Church of the Holy City

Foof, Fruit, and Joy

Food, Fruit, and Joy
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
October 7, 2012

Deuteronomy 16:13-17 John 15:1-11 Psalm 126

This is the Thanksgiving Season, and when I think about Thanksgiving several thoughts come to mind. I think of three things: food, fruit, and joy. First of all, of course food is the first thing I think of. We get together with family and friends and all eat more than it seems our bellies can hold. Another way to think of food, is the harvest season. In the Jewish calendar, this is this season marks the festival Sukkoth. The English translation for this festival, or feast, is the Feast of Booths, or tabernacles. The Feast of booths is one of three great harvest festivals in the ancient Israelite calendar. The earliest harvest festival is the Passover Feast. Mid-way through the growing season is the Feast of Weeks. And in this Thanksgiving season, or Sukkoth, the ancient Israelites celebrated the final gathering and storing of crops for the upcoming winter. The Feast of Booths is also a reminder of the time when the Israelites wandered in the wilderness immediately after their deliverance from Egypt. Devout Jews build small huts on their property during this season, and Rabbi Kunin told us that in the West End we might see some of these huts built on the lawns of houses there. These huts symbolize the makeshift structures that the Israelites built as they wandered through the wilderness before reaching the Holy Land.
My second thought is fruit. We can think of the harvest as gathering in the fruit of the land. But there is a spiritual sense to bearing fruit. In our reading from John, Jesus says that He is the vine and we are the branches. With Christ’s Spirit in us, we bear fruit, “He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” (John 15:5). To bear fruit is to produce good and loving acts in our daily lives. At this time of the year we think of the many things we have to be thankful for. I was very impressed with a part of the Jewish worship services that Rabbi Kunin spoke of. In many of the chants that are recited in Jewish services, the worshippers give thanks that they are able to do good. This struck me profoundly. We think about being loving, we think about bearing much fruit, but it never occurred to me to give thanks that God gives us the capacity to do good. Doing good is at the heart of Christian life. Doing good is when God is in us and we are in God. When we love doing good for good’s sake, then we are the branches and Jesus is the vine. Then we are in heaven, whether on the material earth or in the next world. So among the many things we think of to give thanks for this season, we can thank God for His gift of love, and the loving acts that flow forth from it like fruit from a vine or tree.
The third thing that comes to mind at Thanksgiving time is joy. We find this theme in all our Bible readings this morning. In Deuteronomy we read, “The Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful” (16:15). Here we find that God will bless us in what we get and what we give out. God’s blessing on all our produce is what we get, and the work of our hands is what we give out. This tells me that we have enough and that we have the power to do good. When we accept that we have enough, we are joyful. If we continually want more and more, bigger and better, we will always be dissatisfied and unhappy. But when we accept what we have as just what we need, then what we have is plenty and we are joyful. Reflections like this remind me of a couple striking lines from Walt Whitman:
It seems to me that everything in the light and air ought to be happy;
Whoever in not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.
Then there is the power of doing good. This, too, is a source of joy to us–perhaps the greatest source of joy. When we do good, we are joyful. Doing good without the thought of reward is when God and we are working together. When we do good we are filled with unselfish love. This is particularly evident in the passage from John we heard this morning:
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:8-11).
When we have a conscious contact with God, then we know overflowing joy. And this conscious contact happens particularly in the doing of good.
Uniting our consciousness with God may involve spiritual struggles and temptation. Yet the final result will be that joy known only by those whose soul rests in God. Psalm 126 tells us:
Those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy
He who goes out weeping
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.
As we till our plot of soil, as we cultivate spiritual life, we are planting seeds that will bear much fruit. When we are in our lower selves and slaves to unhealthy thoughts and passions, we are in that place of tears that the Psalmist speaks about. But as we progress, and we are lifted into God’s holy love, then His joy will be in us and our joy will be full. We will reap with songs of joy, bringing in the sheaves.
All three of these themes come together in our Thanksgiving gatherings. We enjoy food and stuff ourselves to the point we feel we will burst. We do good when we give food to others, as we do with our church’s food bank. We bring our own contribution to the Thanksgiving Day dinner. We think of all the things we have to feel grateful for. And perhaps chief among the things we have to feel grateful for is the capacity to do good and in that be united with God. There are other things, too, that are good to remember. I like to think of all the small things I have in life. I have a warm apartment to come home to. I have reliable transportation. I have enough food to sustain me. I have clothes to wear. I have friends, loved ones and family in my life. What more do I need? Then there is the joy of our Thanksgiving dinner. All of our friends and family getting together to enjoy each other’s company and to socialize. This is the joy of love and community. This is the kind of love that the whole world could enjoy if people would put God first, and the command of love Jesus taught. We can look forward to a brighter day for humanity. But we need also realize that we are the agents of that brighter day. Let us always see ways that our Christian love can make the world around us closer to heaven. The reading from Deuteronomy says that we are not to present ourselves before the Lord empty-handed. Rather we are to “give as he is able.” We are to give of ourselves, of our bounty, and of the love God has instilled in our hearts. We may be a way off from the heavenly city New Jerusalem that our church is named after. But little by little, each in our own way, we can work to bring our little world closer to it. As we are thankful for what we have, let us also give as we are able from what we have to transform the world. For these two messages are both the Thanksgiving Day spirit.

PRAYER

Dear Lord, We give you thanks for all the blessings of life that you give us. For we freely acknowledge that all we have is a gift from you. It feels like we are responsible for the achievements that we have been successful in, but we realize that our very talents and skills are from you. We give you thanks that we can act in partnership with you to do good. It is just another of your great blessings that we can do good in the world and to those around us, our neighbors. Lord, this fallen world is in need of redemption. Yet we know that we are the agents of that redemption. Give us to see where and how we can bring your kingdom to this material world.