Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,
In Deuteronomy 26:1-11, we read about first fruits giving to help the people remember that God had given them food from the land and Moses creates a liturgy: “When the priest takes the basket from your hand, and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, you shall make this response before the LORD your God” (vv. 4-5). What follows are reminders of their former condition:
· “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor,” v. 5; (They were homeless.)
· “lived there as an alien,” v. 5; (They were immigrants.)
· “few in number…became a great nation, mighty and populous. v. 5 (They grew prosperous)
· “treated us harshly and afflicted us,” v. 6; (Their suffering in Egypt.)
· “we cried to the LORD … he brought us into this place and gave us this land,” vv. 7-9. (They held out their hands for salvation.)
It is a template for what it means to be the people of God. The act of giving, or making an offering, is at its core a communal act, involving not just the individual, but also the priest and the entire assembly. Recalling their story connects their offering to the larger context of God and human relationship.
God calls us out to ventures where we do not know where they will take us but asks us to trust God. God tends to call us out of our comfort zone, asking us to be the minority or outsider as we live in God’s promises and influence the land we live in. The Hebrew immigrants grow into a large and prosperous people that ultimately become a threat to the Pharaoh. Think about what happens to us when we are the majority. How complacency and assumptions set into our behaviors. Think about the role of fear when we are the majority or the minority. How we forget the other.
This template is a powerful tool for shaping us to be God’s people in the simple but yet difficult first fruits offering. But that is what offering does. It opens us up to let go and to receive. It’s a good exercise for us. The offering concludes with communal rejoicing, emphasizing the importance of shared worship and gratitude.
God knows exactly how to shape us. I pray that we can be pliable in God’s hands. May God richly bless your offerings and the offerings we collectively bring before God in worship.
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
