Thanksgiving in Interesting Times
Text: Deuteronomy 8:7-18
“May you live in interesting times.”
You’ve probably heard it. It is supposedly an English translation of an ancient Chinese curse. It is paired with two other similar proverbial-style curses:
“May you come to the attention of those in authority.”
and
“May you find what you are looking for.”
The saying entered into popular usage in the years leading up to the Second World War. Whether or not its origins are authentically Chinese is still a bit elusive, but we are still very familiar with it.
“May you live in interesting times.”
This has been a wild month for anyone who has any investments in the stock market… especially this past week. Coupled with this coming week’s federal elections here at home, and next month’s presidential election south of the border, the times are certainly interesting… and for many, not in a good way. There’s no lack of conversational material that will be around Thanksgiving tables this weekend… but it’s much more than simply stuff that’s happening out there, because this a case where anxieties on the world stage have a direct impact on lives here at home. For some, perhaps for many, because of economic uncertainty people may be struggling to find something to be thankful for.
It seems a little weird to have the thanksgiving right in the midst of all this. It’s important to remember that our Thanksgiving holiday as we celebrate it in Canada today has no real Biblical link. It was created by the government in the 19th Century. Given how cold the Canadian Winters can be, giving thanks for the harvest AND getting it in ahead of the first bite of frost seems rather appropriate. We’ve since incorporated a number of American traditions from their November holiday of the same name, the obligatory Turkey being the most obvious. That having been said, there was a yearly festival called “First Fruits” described in Deuteronomy that is frequently read on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It is giving thanks for the harvest, returning to God the very first of the crop yield… rather than the general harvest at the end of the season. There is certainly a precedence in the Bible for giving thanks… so we don’t really have a problem with it.
But still… the thanksgiving holiday comes this weekend… whether we want it to or not… at a time when watching the news has us reaching for a helmet… It seems kind of odd to be giving thanks when perhaps many of us turn on the news with some trepidation, because many of us are worried about our immediate future.
Maybe what we heard from Deuteronomy this morning might be helpful. As a book, Deuteronomy is presented as this great narrative, where the people of Israel have fled from Egypt and have wandered in the desert for many years. The people of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land, leaving the wilderness behind. As they do, Moses gives them a sermon, the book of Deuteronomy. In part, it’s a creative way to present the law of the land, but also serves as a reminder of where they came from, and who brought them there. There is a constant theme of moving to a good land, where they will be free from the ravages of slavery and oppression… but being free is going to take some work. Chapter 8 is just part of that…
7For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you. 11Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.
It is a reminder, ironically, when times are good, we tend to leave God out of the picture… or like those who wandered in the desert for all that time, we tend blame God for when things are bad.
As much as this passage is set as Moses giving instruction before they enter the promised land, this was also intended as a reminder to the people of Israel centuries later. This is a call for the people to remember the blessings they have received from God and the challenges that God has brought them through, the ‘great and terrible wilderness’ after freeing them from slavery in Egypt. They received water from rock, and feasted amazingly on manna, and eventually found their way to a land that was good. The words of Moses served as a reminder to future generations that their success was not about them, but was God’s gift to them.
One of the things I have noticed about people is that we human beings have a tremendous ability to adjust to our environment. Scientists call it sensory adaptation. When we get into a hot tub, it feels too warm, and then our body adjusts. When we wake up, we smell bacon and coffee with vivid awareness, and 10 minutes later we don’t notice them. We also are able to set aside painful events in the past, and to learn from them. This is part of our biology, and it can be useful for our emotional and even physical survival. I can’t say that I’ve had the direct personal experience, but I have been told by those who are in authority that childbirth and the memory of it, serves as a good example. It is a painful experience to be sure… but in most cases, the reward of a new life changes the perspective.
This passage from Deuteronomy suggests to the Israelite people that they remember a difficult past in order to remember all that God had done for them. That way, they can notice the gifts of the present, in order to realize all that God has provided for them.
Thanksgiving is a good time to practice what we might calls the spiritual disciplines both of remembering the past and paying attention to the present. Our Canadian Thanksgiving is earlier than that in the United States, and doesn’t have much to do with pilgrims. Instead, it is a day of general thanksgiving to God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.
Maybe in light of this week’s events we also remember that thanksgiving also comes out of remembering that God is not only there in the midst of the good times, but more importantly walks with us in the midst of the bad.
The whole underlying principle behind thanksgiving is ultimately a Spiritual question. It has everything to do with how we perceive the world, the universe, and our relationship to it and our relationship to God. Thanksgiving is a reminder that we are a part of something much much larger than ourselves, and that there are many factors in life that are truly beyond our control. Rather than to be mired in the negative, Thanksgiving helps us to focus on those things that really matter, that life is truly a gift, to be enjoyed, celebrated, and shared with one another… in both the bad times and the good.
Amen.
Sermon preached Sunday, October 12, 2008; Mississauga, Ontario
Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church; The Rev. John Crowdis
“May you live in interesting times.”
You’ve probably heard it. It is supposedly an English translation of an ancient Chinese curse. It is paired with two other similar proverbial-style curses:
“May you come to the attention of those in authority.”
and
“May you find what you are looking for.”
The saying entered into popular usage in the years leading up to the Second World War. Whether or not its origins are authentically Chinese is still a bit elusive, but we are still very familiar with it.
“May you live in interesting times.”
This has been a wild month for anyone who has any investments in the stock market… especially this past week. Coupled with this coming week’s federal elections here at home, and next month’s presidential election south of the border, the times are certainly interesting… and for many, not in a good way. There’s no lack of conversational material that will be around Thanksgiving tables this weekend… but it’s much more than simply stuff that’s happening out there, because this a case where anxieties on the world stage have a direct impact on lives here at home. For some, perhaps for many, because of economic uncertainty people may be struggling to find something to be thankful for.
It seems a little weird to have the thanksgiving right in the midst of all this. It’s important to remember that our Thanksgiving holiday as we celebrate it in Canada today has no real Biblical link. It was created by the government in the 19th Century. Given how cold the Canadian Winters can be, giving thanks for the harvest AND getting it in ahead of the first bite of frost seems rather appropriate. We’ve since incorporated a number of American traditions from their November holiday of the same name, the obligatory Turkey being the most obvious. That having been said, there was a yearly festival called “First Fruits” described in Deuteronomy that is frequently read on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It is giving thanks for the harvest, returning to God the very first of the crop yield… rather than the general harvest at the end of the season. There is certainly a precedence in the Bible for giving thanks… so we don’t really have a problem with it.
But still… the thanksgiving holiday comes this weekend… whether we want it to or not… at a time when watching the news has us reaching for a helmet… It seems kind of odd to be giving thanks when perhaps many of us turn on the news with some trepidation, because many of us are worried about our immediate future.
Maybe what we heard from Deuteronomy this morning might be helpful. As a book, Deuteronomy is presented as this great narrative, where the people of Israel have fled from Egypt and have wandered in the desert for many years. The people of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land, leaving the wilderness behind. As they do, Moses gives them a sermon, the book of Deuteronomy. In part, it’s a creative way to present the law of the land, but also serves as a reminder of where they came from, and who brought them there. There is a constant theme of moving to a good land, where they will be free from the ravages of slavery and oppression… but being free is going to take some work. Chapter 8 is just part of that…
7For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you. 11Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.
It is a reminder, ironically, when times are good, we tend to leave God out of the picture… or like those who wandered in the desert for all that time, we tend blame God for when things are bad.
As much as this passage is set as Moses giving instruction before they enter the promised land, this was also intended as a reminder to the people of Israel centuries later. This is a call for the people to remember the blessings they have received from God and the challenges that God has brought them through, the ‘great and terrible wilderness’ after freeing them from slavery in Egypt. They received water from rock, and feasted amazingly on manna, and eventually found their way to a land that was good. The words of Moses served as a reminder to future generations that their success was not about them, but was God’s gift to them.
One of the things I have noticed about people is that we human beings have a tremendous ability to adjust to our environment. Scientists call it sensory adaptation. When we get into a hot tub, it feels too warm, and then our body adjusts. When we wake up, we smell bacon and coffee with vivid awareness, and 10 minutes later we don’t notice them. We also are able to set aside painful events in the past, and to learn from them. This is part of our biology, and it can be useful for our emotional and even physical survival. I can’t say that I’ve had the direct personal experience, but I have been told by those who are in authority that childbirth and the memory of it, serves as a good example. It is a painful experience to be sure… but in most cases, the reward of a new life changes the perspective.
This passage from Deuteronomy suggests to the Israelite people that they remember a difficult past in order to remember all that God had done for them. That way, they can notice the gifts of the present, in order to realize all that God has provided for them.
Thanksgiving is a good time to practice what we might calls the spiritual disciplines both of remembering the past and paying attention to the present. Our Canadian Thanksgiving is earlier than that in the United States, and doesn’t have much to do with pilgrims. Instead, it is a day of general thanksgiving to God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.
Maybe in light of this week’s events we also remember that thanksgiving also comes out of remembering that God is not only there in the midst of the good times, but more importantly walks with us in the midst of the bad.
The whole underlying principle behind thanksgiving is ultimately a Spiritual question. It has everything to do with how we perceive the world, the universe, and our relationship to it and our relationship to God. Thanksgiving is a reminder that we are a part of something much much larger than ourselves, and that there are many factors in life that are truly beyond our control. Rather than to be mired in the negative, Thanksgiving helps us to focus on those things that really matter, that life is truly a gift, to be enjoyed, celebrated, and shared with one another… in both the bad times and the good.
Amen.
Sermon preached Sunday, October 12, 2008; Mississauga, Ontario
Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church; The Rev. John Crowdis
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