It hasn’t been too
long ago that people would have that great big family Bible prominently
displayed somewhere in the house where everyone will see it. The great big family
Bible was important as it was a symbolic way of keeping one’s family close to
God. It was also important for
genealogical reason. Usually in the
front of those great big family Bibles was a place to record your family tree. If it was passed down for several generations
then the family history could be quite extensive. Some great big family Bibles are priceless
for that reason. Having the family tree in the great big family Bible makes us
feel like our list of begets is included in biblical lists of begets, like
we’re part of the story.
One thing that I
think would be neat to do would be to get the whole family together and pull
out the great big family Bible and get everybody to tell their memories of the
people recorded there in the Family Tree.
And if you don’t have a family Bible, then pull out pictures and do the
same, or just start making a family tree.
This would be a good thing to do once a year particularly at
Thanksgiving. It helps a family to
remember who they are and from where they came.
I like the significance of the family tree in the family Bible because
it directs us towards remembering who we are with respect to God, from where
God has brought us, so that we can reflect on where we are now.
It is good to share
the stories of our families and ancestors and not just the good or the funny
ones but also the stories that are sad and even hurtful. It is also appropriate to ask have we done
right by our ancestors and our God and just as important ask if our ancestors
did right by us and by God. I think this
exercise in remembrance would be sobering and have the potential to be very
healing. You see, we are less apt to lie
to ourselves and to one another and bear family grudges if we sit before God
and tell our family stories and make our family confessions. Moreover, it helps us to put our lives into
God’s perspective.
The family story and
the family confession before God and one another is what our reading here from
Deuteronomy is all about. It is a ritual
of remembering that required the people of Israel to take the first fruits of
the harvest before God once a year and in the process recite “The Family Story”. The story begins with acknowledging that God
had brought them to the land that God had promised to give to their ancestors. God had been faithful to them. It is a powerful thing to say, “I am where I
am because God in his faithfulness has brought me here.”
Then the ritual
called them to remember who their ancestors were. Their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were
desert nomads. This was a sobering thing
to admit. The land they settled was
inhabited by city folk and settled farmers.
Admitting to being the descendants of nomads in that setting was
admitting to the “civilized” that you were a child of a smelly, poor, unruly,
wandering sheepherder. Then they remembered
that their wandering ancestors had “wandered” into Egypt where they became
slaves - the grunt class, worse than nomads.
And, the story gets better. They
remembered their weakness and how their ancestors had cried out to their God
because they were oppressed.
Now here’s where the
story gets wonderful. The remembered how
God had heard their cries and how it was by God’s hand and not their own that
they were in this Beautiful Land.
Mercifully and miraculously God had heard the cry of their ancestors and
by his mighty hand brought them out to a land flowing with milk and honey. Then they offered their gifts and celebrated. They were in no way a family of self-made
Sinatra’s who did it their way.
The ritual of
remembering ended with the acknowledgment of one’s own faithful obedience in doing
this one simple thing that God had asked them to do – bring a gift to God in
thanksgiving and remember that God has made you who you are. The intent behind this whole ritual of annual
remembering was to keep the people of God grateful to God, thankful for all God
had done for them even though they didn’t deserve it.
Well, back to this
family Bible thing. As I said early,
Thanksgiving would be a good time to pull out that great big family Bible and
go through the family tree in a way similar to this ritual of remembering. And if you don’t have a great big family
Bible with the family tree in it, just start remembering back as far as you can
and do it this way.
First, remember your
roots in an honest way. Be honest about
who your ancestors were. As best as you
can, remember their good qualities and their bad. Then look at yourself to see how these
qualities live on in you and if you’ve got some of their bad ask the Lord to
help you remove it.
The second thing
you’ll want to do is to admit that you are a slave in your spirit and cry out
to God for help. Be honest about the
things that you are enslaved to in your spirit: things like thinking too poorly
or to highly of yourself, like anger issues, lust, greed, serving self – all
those things that you have wandered into that have left you powerless and
ashamed. Ask God to deliver you and
remember this might mean you will have to follow God through a wilderness. If you need to talk to someone about you
problems do it.
We must never be too
proud to admit our weaknesses. Pride and
shame are taskmasters. They are as
powerful as Pharaoh and they will keep us from being the people Gods wants us
to be. But by the same power that he
raised Jesus from the dead can and God will raise us from the death of our
enslavements to new life in Christ.
Another thing to do along this same line is to acknowledge God’s
deliverance. If God has delivered you
from some form of slavery acknowledge that God has answered your prayers, heard
your cries for help and made you a better person.
Third, acknowledge
how God has gifted you both materially and spiritually. The greatest gift God
has to give us is his love which heals us of shame and guilt. If we have tasted of God’s love then being
loving and being forgiving to others is the greatest thank offering we can
offer. It is in essence returning to God
the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Jesus’ new life that is at work in
us.
Fourth, acknowledge
whether or not you’ve done what Jesus has asked you to do in the past
year. Jesus gave his disciples one
commandment that we love one another as he has loved us. Have you laid your life for your spouse, your
family, your friends and loved them unselfishly? Or have you continued in self-destructive and
abusive ways? Or have you just not
cared?
So, this Thanksgiving
as you gather as families take some time to remember who you are and from where
God has brought you. This exercise just
might prove more beneficial than fighting about the next election. Amen.
