The Great Escape is one of my all-time favorite movies.  It is a fictional version of a real-life daring mass escape by Allied prisoners from a German POW camp during World War II.  James Garner plays (with his usual roguish charm) the role of an American who wheedles, connives, and steals the supplies they need to make good their escape.  He accomplishes this, in part, through cultivating relationships with the German soldiers guarding them.  In one exchange, a German soldier confides that the dentist in the camp ‘is a butcher.’  As soon as he has let this slip, he asks Garner to keep it a secret.  Garner responds, “It’s a soldier’s right to complain.”  The German soldier says, ‘maybe in your army.’  In the German army, a complaint heard by the wrong ears was a ticket to the Russian front.

That remark, “It’s a soldier’s right to complain,” has always stood out to me.  Probably because I’m a complainer.  Whether it’s a right or not, complaining is a very human tendency.

Psalm 50 is one in which God speaks to the people of Israel, telling them that God is not impressed with their religious rites.  God wants something more.  God says animal sacrifice was not designed to satisfy God’s hunger.  If God was feeling like a snack, God wouldn’t ask us to dish something up.

Instead of worrying about finding a calf or a sheep to bring to the Temple, the psalm says:  “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and make good your vows to the Most High.” (Psalm 50:14)

God asks us to sacrifice our right to complain.  God knows how dearly we will feel it when we lay down our tendency to gripe about everything that is wrong, all that is lacking in us and in others.

Despite all those cheery admonitions you might read in Facebook to begin the day by naming three things you’re thankful for, it is not always easy to do.  It can be a real sacrifice.  But sacrifices have a way of bringing us closer to God.

Prayer:  Holy One, three things?  Really? Today?  Maybe if you gave me a hint…I’m listening…