanks be to God!
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