Acknowledging the Source of Our Bounty

Devotional Reflection, Thursday, November 23, 2023

Thanksgiving Day

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s Old Testament reading: 5you 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. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The 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; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10So 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. 11Then 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.

You will find the full text of today’s Old Testament reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP,

AM Psalm 147; Deuteronomy 26:1-11; John 6:26-35  PM: Psalm 145; Joel 2:21-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24

David’s Reflections

You may have read or seen the Isac Dinesen short story “Babette’s Feast,” or seen a movie version of it.  The movie version by Gabriel Axel won the 1986 Academy Award for best foreign film.  During the feast, the general looks back over a lifetime of missed opportunities and says:  “Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude. . . See!  That which we have chosen is given us, and that which we have refused is, also and at the same time, granted us.”+

The Deuteronomy reading echoes the general. It describes the ceremony of the offering of first fruits of the agricultural harvests.  The key phrase is “which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”  They were given the Land of Canaan by God’s promise.  Their ancestors had invaded that land, conquered it, cultivated it, and passed it on to them.  During the ceremony of first fruits, they were to say:  “”A wandering Aramean was my ancestor,” a reference to Abraham.  With that phrase the worshippers began a recitation of the history of the people of Israel.

The Israelites were offering back to God the first fruits that they had harvested from land God had given them.  On this day we celebrate all that the Lord has given us and all the ways God has lavished  grace upon us.  So much of what we have, we have received.  Our birth in a land of bounty was given.  Our individual family legacy of love, material possessions, and social status was given.  Our gender, our race, and our sexual orientation were given us. Those of us with less of a material legacy nonetheless build our lives on the foundation given us by our ancestors.  My parents were working-class people.  Part of their gift to me was their example of hard work and of living well on little.

In essence, this day reminds us that we have nothing that we have not received.  Even what we might feel we’ve earned has come to us because of the opportunity to earn, the health with which to earn, and the abilities our work requires. Dinsen’s general put it well. “See!  That which we have chosen is given us, and that which we have refused is, also and at the same time, granted us.” +

One of our most precious gifts is the love we receive from family and friends.  That love comes to us by their choice, it comes to us in spite of the flaws, and wounds that hinder our ability to love them and to receive their love and that may even wound them.  How like God’s love the love of others actually is.  In fact, God’s love comes to us in and through theirs;  the two cannot be distinguished.

Some of our most precious gifts have come to us in times of uncertainty and darkness. We could not see God’s hand as those moments unfolded, but looking back on those epochs we can acknowledge the harvest of gifts given us. God does so much work in obscurity to prevent our meddling and interfering with what the Spirit is doing. Only in the light of dawn can we begin to see the gifts given, what Leslie Weatherhead called “the treasures of darkness.” We can see in today’s reading that the Israelites could not grasp the gifts of the wilderness wandering until that wandering was done. Jesus’ followers could not harvest the fruits of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion until the dawn of resurrection.

Gerald G. May put this very well.         …each experience of the dark night gives its gifts, leaving us freer than we were before, more available, more responsive, and more grateful. Like not knowing and lack of control, freedom and gratitude are abiding characteristics of the dark night. But they don’t arrive  until the darkness passes. They come with the dawn.*

So, on this day, we each have so much for which to give thanks.  But, this passage tells us that merely giving thanks is not enough.  Rather, what we have been calls on us to give the “first fruits,” the very best of ourselves back to God and to those who give so much to us. *

+Isac Dinesen, Babette's Feast: and Other Stories. (London: Penguin, 2013), p.  60.

*Gerald G. May, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth. (New York: Harper, 2004), p. 3.

Collect of the Day, Proper 28

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 236)

Collect for Thanksgiving Day

Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Collect for Guidance

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people;  Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP 100)

For the Unity of the Church

Almighty Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed for his disciples that they might be one, as you and he are one: Grant that your Church, being bound together in love and obedience to you, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 255)

A Prayer for Light

Lighten our darkness, we beseech you, O Lord;  and by your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;  for the love of your only Son, Jesus Christ,  Amen.  (BCP, 111)

A Collect for Mission

O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you, and men and women everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 124)

Old Testament Reading, Deuteronomy 26:1-11

26:1When 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, 2you 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. 3You 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.” 4When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 5you 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. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The 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; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10So 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. 11Then 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.

Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer