We Are All Wandering Arameans
Reflections on Deuteronomy 26.1-11
RCL Thanksgiving C
13 October 2019
Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral
Deuteronomy 26.1-11
26.1 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, 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.” 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 5 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. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 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; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 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. 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.
I cannot remember when my father’s passion for genealogy first began, but I can say that it was a passion that consumed much of his time after he retired. Because of his working background in computer graphics, he was able to create complex digital family trees with thorough cataloguing references. His library grew with numerous books on the early history of New York State and our family ties to England and Wales. He was an active participant in several on-line chat groups and corresponded with people all over the world. He even engaged in an energetic on-line debate with another researcher about the origin of our family surname.
What he learned about our family has coloured how I understand where and whence I came from, what this may mean for me in the present and how it guides me into the future. I have learned that I am a descendant of forebears who came to North America almost four hundred years ago as political refugees and economic migrants. I have learned that my kin owned slaves in New York before the state finally abolished slavery in 1827 and that my kin fought to end slavery as a general serving with Sherman on his campaigns in the American South during the Civil War.
As much as I would like to remember my family’s history only in a heroic light, I’ve had to confront the shadow side. When Paula and I lived in South Bend, she worked in mortgage banking where she once helped a black family whose surname was ‘Leggett’. Since many freed slaves took the surnames of their former owners, it’s quite possible she might the descendants of one of my family’s former slaves known only to history as ‘You Boy’.
Family stories take on the form of a confession of faith. They not only describe who we are, but they tell something about what we believe about ourselves and what we hold valuable.
In today’s first reading from Deuteronomy we hear a family story being told, one that describes identity and the consequences of that identity. Even as the Israelites over the first-fruits of the bounty they have received from God’s hands, they recite their family history to set that offering in context. Whether they are wealthy or poor, whether they are influential or ignored, every Israelite is reminded that they are descendants of slaves who were freed not by their own hands but by the mighty works of God. Regardless of how much land they own, how well the crops have flourished, how high one may have risen in society, it is all the result of God’s free and incomprehensible promise to pay attention to these descendants of a small, nomadic tribe.
When they offer their first-fruits and remember their origins, they must also do something especially unusual in a society that placed the ownership of land as the chief definer of social status. The Israelites are to share their bounty with the Levites, the one tribe among the Israelites who received no allotment of land when the tribes settled in Canaan. The Israelites are to share their bounty with the aliens resident in their land, a reminder that the Israelites themselves were once aliens in the land of Egypt and subject to oppression and discrimination. The offering of first-fruits, this ancient thanksgiving ritual, is in aid of creating a community of justice, steadfast love and humility rather than self-interest, expediency and pride.
Our stories are more than tales told around the table to entertain and impress. We tell these stories because they remind us of who we have been, how we have come to this point in our history and what we hope for the future.
Underpinning all these stories is the realization that we have only come this far by the grace of God. God’s grace is the breath that sustains all that is, seen and unseen. God’s grace stirs every human being to unselfish acts of bravery and generosity even when we endure oppression, violence and any form of suffering. God’s grace stirs those who have much and enjoy privileges denied to others to work to ensure and to restore the dignity of human being and to share generously from the bounty entrusted to their stewardship. God’s grace stirs us to remember that all of us are or have been ‘wandering Arameans’ whose stories remind us of our solidarity with anyone who is bereft of status and an alien in our midst.
It is right and a good and joyful thing to celebrate feasts such as this Thanksgiving. Tell the stories of family and friends. Remember how God’s graciousness has accompanied our journeys, whether as individuals or families or circles of friends. And then, let us open the doors of our hearts, our souls, our minds and our bodies, so that “ . . . with the Levites and the aliens who reside among [us, celebrate] with all the bounty that the Lord [our] God has given to [us] and to [our] house.” [Deuteronomy 26.11]
