Year C. 1st Sunday of Lent
March 4th, 2001
Lord of the Lake Lutheran Church
Web page http://lordofthelake.org
By The Rev. Jerry Morrissey, Esq., Pastor
E-mail pastor@southshore.com
DEUTERONOMY 26:1-11
Heavenly Father we recognize that we are truly dependent on You alone for everything. Amen.
Title: “Gratitude”
When the Israelites moved from a nomadic economy to an agricultural one, that is, when they settled down in the Promised Land, they adopted some of the ceremonies proper to such an economy, ceremonies they found in place among the indigenous Canaanites. Only the Canaanites worshipped Baal as god of the rain and offered the first fruits of any harvest, be it grain or grape, to him. So, besides adopting these ceremonies, the Israelites adapted them to fit their own religion and their own God, Yahweh. This text records the first instance of the ceremony of offering the fist fruits, the best of the harvest, to Yahweh, its “first cause.” It was Yahweh who provided the rain, not Baal, and Yahweh who provided the sun, the soil and saw to the germination and growth. So, it was only right that Yahweh receive his share of the produce, the results, the fruits. The Israelites knew that, strictly speaking, the whole harvest belonged to Yahweh, but that just as he shared it with them, they would dedicate some of it to him, to be used by the priests for holy purposes, namely, the support of the priests who had no land of their own. That did not mean that their responsibility to share what was theirs with others, especially the poor, was fulfilled thereby, but only that they recognized that such sharing without a token offering, a “tithe,” a tenth of their first harvest, back to Yahweh would not make “holy” what they did with the rest of their fruits. This initial ceremony is recorded so that later Israelites might know how to do it and why they do it, so that they might “remember” for themselves and ‘recite” for future generations, especially the young and foreigners, the great deeds Yahweh has done and continues to do.
Related to that “remembering” is the notion of “beginning anew.” Every harvest is a new beginning for the Israelites, a time to get back to the basics, to correct errors and “wanderings” from the center of life as Yahweh has revealed it through his word and his works. To connect the past and the present the Israelites to a “that was then, this is now” approach. They recited, in the briefest summary form, their common past, their history, their history with the mystery who is Yahweh, to express aloud to themselves and explain to their children and any other nations why they were doing what they were doing. They were making the past present and changing their behavior in its light. They remembered and formally recited how they came from hard bondage in Egypt, through the Exodus, to freedom and abundance. They knew they owed it all to God, who gave his word and kept it. They moved from slaves in a foreign land to landholders in their own. To keep faithful to the faithful God they must recall, keep their memory green, the way it was then and give thanks for the way it is now by offering a prime portion of the fruits of their labor back to the God who favored them.
In verse four, “the priest shall then receive the basket”: After the exile the role of the priest was enhanced because of the absence of a king and his court. The focus shifts to the court of the Temple. These “first-fruits,” promises of more to come, represented the best of the crop. They were to give back to God from the “top” not the bottom or worst of the crop.
In verse five, “then you shall declare before the Lord”: The giver explains the action of giving by reciting a kind of creed, a series of belief-statements, which make sense of the tithe.
My father was a wandering Aramean: No matter how many centuries might pass, every Jew saw the patriarchs as their fathers. Within the notion of “corporate personality” there was really no time factor. They knew their ancestors were dead, yet they felt their presence within and among them. From this consciousness they derived their heightened sense of Jewish identity and purpose. The Arameans are first mentioned in records of the Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser I about 1112-1074BC. The word probably means “nomad,” hence the “wandering” may be redundant or really mean “mortal, in danger of perishing.” They first appeared as a nomadic tribe of the Syrian Desert who attacked the settled country and finally settled there in the regions of northern Syria and southern Babylonia, merging with the Chaldeans. The Hebrews were chiefly, though not exclusively, Aramean in origin. In the table of nations Genesis 10:22; Aram is listed as a son of Shem from which we get “Semite”. Aramaic, the language of the Arameans and possibly the Hebrews before their settlement in Canaan is a NW Semitic language. The commerce of the Arameans carried their language far and wide, becoming the language of commerce and trade throughout the Near East and beyond. In fact, it was the common language of the Persian Empire until replaced in the West by Greek. Similar to Hebrew, though simpler, it remained the language of the common folk in the east until Arabic replaced it in the seventh century AD under the influence of Islam.
Verses five to nine: This is a summary of salvation history. Surprisingly, the events at Sinai are skipped over, perhaps for the sake of brevity. The main thrust is the “that was then, this is now” scenario. God rescued them then and he continues to do so. Praise in words such as these is due him and thanksgiving in deeds and gifts are but a token, inadequate, but the best the offerer can do in order to return thanks.
Verse ten : Therefore I have now brought you: The “first-fruits” were representative of both the actual first round of produce and the entire crop of which the offering was a promise, pledge, guarantee of more to come. It was considered the best of the crop and so deserving to be given back to God. It was given willingly, cheerfully and gratefully.
Of the soil which you, O Lord, have given me: The giver knew that the Lord was responsible for the “beginnings” as so really held title to the “end.” This was, then, not so much a gift as it was recognition of a gift given by God and a desire to share with God the fruits of his goodness. It was the best of the crop and the best the grateful person could do, given the Giver.
In verse eleven, “you …shall make merry”: Giving back to God is to be a joyful, celebrative act, not a dreary, begrudging fulfillment of an obligation.
Elements of the custom of offering the first fruits of the harvest found their way into the three great feasts of Israel. At the feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, the pilgrim brought along and offered a sheaf of first fruits according to Lev23: 10ff. The feast of Pentecost was also called the “the day of the first fruits” according toNum28: 26. The first fruits of wine could not be offered until the feast of Tabernacles, when the vintage had ripened. This indicates how the offering of the best of anything back to the God who gave it in the first place is both basic and pervasive. It’s a concept we can adopt and adapt in our own present-day lives. When the harvest starts to come in and the first round of crops are picked it is not only a time for rejoicing and thanks, it is also a promise of more to come. There is great hope that is harvested as well. Even we today depend on a good agricultural harvest. None of us would eat if there were not successful harvests somewhere in the world. While the ancient Israelites could get food from foreign countries, that’s how they got to Egypt in the first place, money to buy it would not be available, given their own dependence of their own land’s fertility. We in the western world are in a little better shape to buy food elsewhere should our crops fail. Nonetheless most of us are not involved in the actual growing of crops, at least not beyond a small truck garden that might supplement our diet. We hardly depend on it, as did the ancient Israelites.
Yet, we do have our own modern equivalent of the “harvest.” Only, we call it payday. This is the periodic, weekly, every two weeks or monthly, day when the fruits of our labors are reaped, albeit in “coin” rather than in kind. This text reminds us that before we pay our debts and before we put a little away for a rainy day, farmers do not dread a “rainy” day, we are to offer a portion, a healthy portion, not a pittance, to the Lord, giving back to him a token of what we accomplished by his grace. The Scripture tells us that a tenth, which is what the word “tithe” means, is a good standard to use. That’s standard, not exact measurement. We need not become like the Pharisees and measure out exact amounts. We give from the top of our earnings, crop, not the bottom, the first, the best, not the leftovers or the dregs. We do so because we want to show gratitude, not to pay off God. We do so also because we want the rest of the expenditure of our money to be as “holy,” as “dedicated” to God’s purposes as the first fruits.
The story is not about amounts, but about gratitude. Gratitude begins with the recognition of our dependence of God for everything. The ancients, like farmers of all ages, had little trouble knowing who provided the necessary conditions for growth. In our technological society most of us are farther removed from many or most of the processes whereby goods reach us. However, we are not far removed from money. Money represents to us the fruit of our labor and it is most appropriate that we continue the ancient tradition of returning thanks to God not only in words but in kind. Thus we not only can adopt the attitude of the ancients, but also adopt the ceremony expressing it to our own time and circumstances. So, we give money to represent ourselves. Absent what it should represent, that is, gratitude, money is as empty a “gift” as second-class crops such as Cain offered unacceptably to God. It is the attitude of the giver, not the gift itself which determines its acceptability before God.
There are many “first fruits” in our lives, many more than paydays, many promising beginnings. Like getting up each morning and beginning a new day. We begin new weeks, new months, new seasons like Lent and Advent, new years, new schools, new jobs, new assignments. We start new lives when we marry, are ordained, promoted. We start new lives when we meet and make new friends, have new babies, marry again. This text about the ceremonies that accompany new beginnings, promising hopes, tell us that it is important to celebrate these events because the celebration will express their deeper meaning in ways we otherwise could not and will explain to others and ourselves, the meaning of our lives. It also tells us that it is important what we bring to the celebration, namely, the very best we have to offer. Otherwise the ceremony is just that, a ceremony, not really a celebration of meaning.
God is the true owner of everything. He lets us use his stuff. We don’t own it.
Without the energy, good health, talents, among other things, that God provides we could not work or make money.
God owns our money, as well as our food, our homes and other goods, even our bodies.
We give a tenth of our money directly to charity; we give the other nine-tenths indirectly to charity.
Giving to others, even to God, is an empty gesture unless we are mindful of why we are doing it.
Morning Prayer: This is an example of how we can adopt the attitude of the ancients and adapt it to different circumstances. Each new day is a promising beginning. We can wake up and say, “Oh God, its morning,” in two ways. One is using “Oh God” as a kind of lament and “morning” becomes a time for “mourning.” Or, we can use “Oh God” as an exclamation of joy and gratitude. We can offer to God, in our morning offering, the ‘first fruits” of the new day, a harvest begun but not finished yet. We can offer him our “first energy,” the energy we “grew” while sleeping, thanks to him. We can refuse to plunge into hurried activity and sit with him or kneel before him and get his and our wits about us, collect his and our thoughts and resolutions for the day, and offer him the best time of the day, our first waking moments. Refreshed by sleep, we can praise and thank him, ask forgiveness from him for yesterday’s inattentiveness and wrongs, resolve to forgive those who ignored or wronged us, and ask for his continued favor, while resolving to favor others. We can promise to spend his grace, given yesterday and in the past, wisely today. “Well begun is half-done.” If we begin our day well, we believe we will end it well and the harvest will be both greater and real. Yes, the morning offering is our own private ceremony of “first fruits.”
Lent: This is the first reading for the first Sunday of Lent, the beginning of a season where we stress repentance. Repentance means a change of heart, mind, attitude, and life, a turning back or around to face God and live our lives in such a way that we walk more and more into God’s realm and stay in God’s realm longer and longer. It is an opportunity to begin again. We offer him not the best of the crop of our lives, but the worst, really no “fruit” at all, except rotten fruit. Yet, we are confident that God will accept that offering and turn the rest of our lives into a truly fruitful one. He will let us rise from the ashes we have made, be rejuvenated like the self-immolated phoenix of mythology, and rise from the death of our own doing, transformed into a young and beautiful new phoenix. It is merely a ceremony to just go and get ashes. We must bring something to the ceremony if it is to be a harbinger of things, good things, to come. If we are to come out at the end of this season, this process, we might have empty hands at the beginning, but we can bring a full heart, a full-hearted resolve to give everything to the Lord and live every moment for and with the Lord. The beginning of Lent is another version of the ceremony of “first fruits,” mattering little how much we offer or what, mattering more how and with what kind of heart. The ancient Israelites had to return to working the fields after they offered their “first fruits.” Otherwise the harvest would have been over when the ceremony was over. We also must return to the “fields” of our own influence and work at them or there will be little difference between the beginning of Lent and its end. Lent is not about giving up something or anything. It is about giving up everything and giving back everything to its first cause, God. If the “something” we give up does not represent the “everything,” then it is a mere ceremonial observance of Lent, rather than a true celebration of our absolute dependence on God for the everything we give back to him, the owner, the real and only true owner of everything and everyone. Amen.
