10 Pentecost, Proper 12
28 Jul 2024
Last week I spoke of unity, not uniformity. We can, if we choose, live in peace with each other and for the mutual benefit of all, but instead humans have chosen uniformity: we must all be the same or be outcasts. There has to be a litmus test.
This week the reading from John is literally the same story Mark told last week, only the reading from Mark omitted the feeding of the thousands. This week the word “gratitude” sings out from the text. What does not sing out is the word “ingratiation". Unity/uniformity; gratitude/ingratiation.
People who practice gratitude in their lives find themselves transformed. I do not believe you can have a deep spirituality without a deep sense of gratitude. Jesus give thanks to God and was able to feed all those people. Call it what you will: miracle or something not supernatural, it happened, and everyone was truly grateful. Thanks be to God!
These people were all subjects of the Roman empire. In the eyes of Rome, everything belonged to Caesar. He was considered a god and the lord and savior of all. He distributed to his subjects both tangible items and favors, which were called “gratia.” Everything, from land to the smallest piece of food, was a gift from Caeser. It was not freely given. You owed him something in return, whether taxes or loyalty or service. You were never out of debt to him. If you did not pay him back you became an “ingrate” which was literally a crime.
This was the world in which Jesus lived and moved. He knew this very well. He was, in fact, on the Roman side of the lake. John makes a big point about this! So to offer food to people with no expectation of repayment was an act that was truly countercultural. Everyone who ate on the grass that day, and note there was even enough grass for everyone to sit upon, knew this. This was so anti-Rome! No wonder he attracted such large crowds. He asked only for them to have gratitude to God; never did he seek ingratiation to himself or God.
It seems that when humans lived in small tribes or villages, there was more mutuality and gratitude to one another. When societies grew and became large and anonymous, the system changed. Prophets had to remind the wealthy and elite of Israel that their first obligation was to provide for the members of their society who struggled economically. Jesus knew there was enough for all and that the abundance God has provided for humans is to be shared and gratitude given, for everything from food and shelter to love and to beauty. I thank God for the green of the earth, for my friends and family, and for all the abundance poured out for us. That is gratitude. You cannot ingratiate yourself to God, no matter how hard you may try. What favor can you possibly do for God? Living a life of gratitude and thanks is not the same and believing you will be saved from hell by doing some sort of penance or saying a hundred hail Mary’s.
The history of western Europe (and I speak only of Europe because that is the history I know) is full of human governments that were built of a quid pro quo system, a system where one ingratiated oneself by doing favors for the leader of the day. I find it interesting how much trouble Europeans had understanding Native American systems of government, where mutual respect and care were much more the norm.
How easy it is to fall into the trap of currying favor with money, or of accepting money in exchange to doing someone a favor. There is nothing Christian, or Jewish for that matter, about any of it.
If you were with that large crowd of probably 10,000 people, what do you think Jesus could do. He found sitting room for all and he provided food for all; in fact there was more food at the end of the meal than before people sat down. How could that be? John, like the other Gospel writers who told the same story, was not interested in a scientific explanation or even a social explanation of how it happened. God provides; Caeser does not.
We, who are followers of Jesus, must be careful. We must be aware of where and to whom we give gratitude and watch for the pitfall of ingratiation. Beware of anyone who becomes and ingratiate, especially in politics and religion. Were it not for ingratiates, Hitler and Mussolini and Louis XIV would never had made it. I daresay were it not for ingratiates Iowa would not be overwhelmed with hog, poultry, and beef confinements. The papacy would not be a wealthy nation state.
Beware of anyone who is never grateful but always ingratiate. Our job is to be grateful, thankful, to the god in whom we live and move and have our being. Jesus told his disciples they had everything they needed; so do we.
Be grateful for your life, every detail of it, and your face will come to shine like a sun, and everyone who sees it will be made glad and peaceful. Persist in gratitude, and you will slowly become one with the Sun of Love, and Love will shine through you its all-healing joy. The path of gratitude is not for children; it is path of tender heroes, of the heroes of tenderness who, whatever happens, keep burning on the altar of their hearts the flame of adoration.
Rumi
My work is loving the world
My work is loving the world.Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird - equal seekers of sweetness.Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let mekeep my mind on what matters,which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.The phoebe, the delphinium.The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,
Which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heartand these body-clothes,a mouth with which to give shouts of joyto the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,telling them all, over and over, how it isthat we live forever.
Mary Oliver
We have five pieces of bread and two fish and with that we will feed the world. Thanks be to God.
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