Privilege, Entitlement and Gratitude: Parish Magazine Item for December

From The Rectory

I’ve just had a nice hot shower, for which I’m particularly thankful, as yesterday morning the power was off. Our eldest almost needed a boat to get to the school bus today, but he lived through it! It’s great that there’s a good school virtually on our doorstep and transport so readily available.

And so we could go on. There are so many things which we normally take for granted. Some of us do not have what we might like, or some of the shiny new things we notice others have. We may have to watch the pennies very carefully. But compared to most people down through history or around the world we have so much. The vast majority of the populations of Liberia, The Central African Republic, or Burundi, would find our consumption and waste almost offensive. A time traveller from Medieval or Victorian England would marvel at the affluence and convenience of life in modern Sussex. The choice available in a 24-7 supermarket is almost ridiculous and can be bewildering. And I am tempted to go and count the number of cheeses one could buy from our own village shop to make the point.

Yet we so easily take all this and more for granted. Perhaps we wouldn’t say so, but we behave as if we feel entitled. We can readily fly into a rage if the internet is slow, or the laptop takes an age to update at an inconvenient moment. Or we can feel so disappointed if that meal or event isn’t just so. Or expectations are sometimes so high that nothing can please us.

This December, amidst all the feasting of Christmas and the uncertainty of a General Election, let’s pause to thank God for all that he has given us, for the innumerable blessings which we enjoy. If we do not have all that we desire, we certainly have far more than we deserve.

Remember Remembrance? Gratitude is something we can learn from those who found themselves in the mud of the Somme. That hell on earth showed them with new eyes all that there was to give thanks for at home. Many soldiers came from poverty, but the trenches revealed in a new way the horrors of which human beings are capable.

And in the Second World War, on the home front, the privations of rationing were a reminder to some of the plenty of better times.

Or think instead of that first Christmas. Jesus was totally privileged. Absolutely and rightly entitled. He was by nature God the Son, the Second Person of the Eternal Trinity. Yet he chose to leave all the glory of heaven for the poverty of a no-where-place. In the words of the carol:

God of God, Light of Light,
Lo! he abhors not the Virgin’s womb.

He was born in disgrace and fear, soon fleeing as a hunted refugee with a price on his head. A majestic throne was his by right, but he chose an animal’s feeding trough. Not only so, but for much of his short life he had no where to lay his head. He would die a shameful death for us, in our place.

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becomes poor.

(From a Hymn by Frank Houghton (1894-1972) based on 2 Corinthians 8v9)

May you and your family enjoy a very happy and thankful Christmas. May God give us grateful and joyful hearts that we may be content with little or much.

The Revd Marc Lloyd