November 23, 2014
A Symphony of Thanksgiving
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 & Philippians 4:4-9
Preface to the Word
In just a few days now, people throughout this country and Americans all around the globe will
observe a holiday we call “Thanksgiving.” We’ll prepare our feasts of turkey and stuffing, yams,
cranberry sauce, rolls, vegetables, and, of course, pumpkin pie. (What Thanksgiving dishes that
are part of your Thanksgiving meal that I haven’t yet mentioned?)
As we gather around the table, our thoughts and conversation may turn to our past and images of
pilgrims and Indians might capture our imagination. Maybe we’ll remember why that first feast
was held. We’ll remember that the European settlers’ first winter in their new land was cruel and
killing, and yet somehow… somehow by God’s mercy and grace, they survived. We’ll realize
that as their first fruitful harvest was gathered it was almost inevitable and spontaneous that they
should join around a table with one another and their Native American neighbors to express their
joy for simply being alive, and to thank Almighty God for the sustenance that would now keep
them going for another year.
And, as we share this day with our families and friends and enjoy each other’s company, as we
breathe in the smells of the feast being prepared in the kitchen and listen to the sounds of love
and friendship that fill the air, surely deep within our hearts we will say to our wonderful Creator
and the Lover of the universe, “Thank you.”
On this Thanksgiving Sunday, which anticipates our Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, there
could hardly be a more appropriate Old Testament lesson than this reading from Deuteronomy
26, for this text contains the instructions for a thanksgiving ceremony in ancient Israel.
Let’s listen as it is read to us now…
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Sermon
I.
A. What’s described here is the annual thanksgiving observance known as Shavuot, or “The
Feast of Weeks” in English, and “Pentecost” in Greek. Besides its significance as the day on
which the Torah was revealed by God to the Israelite nation at Mount Sinai, Shavuot was
also connected to the season of the grain harvest in Israel in late May or early June. In
ancient times, the grain harvest lasted seven weeks and was a season of gladness. It began
with the harvesting of the barley during Passover and ended with the harvesting of the wheat
at Shavuot. Shavuot was the concluding festival of the grain harvest. It was also the first day
on which individuals could bring the bikkurim (first fruits) to the Temple in Jerusalem. The
bikkurim were brought from the Seven Species for which the Land of Israel is praised: wheat,
barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates.
In the agrarian society of ancient Israel, Jewish farmers would tie a reed around the first
ripening fruits from each of these seven species growing in their fields. At the time of
harvest, the fruits identified by the reed would be cut and placed in baskets woven of gold
and silver. The baskets would then be loaded on oxen whose horns were gilded and laced
with garlands of flowers, and which were led in a grand procession to Jerusalem. As the
farmer and his entourage passed through cities and towns, they might be accompanied by
music and parades.
The reading from Deuteronomy 26 explains how the worshiper comes to the central
sanctuary and gives thanks for God’s gift of the land, which they now inhabit, and for the
Lord’s bounteous blessing.
B. This ancient ritual of harvest and gratitude has the feel of a “symphony” of thanksgiving with
three major movements, or three themes running all through it. The themes are
Remembering, Giving, and Rejoicing. It occurs to me that these three themes still run
through the symphony of our Thanksgiving today. Indeed, thanksgiving centered on faith
would be incomplete and off-the-mark without each one of these three themes.
II.
A. First, a faith-formed thanksgiving involves remembering. In the ancient ritual, as the
grateful worshiper celebrated the Festival of Weeks in the sanctuary, he was to recite before
God the story of his people’s deliverance from Egypt. You may have noticed that the basic
confession of faith in the form of a story was recited in the first person…
“A wandering Aramean was my father… The Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted
us… Then we cried to the Lord… and the Lord brought us out of Egypt… and he brought us
to this place.”
B. This backward glance perceived God at work in the worshiper’s history and in the history of
the worshipers people. God was sensitive to the people’s despair, lovingly present, and
powerfully able to deliver and to bless. The Exodus event was not just some history book
story, but a very personal story and an affirmation of faith. And as the worshiper brought a
basket of fruit from that year’s harvest, it was understood that the blessings of that particular
year and that particular moment were the continuing gifts from the same God who led them
out of bondage centuries before. The God who acted then, still acted – still sensitive to the
people’s needs, still lovingly present, still powerfully capable to deliver and to bless.
Looking back with this faithful perspective makes us aware and alive not only to the ways
God has blessed, but continues to bless yet today.
C. Our observance of thanksgiving today includes remembering. As we gather together with
family and friends for thanksgiving, we, like the ancient worshipers in the reading from
Deuteronomy, can look back and find ample reasons to approach God with grateful hearts.
D. Our thanksgiving remembrance can and should bring before us the mighty acts of God, both
great and small, that have graced our lives and the generations before us who have brought us
to this day.
We can remember the God of deliverance, whose will and righteousness was reflected in the
abolition of slavery in this country and whose compassion and justice is still at work in the
liberation of the oppressed. Each of us can take time to remember with thanksgiving the
ways, great and small, in which this same God has delivered us from our own personal
moments of despair and fear.
We can remember how God has blessed the people with the wise and forward-thinking
leaders of our country who, in our nation’s infancy, hammered out a constitution and formed
a government of the people, by the people, for the people. We can remember over the course
of our nation’s history those courageous leaders whose greatest interest was to serve the
people and develop the character of the country, who led us through conflict and hardship,
who worked to protect the well-being of all inhabitants in the land… from the least to the
greatest, and who reminded us of our greatest virtues and potential. And each of us can take
time to remember with thanksgiving all the special ones in our personal lives who have
guided us toward our best selves and imparted wisdom to us when we were lost and
wandering.
On this Thanksgiving holiday we can remember together how God’s care and love have been
expressed through legislation and helping institutions and partnerships that serve the
common good. And we can each remember with thanksgiving how God has blessed us with
loving friends, and health, and opportunities and resources for service.
And, as citizens of a heavenly kingdom, we can remember how God so loved the world that
God gave his Son, and how God’s Son went as far as the Cross to demonstrate beyond all
doubt just how far God’s love will go for humanity’s redemption. We can remember how
God’s saving power continues to resurrect what appears to be dead and hopeless. And we can
each remember with thanksgiving the very personal ways that the God of our ancestors,
through Christ Jesus, has carried us personally, has transformed our hearts, has empowered
us with God’s love, has gifted us with The Way to abundant life, has taught us Kingdom
principles and truths, and has delivered us from slavery to sin and death. As we remember,
thanksgiving flows from our hearts like a bubbling spring.
E. How will you and I remember our story this Thanksgiving?
III.
A. The second theme running through the ancient harvest festival and our Thanksgiving today is
giving. Giving is a reflex of thanksgiving. A really thankful person, is one that gives, one that
pays forward the blessing, one that pays back the grace.
B. In Deuteronomy, people brought a basket with the first fruit of the land. After reciting the
historical creed, the grateful worshiper sets it before the Lord’s altar saying,
“…now I bring the first fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.”
To say “thanks,” they offered back to the purposes of God some of what God had given them
in the first place, no matter how abundant it was or how lean it was. Giving thanks meant
giving. Their gratitude was expressed by bringing their first fruits.
C. We’re not an agrarian country and we don’t typically think in terms of giving the first fruits
of a harvest. We think of giving money. In a society where most of us are not farmers
anymore, giving money is the same thing as giving “fruit,” – the “fruit of our labor.”
D. But the giving attuned to thanksgiving is much more than this, much more than sitting down
once a year to give thanks, much more than putting money in an offering plate, much more
than writing a check to a good cause. Thanksgiving is “thanks-living”… an approach to life
that says “thank you, Lord” and offers back to God some of the gifts that God has blessed us
with, whether it be money, a spiritual gift, the ability to listen, or special knowledge.
We’ve all been given time. How do we offer back our time to God? Many of us have been
given good health, caring hearts, inquiring curiosity, mature faith, as well as material goods
and a place in the community. Are these not “fruits” in today’s world?
E. The apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians about the “fruits” that the Holy Spirit produces in
us… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Jesus said in metaphor that a branch grafted onto himself, the vine, would bear “fruit.” The
act of thanksgiving motivates us to offer a portion of these fruits with which we have been
blessed back to God, the Giver. The gifts we return to God can mean anything from bringing
an offering, to holding one’s hand, to feeding a hungry person, to campaigning against social
injustice.
“’So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You
shall set it down before the LORD your God, and bow down before the LORD your God…”
(Deut. 26:10)
F. In what ways does our thanksgiving lead to thanks-living? What “fruits” are in our thank
offering to God?
IV.
A. Finally, the last verse in our scripture reading includes one more theme that runs through the
symphony of thanksgiving.
“Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate
with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.” (Deut.
26:11)
Other translations of this Bible verse use the word “rejoice” in place of “celebrate.” But
whether “celebrate” or “rejoice,” the message is clear. Joy is the mark of one who has
received and accepted God’s grace with thanksgiving.
Remember with joy. Give with joy. Worship with joy.
B. To quote from The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible: “The experience of joy, as related
to praise and thanksgiving in public worship, or to the quiet confidence of the individual in
God, or to the proclamation of God’s saving power, is one of the characteristic elements in
religious faith as this is described in the Bible.”
C. Joy… one of the characteristic elements in religious faith! Joy! It is based on thankfulness,
and confidence, and a sense of God’s saving power. So, where is the joy today? Do you
know joy in God? Do we know how to rejoice in our worship?
If there is one word I would use to describe people’s general state of mind in our society
today, it would not be joy! It would more likely be the word “depression,” or “stress,” or
“angry,” or “anxious,” or “insecure.” Joy feels like the missing element in today’s life, often
inside the church as well as out. I’m talking about pervasive joy – not the passing happiness
we experience at a special event or accomplishment, but a permeating joy that fills us and
moves us.
Could it be that joy is missing in our lives because we are, deep down, ungrateful people?
Because thanksgiving in our lives has been swallowed up by anxiety?
D. In Philippians 4, the apostle Paul wrote:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to
everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of
God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus.” (Phil 4:4-7)
E. Do you realize that the church in Philippi had been plagued with opposition since its
founding… that Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians while he was in prison awaiting trial
and possibly execution?
F. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” Why? Because joy is the disposition
of the person whose heart and mind is guarded by the peace of God in Christ Jesus. Joy is
anchored and sustained through “prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.” Joy, like
giving, radiates from a heart filled with thanksgiving; a thanksgiving that remembers God’s
favor through the ages and knows that God is still at work in the same way in our world and
in our lives.
G. Is anxiety overwhelming the joy in our lives? How might our thanksgiving lead us to
rejoicing?
V.
Thus the symphony of thanksgiving continues and comes to a crescendo this Thursday with
feasting and fellowship with family and friends. May the movements of Remembering,
Giving and Rejoicing sweep us up in the melody of faith so that thanksgiving, in its
completeness, will become the nature of our life and not merely an annual holiday in it.