What's Right?
Text: Deuteronomy 26:1-11
It’s funny. We all have our thanksgiving traditions… but we often forget that Thanksgiving as a holiday is something that is almost exclusively North American. In the United States, the last Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day… for us, well… it’s tomorrow. While they bear the same name, Canadians are far less concerned with stories of Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, or how to grow corn. Instead, when the celebration “came north” it was moved earlier in the year because of an understandably shorter growing season, and was specifically oriented around the harvest. In Canada, thanksgiving has far less to do with the national identity as it does with simply being grateful that stuff actually grew in this harsh northern climate. My parents still valiantly try to grow Tomatoes in Calgary, and while they may claim some success… the reddish green marbles they start covering to avoid the August frosts would beg to differ…
You may also notice that I’ve not mentioned anything of theological or Biblical weight yet. That’s because as much as there are tradition of giving thanks that are rooted in the Bible, the Thanksgiving that we celebrate in Canada and the United States have their origins as national celebrations, rather than religious ones. Unlike Christmas or Easter which are specifically Christian holidays recognized by government, thanksgiving is more akin to the Victoria Day long weekend. The difference is, we are far more likely to celebrate thanksgiving in church, than we are Victoria Day. Why? Because giving thanks is a central part of our faith… While the second weekend in October may have been designated by secular government, giving thanks has been a part of our faith for much longer.
Over the past number of weeks, I have been focusing on a number of the stories from Hebrew Scriptures… particularly around Exodus, and the route from slavery to freedom. Last week, the Ten Commandments reminded us that authentic freedom requires certain boundaries in order for it to continue. As much as they were and are rules for life, they start with the reminder of what God has done. Following the Commandments is less about a sense of obligation as it is about gratitude. Israel’s early years, and early rituals were all based around giving thanks to God for having rescued them from lives of slavery and hardship. In many ways, every single day was Thanksgiving Day. All of their celebrations and rituals were about giving thanks to God for their freedom in this new land, flowing with milk and honey. Passover is about thanksgiving. Yom Kippur, the day of atonement is about thanksgiving… every celebration that we find in Hebrew Scripture has some element of thanksgiving in it. The most prominent, and the one that is most closely tied with the way we celebrate thanksgiving today is the “First Fruits” celebration that comes with harvest time.
The idea was that at the beginning of the harvest, the very first fruit to come out of the field was to be given to God in gratitude. They would gather some of it together, put it into a basket, and bring it into the temple… they would then recite this statement of faith:
“A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10So 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.
All things come from God… and it’s making sure that we take the time to remember what God has done for us. That’s what thanksgiving is about… remembering where we came from, and what we have, and to be sure that we take time to thank God.
The only trouble is, we are not very good at it. We as Canadians are notoriously good at being critical, giving thanks, it seems is not something that comes naturally. A colleague of mine once observed that North American and even Western culture is pathological; we are always concerned with what is wrong. What’s the problem? What needs fixing? We complain about those things that we don’t like, be it the government, the weather, the church… There is always something that’s wrong…
Maybe it’s part of human nature… After all, the Israelites complained during their entire walk through the wilderness to freedom. It’s a wonder that Moses didn’t have a nervous breakdown at the time. It seemed as if every time he turned around the people grumbled about what they didn’t have, and how they would have preferred to be back in Egypt being whipped. Today, that critical attitude can be found in churches: How many churchgoers does it take to change a lightbulb? One… and twenty to complain that they liked the old one better…. It’s usually told with a specific denomination, but we are all guilty of it at some point or another.
The whole point of the first fruits celebrations was to hold this sense of thanksgiving in front of the people. God has freed us and redeemed us, and therefore it is important for us to give thanks for that sense of freedom. Sure… there are many things in our lives that we are not thankful for. Those things that we have lost, the changes in life that bring hardship… but the point of thanksgiving is to take at least a little bit of time to look at those things that are actually going right. Our questions at thanksgiving should not be “what’s wrong?” but “what’s right?”
What’s right? It may seem a little too simple… but that’s where the power of thanksgiving lies. This is not to say that we ignore what’s wrong, but by asking “what’s right?” we can begin to see those little beacons of light, where before we only saw darkness. By giving thanks for those things in our lives that we are truly grateful for, we find those points in our lives that have gone right… that we are thankful for. By asking “what’s right” we give ourselves the chance to see where God is indeed working in our lives. When we ask “what’s right” we allow God to give us the strength in those times when we experience darkness.
Deuteronomy’s celebration of the first fruits shows us that way. It is far more than simply a harvest ritual that was repeated year after year. It was a place and a time where they could remember where they had been; that they were once slaves, and now they are free people. It was a chance for them to remember the light shining in the darkness, and that God had been with them and is with us even when everything else seems dark.
This Thanksgiving, I hope that we can take a bit of time and consider “what’s right?” What is going right in our lives right now, what are those things that are falling into place, those small moments where things have worked out? It doesn’t have to be for something big. In fact, it can be for something that is very small, maybe even otherwise insignificant. After all, it is important to remind ourselves that even the very air we breathe is worth giving thanks for.
Amen.
Thanksgiving Sunday, 2005
It’s funny. We all have our thanksgiving traditions… but we often forget that Thanksgiving as a holiday is something that is almost exclusively North American. In the United States, the last Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day… for us, well… it’s tomorrow. While they bear the same name, Canadians are far less concerned with stories of Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, or how to grow corn. Instead, when the celebration “came north” it was moved earlier in the year because of an understandably shorter growing season, and was specifically oriented around the harvest. In Canada, thanksgiving has far less to do with the national identity as it does with simply being grateful that stuff actually grew in this harsh northern climate. My parents still valiantly try to grow Tomatoes in Calgary, and while they may claim some success… the reddish green marbles they start covering to avoid the August frosts would beg to differ…
You may also notice that I’ve not mentioned anything of theological or Biblical weight yet. That’s because as much as there are tradition of giving thanks that are rooted in the Bible, the Thanksgiving that we celebrate in Canada and the United States have their origins as national celebrations, rather than religious ones. Unlike Christmas or Easter which are specifically Christian holidays recognized by government, thanksgiving is more akin to the Victoria Day long weekend. The difference is, we are far more likely to celebrate thanksgiving in church, than we are Victoria Day. Why? Because giving thanks is a central part of our faith… While the second weekend in October may have been designated by secular government, giving thanks has been a part of our faith for much longer.
Over the past number of weeks, I have been focusing on a number of the stories from Hebrew Scriptures… particularly around Exodus, and the route from slavery to freedom. Last week, the Ten Commandments reminded us that authentic freedom requires certain boundaries in order for it to continue. As much as they were and are rules for life, they start with the reminder of what God has done. Following the Commandments is less about a sense of obligation as it is about gratitude. Israel’s early years, and early rituals were all based around giving thanks to God for having rescued them from lives of slavery and hardship. In many ways, every single day was Thanksgiving Day. All of their celebrations and rituals were about giving thanks to God for their freedom in this new land, flowing with milk and honey. Passover is about thanksgiving. Yom Kippur, the day of atonement is about thanksgiving… every celebration that we find in Hebrew Scripture has some element of thanksgiving in it. The most prominent, and the one that is most closely tied with the way we celebrate thanksgiving today is the “First Fruits” celebration that comes with harvest time.
The idea was that at the beginning of the harvest, the very first fruit to come out of the field was to be given to God in gratitude. They would gather some of it together, put it into a basket, and bring it into the temple… they would then recite this statement of faith:
“A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10So 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.
All things come from God… and it’s making sure that we take the time to remember what God has done for us. That’s what thanksgiving is about… remembering where we came from, and what we have, and to be sure that we take time to thank God.
The only trouble is, we are not very good at it. We as Canadians are notoriously good at being critical, giving thanks, it seems is not something that comes naturally. A colleague of mine once observed that North American and even Western culture is pathological; we are always concerned with what is wrong. What’s the problem? What needs fixing? We complain about those things that we don’t like, be it the government, the weather, the church… There is always something that’s wrong…
Maybe it’s part of human nature… After all, the Israelites complained during their entire walk through the wilderness to freedom. It’s a wonder that Moses didn’t have a nervous breakdown at the time. It seemed as if every time he turned around the people grumbled about what they didn’t have, and how they would have preferred to be back in Egypt being whipped. Today, that critical attitude can be found in churches: How many churchgoers does it take to change a lightbulb? One… and twenty to complain that they liked the old one better…. It’s usually told with a specific denomination, but we are all guilty of it at some point or another.
The whole point of the first fruits celebrations was to hold this sense of thanksgiving in front of the people. God has freed us and redeemed us, and therefore it is important for us to give thanks for that sense of freedom. Sure… there are many things in our lives that we are not thankful for. Those things that we have lost, the changes in life that bring hardship… but the point of thanksgiving is to take at least a little bit of time to look at those things that are actually going right. Our questions at thanksgiving should not be “what’s wrong?” but “what’s right?”
What’s right? It may seem a little too simple… but that’s where the power of thanksgiving lies. This is not to say that we ignore what’s wrong, but by asking “what’s right?” we can begin to see those little beacons of light, where before we only saw darkness. By giving thanks for those things in our lives that we are truly grateful for, we find those points in our lives that have gone right… that we are thankful for. By asking “what’s right” we give ourselves the chance to see where God is indeed working in our lives. When we ask “what’s right” we allow God to give us the strength in those times when we experience darkness.
Deuteronomy’s celebration of the first fruits shows us that way. It is far more than simply a harvest ritual that was repeated year after year. It was a place and a time where they could remember where they had been; that they were once slaves, and now they are free people. It was a chance for them to remember the light shining in the darkness, and that God had been with them and is with us even when everything else seems dark.
This Thanksgiving, I hope that we can take a bit of time and consider “what’s right?” What is going right in our lives right now, what are those things that are falling into place, those small moments where things have worked out? It doesn’t have to be for something big. In fact, it can be for something that is very small, maybe even otherwise insignificant. After all, it is important to remind ourselves that even the very air we breathe is worth giving thanks for.
Amen.
Thanksgiving Sunday, 2005
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