A TRULY CHRISTIAN THANKSGIVING

 

This year, as we prepare for Thanksgiving in the shadow of COVID 19, we may feel a bit disappointed. Gone are the big throngs of family we usually anticipate, driving or even flying in from all over. Gone is the party atmosphere that goes along with it. In its place, it is just “us” or perhaps even “me, myself and I” alone in my apartment. How does one maintain a spirit of Thanksgiving without all the holiday folderol that usually accompanies it?  What can we do to truly celebrate Thanksgiving this year?

 

I was thinking about that -- as I figure we all have been lately, adjusting my expectations and preparing my heart to find thankfulness in the small gathering my Mom and I will have together -- when I began reading this evening’s passage from the Scriptures: Deuteronomy 26.

 

Moses was talking to the people of God about practicing the tithe when they arrived in the Promised Land. It didn’t take much for me to suddenly find my mind superimposig pictures of the first American Thanksgiving over the words Moses was speaking to the people of Israel. Like the Israelites, the Puritans and other first Europeans who arrived in the New World were in a land they’d never been before. The Puritans in particular had sailed here in search of a place where they could worship God freely.

 

Their first year on North American soil wasn’t an easy one. It was filled with a lot of sickness and many people died. Sound like the year we’ve just been through in 2020 to you? It does to me. Thanks to the Native Americans who already lived there, they managed to survive that terrible first year and we grateful. So, together with the Native Americans, they held a feast, full of the first fruits of their new land, laid bountifully on the table. With hearts bent toward God, they gave thanks.

 

Thankfulness to God is prevalent throughout Deuteronomy 26.  It is obvious that tithing of the first produce from the Promised Land wasn’t just worship or honor or a submissive act of servanthood to God, but one saturated with thankfulness.  In it, the people each make a declaration which recalls all God has done for them, from their days of slavery to freedom to inheritance of the Land of Promise, and they give thanks, pledging themselves afresh to Adonai. After giving their basket of first fruits to the priest, the person declares:

 

“My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and lived there, an outside, few in number. But there he became a great nation -- mighty and numerous. The Egyptians treated us badly, afflicated us, and imposed hard labor on us. Then we cried out to Adonai, God of our fathers, and Adonai listen to our voice and saw our affliction, our toil and our opporession. Then Adonai brought us out from Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land -- a land flowing with milk and honey. So now, look! I have brought the first of the fruits of the soil that You have given me, Adonai” Then you are to set it down before Adonai your God and worship before Adonai your God. You will rejoice inall the good that Adonai your God has given to you and to your house -- you, the Levite and the outsider in your midst.”

 

The passage goes on to talk about sharing the leftover produce of the land with the widow and the orphan, showing an illustration not only of giving the tithe in thanks but offerings to those in need from your overflow.

 

To me, at least, this is the picture of the REAL first Thanksgiving Day, Within it are examples of sharing what God has given us with Him first, with our pastors, and with those who are neediest among us. The example given, both in the Scriptures here and at Plymouth, Massachusetts, isn’t even a financial one. It’s gifts made by the toil of our hands -- food grown through common labor. It’s an example which broadens the definition of what a tithe looks like and how we can pour it out before our God and with each other. And  and it is one which holds within it an example we can use as we approach our holiday this year.  Consider all God has done to bring you through this rough year, recall all He has given and give thanks.