Every Blessing in Abundance Rev. Dr. Martha ter Kuile Minister of Worship, Congregational Care and Faith Development Thanksgiving October 12, 2014

Transcription

1 Every Blessing in Abundance Rev. Dr. Martha ter Kuile Minister of Worship, Congregational Care and Faith Development Thanksgiving October 12, 2014 Source: Deuteronomy For 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, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a 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. You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you. Take 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. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who 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, and 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. Do not say to yourself, My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth. But 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. Psalm 65 To the leader. A Psalm of David. A Song. Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come. When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. 1

2 We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might. You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples. Those who live at earth s farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy. 2 Corinthians The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written, He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever. 2

3 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! May God bless to our understanding these words from Holy Scripture. The scripture passages we have today were chosen because it is Thanksgiving they are not part of our ongoing march through the whole Bible. So if you have been reading along with The Story, this is a catch-up week. Even so, the Thanksgiving readings seem quite appropriate. It s as if we have paused in the wilderness with the ancient Israelites to hear the description of the Promised Land that Lisa read from Deuteronomy. We imagine them sitting around the campfire munching on this morning s stale manna. Manna spoils in hours, and they are already hungry for the next day s delivery. Think, refugee camp. They are filthy and exhausted, living in tents, at each other s throats half the time but they are dreaming of wheat and barley, pomegranates and olive trees and honey. They huddle together at a slight distance from the tabernacle, to avoid the sparks and hisses that gush out unexpectedly from the pillar of fire. They tell stories about bygone days and old adventures, and they try to buck each other up. Look at this heavenly manna, they say, look at this water from the rock. Are we ever lucky. It s a clear sign. We are going to have every blessing in abundance. From a distance of nine thousand kilometers, and twenty-five hundred years away, we may find this somehow touching, a little ironic. We can see them with some 3

4 sympathy. We have been reading about how often they complain, but on balance, you know, I think we might also want to say they are valiant. They do have a lot to be thankful for escape from captivity in Egypt, miraculous protection from enemies, and literally a shower of food each day. [It is like a refugee camp, we imagine airplanes dropping bales of emergency supplies.] And they also have God s holy presence abiding right in their midst, with them. But at the same time, it s a pretty tough life. And the guarantee of a good outcome rests on a very challenging project. We know they are going to get out of the desert and back to Canaan. And we know that they will flourish, and establish themselves there again, but it isn t necessarily that obvious to them. So, quite rightly, their prayers of thanks to God are hedged around with anxiety. Their songs of thanksgiving are fulsome and sincere. Their imaginations delight in the promise of a land of milk and honey. But in the midst of the thanks, we can hear the faint echo of lament. Of pleading. Of hope against hope that things will turn out. As the Psalmist sings, [and our bulletin cover illustrates], the gateways of the morning and the evening do shout for joy, but will we be okay? Wondering and worrying about that, the ancient Hebrews are not so far away from us. We live with the same contradictions. Who can deny the many blessings that surround us? The earth blessed, the year crowned with God s goodness, as the choir sang. On Thanksgiving of all days surely we could just sing great old hymns and eat turkey? Well yes, we could, but that wouldn t quite capture the poignancy of thanksgiving. We give thanks as the year winds down. We remember the creator of light as the light fades. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, said Keats by a cedarpress, thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours... There is a melancholy feeling to this season of thanksgiving, as we watch the last oozings of summer. And for us too, the recognition that even in the midst of plenty, all is not well. 4

5 Can we talk about hunger on Thanksgiving Sunday? About the erosion of supports in our own community for those whose needs are greatest? Of the number of people on the list for social housing? Of an epidemic of child poverty in our own city? Can we talk about ISIS on Thanksgiving Sunday? Can we think of civilians in Syria and Iraq, and Canadian military personnel traveling to Kuwait over the holiday weekend? And it isn t just one trouble spot. As one Turkish official said to Carol Off, in a conversation about Kobane this week, well, we don t want it to become like Pakistan. There seems to be a general unraveling in the Muslim world that endangers us all. And lots of trouble elsewhere as well. I know that for some of us in the congregation, reading through these chapters of the Bible has been a bit shocking, and over the next few weeks it won t be getting any better. The story of the Promised Land is one of relentless violence, of shifting alliances and betrayals, a mixture of toxic religion and geopolitics. Yet looking at the Middle East right now, or Europe a century ago, or central Africa, or.well, keep the list short.we can say, yup that seems to be the way the world is. Our songs of thanksgiving arise from within this reality. We give thinks not with ears plugged and eyes shut, but holding up to God the contradictions of a complex world. The harvest is abundant, and the people are in pain. The world is beautiful and the world is terrifying. Our groaning board of plenty feeds and sustains a people whose very existence is precarious. So the question is, how can we hold all this together, in our prayers and in our lives as people of faith? How can we offer gratitude that embraces and does not evade the hardships of our lives? Our passage from Paul s letter to the Corinthians offers a strategy. He is writing about a particular gift for the support of fellow Christians in Jerusalem, but his words apply here and now too. Plant seeds, he says. Simple as that. And plant them abundantly. Bountifully. Just do it. Do not be sparing. Try to cultivate carefully offer good soil and water and warmth but be clear in your mind 5

6 that the possibilities are within the seed, and not entirely a matter of your will and effort. Also, he says, remember that after seeds are sown, what may pop up won t necessarily look like what you think you planted. And don t worry about the seed supply - that is already taken care of. Paul says, there will always be seeds to plant seeds of goodness, seeds of justice, seeds of God s love. In fact, we could go even farther be the seed. Offer not just the gifts from your pocket, but the gifts of your self. Let your own life be planted, bountifully. Let your life be tended and cultivated so that it flourishes. Let everything you do be offered as a seed for the harvest that God promises. As St Francis of Assisi put it: Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary use words. Be a cheerful giver of your own life. Paul says that God offers us every blessing in abundance. On this Thanksgiving Sunday, we join the Israelites around the fire. Like them, we tell the stories, and buoy each other up, and give God thanks. The situation may be a bit dire, but we look around, and we watch for that manna to appear, around us and within us. We watch for the pillar of cloud and fire, and we pray that our lives may be sown abundantly. And we give thanks. Amen. 6