So Much Bounty!

 

Scripture

Deuteronomy 23: 2-3, 11-13

 ² you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. ³ You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us....”   ¹⁰You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. ¹¹ Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

¹² When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns, ¹³ then you shall say before the Lord your God: “I have removed the sacred portion from the house, and I have given it to the Levites, the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows, in accordance with your entire commandment that you commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor forgotten any of your commandments.  (NRSV)

Devotion

My father and aunts periodically reminisce about summer and fall days spent toiling away in my great-grandparents' gardens.  Known simply as "Dad" and "Nanny" by the entire family, my great-grandparents' kept two separate vegetable gardens on their farm.  One was near the house, while the other was in some bottom land nearby; both were huge.  Tending to so many plants was an all-hands-on-deck situation, so Dad's and Nanny's grandchildren spent each weekend of the growing season helping weed, water, harvest, can, and store the crops.  The resulting bounty was huge...way more than a family could eat in a year.  But every spring, the same giant number of plantings went back in the ground.  It even expanded some years.

The stories about the garden situation always puzzled me.  Why would Dad and Nanny go through the trouble of planting so much more than the family needed? What happened to all the excess?  Dad was a traveling salesman as well as farmer, and I knew they weren't selling the extra produce.  Surely it didn't get thrown out during the next harvest season!  

Two years ago, I finally got my answer. It turns out that Dad and Nanny set aside the first 100 portions of whatever they harvested as a first-fruits offering to God.  Green beans and tomatoes.  Pickles and spaghetti sauce.  The first 100 jars of every single thing that came in went to God.  Then, when the fields were bare and the canning was done, they loaded it all up and distributed it to hungry people in their area.  The gardens were so large not because they overly-ambitious about what it would take to feed their family..but because that's how big they needed to be in order to feed the poor and vulnerable families around them.  

As another harvest season comes to a close and we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, I find myself thinking about the way Dad and Nanny showed their thankfulness to God by making sure others could celebrate their bounty with them.  And their faithfulness to God's commandments leaves me with some questions to ponder:

• What sacred portion resides in my house?  

• How can I share the fruits of my labor it in a way that fulfills God's commandments to share the bounty I have been given with the people who need it?

• Am I truly willing to put forth the effort of "planting extra" and working diligently to share the first fruits of God's bounty in my own way?

These questions aren't always easy to answer.  But what I do know is that God's grace bears fruit in our lives in all kinds of ways.  And while I will never be someone who grows as many literal crops as large as my great-grandparents put in, I do have my own "gardens" to tend...my own harvests to bring in and first fruits to offer up in praise of God.  I pray that I am as faithful to commandment as Dad and Nanny were.  And I pray that whatever first fruits you have to offer, that you will give them joyfully to the work of Christ's Church on Earth.

 

 

 Prayer

Gracious God, my cup overflows with the blessings you have given me.  Help me share the first fruits of your gifts with others, so that all may come to celebrate your goodness.  Amen.