Deuteronomy 26:1-11 • Philippians 4:4-9 • John 6:25-35Prayer: God,in your Son Jesus Christ you richly bless us with all that we need, bread from the earth and the bread of heaven,which gives life to the world. Grant us one thing more:grateful hearts to sing your praise, in this world and the world to come. Amen.
Harvest Thanksgiving; A Global tradition : Given the differences in climate and crops around the world, harvest festivals can be found at various times throughout the world. Harvests festivals typically feature feasting, both family and public, with foods that are drawn from crops that come to maturity around the time of the festival. Ample food and freedom from the necessity to work in the fields are two central features of harvest festivals: eating, merriment, contests, music and romance are common features of harvest festivals around the world.
Harvest festivals around the world:
- Chuseok: Korea
- Crop Over: Barbados
- Dongmaeng: KoreaNiiname-sai,
- Shinjo-sai: Japan
- Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia Argentina
- Mehregan (October 2): Iran, Ancient Persia
- Mid-Autumn Festival: China, Vietnam
- Pongal: India
- Annual Harvest Festival of Prosser, Washington, celebrated on the 4th full weekend in September
- Solung: falls between June and July for nine days. T
- he Adi (also Abor) is a major collective tribe living in the Himalayan hills of Arunachal Pradesh
- Sukkot: Jewish harvest festival lasting eight days in the fall, in which time is spent in tabernacles or booths
- Hasyl toýy:Turkmenistan - the holiday on the last Sunday in November
- .Ikore: celebrated by the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria
- Khuado Pawi: celebrated by the Chin tribe of India, Burma and recently in the USA and many other parts of the world.
1) Long ago, before the first Europeans arrived in North America, the farmers in Europe held celebrations at harvest time. To give thanks for their good fortune and the abundance of food, the farm workers filled a curved goat's horn with fruit and grain. This symbol was called a cornucopia or horn of plenty. When they came to Canada they brought this tradition with them.
2)In the year 1578, the English navigator Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies.
3)The third came in the year 1621, in what is now the United States, when the Pilgrims celebrated their harvest in the New World. The Pilgrims were English colonists who had founded a permanent European settlement at Plymouth Massachusetts. By the 1750's, this joyous celebration was brought to Nova Scotia by American settlers from the south.
At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed "The Order of Good Cheer" and gladly shared their food with their Indian neighbours.
After the Seven Year's War ended in 1763, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving.
The Americans who remained faithful to the government in England were known as Loyalists. At the time of the American revolution, they moved to Canada and spread the Thanksgiving celebration to other parts of the country. many of the new English settlers from Great Britain were also used to having a harvest celebration in their churches every autumn.
Eventually in 1879, Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday. Over the years many dates were used for Thanksgiving, the most popular was the 3rd Monday in October. After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day. Finally, on January 31st, 1957, Parliament proclaimed....
"A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed... to be observed on the second Monday in October."
A reflection to begin: What are you thankful for today? Take a few minutes and make a list of all that you are grateful for...
After you have made your list consider how making the list made you feel?Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Deuteronomy is a book of instruction, or Torah. It is the fifth book of the Bible. Moses speaks on God's behalf, with authority, to the assembled people of Israel, as they prepare to enter the Promised Land.
The book seems to be Moses’ final speech to the Israelites before they cross into the Promised Land; however closer inspection shows that Deuteronomy is more than this; it is a reinterpretation of the Exodus legal tradition for a later generation, who now live a settled life. Exodus reads only: “The choicest [best] of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God.” Our passage expands on this.
The commandment here is detailed and specific: the first fruits are to be taken in a “basket” to “the priest who is in office”, to a central location. Earlier, there were several shrines to God but now there is only one – at Jerusalem. Here the giving is linked to Israelite history: God swore to Abraham to give the Promised Land to Israel. Jacob, the “wandering Aramean”, and his children moved to Egypt in a time of famine. There they multiplied, were oppressed and enslaved. When they prayed to God to help them, he used his power to free them.
No longer are they wandering semi-nomads; now they live in a prosperous “land flowing with milk and honey”. In thanks for God’s gift of both the land and abundant crops, Israelites are to give produce to God; in recognition of his sovereignty over the land, they are to prostrate themselves before him. God’s gifts are cause for celebration by Israelites and foreigners who live in Palestine.
Questions for reflection:
- What specific traditions and practices are part of your thanksgiving celebrations? What are our collective rituals and practices of Thanksgiving?
- If we are grateful for our blessings, how does that get expressed?
- Do we live in a land of promise, a prosperous land? Do we give thanks for that or take it for granted?
- How do we include the outsider, the alien in our thanksgiving?
Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, a prosperous Roman colony in northern Greece, from prison. We do not know whether this imprisonment was in Ephesus or in Rome. It appears that he was held under house arrest. It is possible that the epistle is actually made up of three letters. It contains many personal references, exhorts members of the Philippian church to live the Christian life and to good ethical conduct, introduces Timothy and Epaphroditus as his representatives, and warns against both extreme conservatives and liberals. Lastly, he thanks the Philippian community for their material support.
Paul began the conclusion to the letter back in Chapter 3 verse 1 . After a digression – to warn against heresy and self-indulgence and to urge devotion to Christ – he tries to finish the letter, but certain concerns intrude. It seems that “Euodia” and “Syntyche”, two workers for Christ, differ in their understanding of what the way of Christ is, and that this is causing disunity in the Philippian community. We do not know to whom Paul refers as his “loyal companion but whoever this is he is asked to be instrumental in achieving reconciliation.
Verse 4 is the conventional Greek salutation (like our goodbye) but here Paul means “rejoice” literally. May you behave towards others as you should (“gentleness”, v. 5). Paul expects the Second Coming soon: “The Lord is near.”
Then: rather than worrying on their own, the Philippians should ask God to help them, through prayer, both in prayers of “supplication” (petition) and of “thanksgiving”. God’s “peace” will protect them against their own failings and external threats. It “surpasses all understanding” either by being beyond the grasp of the human mind or by achieving more than we can conceive. In v. 8, Paul advises members of the community to live according to an ethical standard.
Questions for reflection:
- In our society do we think about the good things or the bad? What does the media focus on? If you were to experience the world only through the media what would you be missing? Does the media accurately portray the world you live in?
- How does looking at the bad stuff make us feel?
- How does counting our blessings feel?
- Paul calls us to think about the good, the noble, the beautiful. What would living this way accomplish?
John 6:25-35
Jesus’ miraculous provision of food to the crowd has recalled, for John, the gift of manna to the people of Israel in the desert. The crowd has taken Jesus for a political messiah who will free them from Roman occupation. John continues to pursue the question: Who is Jesus? Is he divine?
Jesus and the disciples have escaped the crowds, but only for a while. Rather than tell them of his walking on water (which they would misunderstand), he does not answer them. He tells them that they are seeking him not because they understand the spiritual meaning of the food, but for another free meal (v. 26). He says: raise your sights above material things, to eternal ones, to what I, “the Son of Man will give you” (v. 27). The Father has shown me to be authentic (“seal”). I will give you nourishment for ever. But they have only grasped that the food is miraculous, a work of God, so they ask: how can we do such miracles? (v. 28) Jesus answers: only one work of God (v. 29) is essential: to trust in me. Again, they misunderstand; they ask: what proof will you give us? (v. 30). Moses gave us manna from heaven in the wilderness (v. 31); you have only given us earthly food. We expect the Messiah to give us manna again. In v. 32, Jesus tries to clear up the misunderstandings: it was God, not Moses who gave you manna; the Father gives bread now; and manna met physical needs but “true bread” is more than that. Then v. 33: Jesus himself is the true bread, the “bread of God”: he “comes ... from heaven and gives life ...”. They still do not grasp that he is the bread, Finally, he says: I am the sustenance of life itself, of very existence, for those who trust in me; I will fill their every need.
Questions for reflection:
True story. A child drew a picture of a fish in her classroom. A brown rectangle. A fish stick. This was the only "fish she had ever seen.
- Who gives us bread? Where does our food come from? Do we forget where our groceries come from? Are we disconnected from the earth and from the cycles of seedtime and harvest?
- What is your spiritual bread? Where do you find it? Where does it come from?
- What miracles surround us? What everyday miracles do we take for granted?
Thanksgiving Thoughts to Ponder...
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart
Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action. ~W.J. Cameron
Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day. ~Robert Caspar Lintner
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
For flowers that bloom about our feet;
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
For song of bird, and hum of bee;
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings! ~Henry Ward Beecher
We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton Wilder
On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence. ~William Jennings Bryan
Thanksgiving is possible only for those who take time to remember; no one can give thanks who has a short memory. ~Author Unknown
If I have enjoyed the hospitality of the Host of this universe, Who daily spreads a table in my sight, surely I cannot do less than acknowledge my dependence. ~G.A. Johnston Ross
God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward
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