Sunday, November 29, 2020

More Thoughts on Gratitude and Entitlement

Further elaboration of the thought I shared by Wilford Andersen was provided by Elder Dale Renlund:

The concept—“the greater the distance between the giver and the receiver, the more the receiver develops a sense of entitlement”—also has profound spiritual applications. Our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, are the ultimate Givers. The more we distance ourselves from Them, the more entitled we feel. We begin to think that we deserve grace and are owed blessings. We are more prone to look around, identify inequities, and feel aggrieved—even offended—by the unfairness we perceive. While the unfairness can range from trivial to gut-wrenching, when we are distant from God, even small inequities loom large. We feel that God has an obligation to fix things—and fix them right now!

This would indicate that those who characterize themselves as "woke" are actually better described as entitled. One might think that gratitude might encourage individuals to have the blessings that one enjoys shared more widely with others. In my experience, gratitude is more gracious than grating.

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Gratitude vs. Entitlement

Wilford W. Anderson has been credited with the following observation: “The greater the distance between the giver and the receiver, the more the receiver develops a sense of entitlement.”

I have been able to witness this principle in action many times. I have seen colleagues who openly mock the individuals who so graciously and generously donated the funds that allow them have employment. On the other hand, I have been impressed by one colleague who deliberately buys the products of a company that funds part of his research.

In the Old Kingdom, a number of wealthy individuals set up a series of endowments. The purpose of these endowments was to provide offerings for the deceased in perpetuity after they were gone. The endowments do not seem to have been used for the intended purpose more than one generation after the death of the donor. This may provide some historical evidence for Anderson's observation.

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Gratitude in Mesopotamia

In his Assyrian dictionary, Simo Parpola lists the term karabu as meaning "to thank." One of the definitions that the Chicago Assyrian dictionary lists for karabu is:

to invoke blessings upon other persons (for a specific purpose) before the images of the gods, to pray to the gods.

Parpola also list karibu as meaning "thankful."

So in ancient Mesopotamia, like ancient Egypt, to thank someone was to pray to the gods on their behalf. As in Egypt, gratitude involved god.

This seems a long way from the modern world, and would be were it not for the fact that a relative of this Mesopotamian term has survived into English in two different forms. One of the Hebrew words related to karabu is kerub or cherub. The actual Akkadian cognate is thought to be karibu "thankful." The cherubim (the plural form of cherub) were woven into the curtains surrounding the tabernacle of Moses. In the temple of Solomon they were erected in three dimensions and larger than life surrounding the throne of God. 

The general depiction of the cherubs throughout the West Semitic world shares similarities, even though Phoenician and Israelite cherubs were not identical in form. The Phoenician word and the general form was borrowed into Greek as the gryps, which is the origin of English gryphon or griffin.

In a way, gratitude allows the cherubim to be in the presence of God and behold his face.

Monday, November 23, 2020

Gratitude in Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptian expression meaning "to thank" is dw3-ntr. Literally, it means "to praise god (for)." If you wanted to thank someone, you would praise god for them. An early example of this (from the Old Kingdom) is the inscription of Ptahwash:

His majesty praised him because of it; he praised god for him (i.e. he thanked him) more than anything. (Urk. I 44.)

Nearly three thousand years later the same expression is used in late Ptolemaic period manuscripts of the Book of Thoth:

May I praise god for you (i.e. let me thank you). (P. Berlin 15531 8/5)

Expressing thanks by praising god for someone centers the action on god rather than on the individual involved.

In the Ptolemaic Period, another expression for gratitude appeared: šp šms. Literally, it means "to receive service (from)" or "to receive worship (from)." This expression, while still related to the divine realm is not as centered on god as the previous one.

In Coptic, the idiom has changed again to šp hmot, meaning "to receive grace (from)" or "to receive a favor (from)" or even "to receive a gift from." The background assumption is that gratitude would always accompany the reception of a gift or favor. To do otherwise is unthinkable.

At least as framed in the Egyptian language, entitlement is culturally unheard of. Gratitude was automatic and acknowledge God. This is something worth pondering and applying in modern times.

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Grace and Gratitude

Protestant Christianity emphasizes the concept of the grace of God, some even elevating the role of grace to preeminence by the slogan "by grace alone." This is a more recent development. As the scholar, Edward Schillebeeckx, noted that when one looks at

the theology of grace (charis and gratia) in the patristic writers, it is immediately evident that ‘grace’ did not formally become the centre of theological reflection until the later works of Augustine in his polemic with Pelagius. (Edward Schillebeeckx, Christ: The Experience of Jesus as Lord, trans. John Bowden (New York: Crossroad, 1983), 83)

In fact, Schillebeeckx observes that “the explicit theological use of charis in the New Testament is restricted almost exclusively to Paul and his school.” Jesus's use of the term, on the other hand, is “usually not with a theological meaning” (ibid.)

In most English versions of the New Testament, the term grace is a translation of Greek charis. One of the major definitions of charis is "thanks, gratitude" and this is the way that Jesus uses the term (as discussed in this article). As an exercise, try substituting "gratitude" for grace in New Testament passages (it may not always be the best translation, but it is food for thought). Here are some examples which I pulled off a Protestant site discussing grace:

We "grow in the gratitude and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 2:18).

"Be strengthened by the gratitude that is in Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 2:1).

"God is able to make all gratitude abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may about in every good work" (2 Corinthians 2:8).

"The abundance of gratitude and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).

In this season of gratitude, perhaps we should remember the way that Jesus used the term grace.

Saturday, November 21, 2020

The Thank Offering

One of the basic offerings of the Law of Moses was the peace offering. A subcategory of peace offering was the thank offering (Leviticus 7:11-13). This offering, which was made of grain made into some sort of bread, or cake, or pastry, which was unleavened, Unlike the costly sacrifice of an entire animal, a thank offering did not need to be expensive. It was relatively simple expression of what came from the heart.

One of the things about this category of offerings that I have always appreciated is the name that they are given in the Septuagint: θυσίας σωτηρίου, the sacrifice of salvation. There is thus a connection between gratitude and salvation. That is something to be grateful for.