What's In Your Basket?
Thanksgiving Day Reflection
November 24, 2022
The Rev. Robin Teasley
When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 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. 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." When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me." You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. 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. Deuteronomy 26:1-11
If you have been in a grocery store in the past few days, then you might be questioning the whole idea of Thanksgiving being a blessing. I am a list maker and was not feeling blessed as I maneuvered my shopping basket around people who were planning their menus as they rolled along. I prefer to shop alone because it’s so much faster when there’s no discussion about what does and does not go in the basket, I definitely was not feeling blessed to encounter groups of shoppers with out of town relatives in tow, trying to figure out the layout of the store. These wandering Arameans were effectively blocking the aisles for those of us who had lists in our hands and knew where we were going!
And then I had a reality check, or what I prefer to call a Holy Spirit interruption. Suddenly I saw the entire grocery store as the Kingdom of God and it was filled with every imaginable thing you might need or want for your table. Christmas music was playing in the background and people around me were quietly singing along, and so I joined in too! We smiled at each other and commented on which brand of this or that our family liked best. We shared our knowledge when someone needed to know where the orange marmalade is (it’s on aisle 14 at Food Lion). One woman was piling her basket with collard greens - so many that the stock person had to go get another box. While she waited I asked her to tell me how she cooks them, and she did and I learned a new recipe. At the checkout we were all buying holiday meal boxes for those who did not have the means to shop for themselves, and we left the chaos of the Thanksgiving shopping ordeal with glad hearts. We left knowing that on some ancient level we were all connected to one another, having shared an unexpected experience of community, blessing one other in the process.
In the text from Deuteronomy appointed for Thanksgiving, the people of Israel are learning about being thankful for everything, in both the joys and the challenges of life. The purpose of Deuteronomy is clear: to make plain the laws of God by which Israel can live as a community and through which its special covenant relationship to God will be shown by the quality of life it enjoys. After wandering in the desert for forty years, they have finally reached the land God has given them as an inheritance. That the Israelites were once themselves aliens in Egypt is made a central reason for adopting laws and practices that offered help and compassion to all such marginalized members of the community.
And so, in thankfulness for a land that produces the good fruits of the ground, they gave of their harvest, the first fruits, that is to say the cream of the crop. They took their offering to the Lord’s dwelling place, gathered there as a community, and together they recited an ancient creed, the story of their journey with God. It’s a familiar and eternal story of our life with God. We do this as we gather at church to share our gifts, give thanks, and recite the story of our own wandering with God through prayers, creed, and Eucharist (which means thanksgiving, by the way).
The creed of the people of Israel was this: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me."
That wandering Aramean ancestor was Abraham, the father of our faith. And the people of God who were his descendants would continue to wander physically and spiritually through the desert, led by Moses and then Joshua until they arrived in the land God gave them. They continued to experience all the trials and tribulations we all do in life; experiencing also the salvation and the abundant provisions of God. Their baskets were filled with all that they needed and more. So they gathered together to share the gifts they had received, to celebrate and give thanks for all the bounty that the Lord their God had given to them and to their house.
So while we argue about whether the first Thanksgiving was in Plymouth or Jamestown, here’s the real first Thanksgiving, in Deuteronomy, where those wandering Arameans finally had their Holy Spirit interruption and caught a glimpse of the Kingdom of God, abundant and overflowing with blessings. Blessings come through the joys and the challenges of life, through good times and bad, with beloved family and friends, and even with those relatives who challenge us by their outspokenness and opinions. God is in it all.
So, what is in your basket this Thanksgiving? What will you offer to God from your blessings?
Happy Thanksgiving!
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