The lectionary selects First Readings for the Sundays of Lent that retell the history of God’s love for Israel. This Sunday’s reading exhorts people to bring to God first fruits from their harvest as thank offerings. This law tells the individual to thank God not only for what God has provided in this year’s harvest but for all God has done for the whole people of Israel from their beginning.
This reading invites us to remember that our faith history begins not with Jesus but with the Spirit at work in the history of a people from the wandering of Abraham and Sarah into Canaan (2000 B.C.) through the exodus (1200s) and conquest of the land flowing with milk and honey (1100s).
Thank God with first fruits.
Moses told the people: “The priest shall then receive the basket from you and shall set it in front of the altar of the Holy One, your God. Then you shall declare before the Holy One, your God, ‘My parents were wandering Arameans who went down to Egypt with a small household and lived there as aliens. But there they became a nation great, strong, and numerous.
‘When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us, imposing hard labor upon us, we cried to the Holy One, the God of our ancestors, and God heard our cry and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. God brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and outstretched arm, with terrifying power, with signs and wonders; and bringing us into this country, God gave us this land flowing with milk and honey. Therefore I have now brought you the first fruits of the products of the soil which you, O Holy One, have given me.’
“And having set them before the Holy One, your God, you shall bow down in God’s presence. Then you and your family, together with the Levite and the aliens who live among you, shall make merry over all these good things which the Holy One, your God, has given you.”
Deuteronomy 26.4-10
- How do you make gratitude part of your daily life?