“Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvested. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be eatin' it, if we hadn't done it all ourselves. We worked Dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel. But we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for this food we’re about to eat. Amen.”
Charlie Anderson made no pretense about who he felt was responsible for all that had gone into producing their meal: him and his family. He credited their hard work, but not God’s providence. Why, even the Apostle Paul, though crediting himself and Apollos for planting and “watering,” declared “God gave the growth.” In fact, Charlie credited God with ... nothing.
I could not imagine anyone being more disrespectful to God or less grateful to God for the blessings of this life. There was absolutely nothing redeeming about Charlie’s prayer, and certainly nothing to Charlie’s relationship with God.
Or so I thought at the time.
I had yet to get to know those who crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Oh, I knew about the Exodus with its plagues and miracles. And I knew about the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. But that next generation? They weren’t on my judgmental radar. To my young mind, they were the heroes of the story. They crossed over. They marched around Jericho. They were the ones who made it.
I wonder what Charlie Anderson would make of this week’s Lectionary passage from Joshua?
These “Children of Israel” were the “wilderness generation.” Most spent their entire lives living on Manna. They absolutely knew their entire existence had depended on God’s willingness to provide them the essentials of life. And then, upon crossing the Jordan, they were given an entire land full of food; animals they didn’t raise, produce they neither planted nor watered. They were allowed to live in houses, entire cities, they didn’t build. God gave them everything.
Not a single one of them could have prayed Charlie Anderson’s prayer.
They knew they had nothing to do with making any of that. They knew. And yet ... Oh, they seemed thankful. But, after entering the Promised Land, over and over they acted as if God’s providence to them did not warrant the one thing God had requested in return: their obedience. They had, and continued to have, a problem acknowledging the sovereignty of God. He was their Lord, but their actions said they didn’t really accept Him as such.
I was wrong about Charlie Anderson. I judged him on standards that do not exist for followers of Jesus. Because of his love for his deceased wife, Charlie also thanked God in his prayer. You can compare Charlie to the parent who, in his distress and worry about his child, cried to Jesus, “I believe! Help my unbelief!” Even though Charlie couldn’t come up with any good reason to do so, at least in his estimation of what it took to put that food on that table, Charlie Anderson thanked God “just the same, anyway.”
And called Him, “Lord.”
The worst prayer, ever? The one where, even though we cannot think of a single reason to do so, has no point at which we “thank you just the same anyway, Lord.”
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PHOTO: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0059711/?ref=m_nv_sr_1
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Fourth Sunday in Lent (March 31, 2019)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=121
Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm 32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
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Thankful: just one of the reasons we gather Friday mornings for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. Join us at the Waco “Egg and I” restaurant at 8:00 for an hour that also includes good food, prayer, great fellowship, Bible, discussion, and, inevitably, a lot of laughter.
Blessings,
Steve
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