TRANSFIGURATION 2004
From the editor…
First Fruits Giving
Stewardship season still
produces a lot of anxiety.
Maybe you know the story of a
parishioner who became critically ill in hospital after a heart
attack. While
he was there, his bank informed his wife that he had inherited a
million
dollars. His wife, being concerned that the shock of the good
news might kill
him, asked their Episcopal priest to break the news to him as gently as
possible.
"Doctor Jones," the
minister said tactfully, "let us imagine for a moment that you have
inherited a million dollars. What would you do with the money?"
Dr. Jones thought hard and
long. "Father," he said, "money means little to me any more. I
am quite certain I would give it all to the church."
The minister gulped, and
staggered about the ward. Then he dropped over dead.
Now that didn't happen, but
it hits close to home. Stewardship season is always a challenge,
and this year
I hope you will pray over the Old Covenant image of first fruits giving.
In one sense, in an agrarian
society to give the first fruits or tenth of one's harvest to God was a
statement that God came first. There was no way to know, when the
first fruits
were being harvested, what would happen with the rest at a later time —
so it
also spoke about trust.
But in Judaism there is more.
In Jewish thought the first consecrates the whole. For Hannah to
give her first born, Samuel, to
God, was her first fruits dedication to God of all her child-bearing
capacity.
To give the first fruits
reminds us that it is all God's and we are consecrating all to his
glory.
Many years ago a missionary
taught the people to whom he was ministering about first fruits giving.
One day there was a knock on
the door of his hut. Answering, the missionary found one of the native
boys holding
a large fish in his hands. The boy said, "You taught us what
tithing is,
so here — I've brought you my tithe." As the
missionary gratefully took
the fish, he asked the young lad, "If this is your tithe, where are the
other nine fish?" At this, the young boy beamed and said, "Oh,
they're still in the river. I'm going back to catch them now."
The boy grasped the lesson exactly.
The Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall S. Harmon
Contact Dr Harmon by e-mail at ksharmon@mindspring.com
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