Sanctifying Gratitude: 1st Timothy 4:4-5 & Psalm 148

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Godfried from Utrecht, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

              The first Church Council took place in Jerusalem—the question and controversy was over what non-Jews had to do to be a “Person of the Way” or as we might say today, part of the Church. Some said follow the whole law, others none of it. As Acts and Galatians report the end decision was somewhere between following an interpretation of the “Noahide” laws, the commandments Noah received in Genesis, and Paul’s famed, “Remember the poor.” So, a faithful life involved charity and minimal ritual purity to maintain table fellowship between Jewish and non-Jewish Christians.

              I bring all of this up, because as you can see in 1st Timothy there were folk practicing a variety of scruples, abstaining from marriage and from foods of one sort of another—perhaps those sacrificed to idols or that which was non-kosher, or something else entirely. Whatever the case, there was a new way to think about what makes our food holy, pure, and good—giving thanks for them. Recognition that the thing comes from God, transforms our relationship to it.

Imagine that framing of goodness. It is a recognition that in the beginning God created all that is, and it was, and is, good. Our acknowledgement of that goodness can transform a thing from problematic—declared ritually unclean or dedicated to idols—and make them pure and honoring of the one true God. So too marriage, not a compromise to unruly flesh or a relationship between unequals, as was commonly thought and practiced in the ancient world—but two people become one and pointing to the very image of God. Praise and thanksgiving for God’s good gifts makes the gift the very thing it is! All of it, relationships, food and drink, join in the grand chorus of praise to God that is creation!

They join praise from cosmos and planets, stars and moons their courses calling on God’s name. Earth and its core, molten and magma, atmosphere and ozone owing God all things. Hills and mountains, fertile ferns and towering trees, all the creatures tamed and not, critters and swooshing things, not to mention peoples of every sort—all of us join in that song of praise all of our days! It is sacred and holy, faithful and right to praise the LORD!

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