Festival of the Ingathering, November 24, 2013

 Festival of the Ingathering

Exodus 23:14-16, Colossians 3:12-17

Grace Presbyterian Church

November 24, 2013

Rev. Dr. Richard E. Miller

Giving and Thanking  What if you gave someone a gift or compliment and they didn’t say “Thank you?” Or show any signs of appreciation? They just took the gift and walked away from you? I dare say that you wouldn’t keep giving that person gifts because giving and thanking are bound together. And when the thanking stops, so do the gifts. However, the likelihood of someone not thanking is virtually nil. After all we were taught as children to say the magic words, “Please and thank you.” We were told, and sometimes forced, to always write thank you notes when we received a gift whether we liked the gift or not. Now that we’re adults, we should have this “thank you” business down pretty pat, don’t you think? However, how does one say “thank you” to God for all his blessings?

+ Write God a note at 1000 Golden Gate Boulevard, Celestial City, Heaven 77777?

+ Leave a “Thank You” note on God’s Web Page at PrayersRUs.org?

+  Call him up on our cellular hotline?

+  Or we could throw a “Thank You God” party. It’s really hard to know exactly how to say thanks to God, isn’t it? Maybe we can get some ideas if we look at how the Israelites expressed their thanksgiving to God.

Festival of the Ingathering  We heard about it in our Old Testament scripture where it said that the Israelites held three great festivals during the year, one of which was the Festival of the Ingathering. [Exodus 23:16b] This Festival was a seven day celebration in the fall of the year in which the Israelites gave thanks to God for their successful harvest of grapes, olives, wheat and barley. The celebration was always held outdoors and people slept in dwellings made of tree branches to commemorate the wanderings of their ancestors in the wilderness. During the week long celebration, they ate great communal meals. Like us, they probably ate too much.

And their Festival of the Ingathering always began and ended with a service of praise and thanksgiving.

During the festival, the people acknowledged two things: (1) their indebtedness to God for his unmerited and unexpected blessings; (2) their acknowledgment that God was the true owner of their land and the real source of their harvest. Then, at the end of the seven-day festival, they renewed their covenant relationship with God by pledging once again always to be God’s people and to follow God’s commandments.

Thanksgiving Today Since it’s not practical to set up tents for a week out in our Church Park, how can we express our deep thanks to God for all that he’s done for us?

One example we might follow is the first Thanksgiving of 1621 held in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was a spontaneous outpouring of thanks by the Pilgrims for having survived the brutal winter of 1620-1621 in the new world. It was a winter which saw 47 of the 102 members of the new colony die. At that first Thanksgiving, they ate venison, duck, goose, seafood, eels, white bread, corn bread, leeks, watercress, wild plums and dried berries. However, no where is it mentioned that they served turkey or pumpkin pie.

Then, 168 years later in 1789, President George Washington proclaimed the first nation-wide thanksgiving celebration in America naming November 26, 1789 “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.”

And now we will gather this Thursday to get together with family and friends, eat more than we should, take lots of pictures, perhaps watch a football game, and create lasting memories.

Unmerited Grace of God Yet, as wonderful as all this sounds, I suggest that the primary focus of our celebration this Thursday should not be turkey or pumpkin pie. Not the football game. In fact, the primary focus should not even be our family and friends who are with us. Instead I believe our focus should be to offer thanks to God for his love, forgiveness and assurance of life after death.

Paul Paul agreed with this thought in his letter to the church at Colossae where he writes: “With gratitude in your hearts, sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Paul is saying that we don’t have to leave a thank you note on God’s web page. Instead all we need to do is:

1.  Sing hymns and spiritual songs of thanks to God, which we do every Sunday morning, and

2.  Make sure that every word we utter and every action we carry out are done in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God through him.

Hard to say Thanks  Sometimes it’s hard to find a reason to give thanks for things that happen. The story is told of a minister who was offering the morning prayer. The weather outside was horrible - an ice storm had hit followed by ten inches of snow. The wind was howling and temperatures had plunged to 20 below zero. So the minister prayed, “We thank you, God, that you send us so very few Sundays such as this.”

Thanks in Midst of Bad Times  Sometimes bad things happen and it never occurs to us to give thanks. The following prayer was offered in the 1600s by Rev. Matthew Henry who had just been robbed:“I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.” [Matthew Henry, minister (1662-1714)]

Cup-Turners and Cup-Bearers  This morning I suggest we all become certified, card carrying “Cup-Turners” and “Cup-Bearers.” First of all, what is a Cup Turner?  Perhaps this story will help.  While attending a banquet, a man realized that the waiters were serving coffee to everyone but him. When the waiters gave refills, again they passed him by. Finally the man stopped a waiter and asked for coffee. “Mister,” said the waiter, “if you want coffee, you’ve got to turn up your cup. We only give to those who have turned up their cups.”

Many people go their whole lives without turning up their cups to receive the blessings of God. As a result, they wonder why they don’t experience joy, happiness and blessings from God.

Maybe they are like the Alaskan said to a friend that he didn’t believe in God. When asked why, he told of the time when he was lost in the wilderness. “I was in total despair. I prayed to God to rescue me.” “Well, you’re here,” said the friend. “Doesn’t that prove that God rescued you?” “Are you kidding?” said the Alaskan. “Some trapper came along and showed me the way out.”

This morning, I suggest we consciously turn up our cups each day of our lives so that we acknowledge and receive God’s love, mercy and comfort. And then give thanks.

Cup-Bearers  Not only are we to turn our cups up so that we can receive all the blessings God pours out upon us, we also are to be Cup-Bearers. In the Bible, a cup-bearer was simply one who served a drink to another. In the King’s court, the cup-bearer was a highly trusted official who tasted the wine served to the king to make sure it not only was the best wine, but also to make sure it was not laced with poison in any way. Obviously, a cup-bearer in those days had very little job security. Our role as cup-bearers involves being the vessels by which God can pour out his blessings into the cups of those around us. What kind of blessings are we talking about?  Allow me to suggest a few.

1. Every time we forgive someone or are forgiven by someone, we are pouring a blessing into that person’s cup and saying thanks to God. Forgiveness spans the gulf of resentment and destroys the chasm of revenge. It brings peace and contentment into our lives. Reinhold Niebuhr said “Forgiveness is the final form of love.”

2.  Every time we hug our child, spouse or parent, we are pouring our love into their hearts and saying thanks to God. It is said that for one’s spiritual and physical health, you need at least three warm, safe hugs a day. More if you can get them.

3. Each time we reach out to comfort someone in distress, we are pouring God’s comfort into someone’s grieving heart.

4. Each time we feed the hungry or visit the sick, we are pouring God’s hope into their lives.

5. We are a cupbearer each time we share with others what Christ has done for us and what our personal relationship with him is. We become cup-bearers to our children, our spouses, our friends. We know that unless someone tells our children about Jesus, they never will know Christ as their Lord and Savior. Karl Barth, the great Swiss theologian, was once asked when he first knew God loved him. His reply, “That’s simple. My mother told me.”

Final Thoughts This morning I suspect that there will still be times in the future when we forget to thank God. When we never even acknowledge his gifts. Now if God were like us, he’d simply stop sending his blessings upon us. But God doesn’t play by our rules of etiquette. God just keeps showering us with strength and guidance and hope even when we ignore him.

The story is told of a Vietnamese boy who had trouble saying his “g”s. So instead of wishing someone a Happy Thanksgiving, he would say, “Happy Thanks-Living!”  By our lives of giving and living thanks, we create hundreds of reasons why others can give thanks in their living as well. Such thank-filled expressions of life strengthen our families and our communities.

So as we gather Thursday with family and friends, let’s eat the wonderful food. Let’s watch the football games. Let’s take pictures and create memories. But most importantly, let us be cup-turners, receiving God’s blessings and cup-bearers, pouring out God’s blessings on all we meet. So a Happy Thanks-Living to you all! Amen!

 
 

Exodus 23:14-16 NRSV

 Three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me. You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread; as I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. No one shall appear before me empty-handed. You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first fruits of your labour, of what you sow in the field. You shall observe the festival of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labour.
 Colossians 3:12-17 NRSV

 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.