When I was eight years old, my brother and I caught a
kitten.
We were at the softball fields on Hickam AFB on Oahu,
waiting for my dad to finish his game. Korey nudged my arm and pointed to this
tiny ball of fluff that was cowering near the dugout, and we set off on a
mission to capture the cat. Never once did we think that this might be a bad
idea. Never once did we think that the poor animal was probably frightened out
of its mind, that it might have rabies, that it might actually belong to
someone.
We just saw a cute little kitty, and we wanted to play with
it.
After about twenty minutes of running around, we finally
cornered it against the fence. I picked it up, and it was the tiniest cat I’d
ever seen. At eight years old, I could hold it in my hands and have room to
spare. We brought it to my dad after the game and told him that we were going
to keep it. I’m not sure how we got away with not asking, but we did, so that
night, we brought this tiny cat home and he became part of our family.
We named him Pete the Barn Cat, because that was the name of
a character in a line of children’s books that I was reading at the time.
Pete traveled from Hawaii to Texas with us, and at some
point transitioned from being an indoor cat to an outdoor one. I always felt
that I had a special bond with Pete, for even when I’d been gone for long
periods of time, he would always run up to me and sit happily in my lap while I
pet him. After I went to college, Pete kind of slipped from the forefront of my
mind. When I would go home, I’d always try to spend a little bit of time with
him, but that time continued to grow shorter and shorter.
That happens a lot with the things and people we love,
doesn’t it? We love spending time with them or we get so excited about
something, but over time, that initial energy we feel toward it wanes. It’s
what some people call the “honeymoon period.” After a couple gets married, they
go on the wonderful honeymoon and then they have to come back to the real
world. The initial glow fades, and it can feel like something is missing from
the relationship. It is then that the work of a marriage begins, and the task
of learning to truly live with each other has the potential to hit the couple
hard.
But this happens with other relationships as well. My little
sister is almost a teenager. She has had best friend after best friend after
best friend because she is at that age when she thrives on the magic of that
honeymoon period. It’s not that she is unintelligent or even that she’s
shallow; she just craves the excitement of new relationships.
And it’s not just with people, is it? I have a bad tendency
of coveting a certain gadget or gizmo as it first hits the market, but it does
not take long after I buy it before it begins to lose its original luster. The
magic that first drew me to it is gone, and even though I might continue to use
it for its practical reasons, it is not new and exciting for me anymore.
It happens with jobs too. The excitement of starting
something new, of diving in to work among a brand new network of people doing a
brand new thing can send an almost adrenaline-like spike to your body. Getting
up early for the start of those first few days is not hard. Finding the energy
to give it just that extra little push is not too taxing. But in the coming
months, in the coming years, it might get harder and harder to get up in the
mornings. It might not be long until you find yourself starring at the clock
and willing it to move faster.
The honeymoon period of friendships and gadgets and careers
must end just as it must with actual honeymoons. Because you see, it is in the
grime and grit after that initial magic that true life emerges. That is where
real interactions take place, and it is here that we spend most of our lives.
Which is kind of sad, when you think about it, because we
are not the most grateful people when it comes to that time after the honeymoon
period. When we are not experiencing that newness and excitement, we tend to
take our relationships and our possessions and our careers for granted, forgetting
just how blessed we are. Worse, though, is that when we are distanced from
those things, when we find ourselves in the valleys of life, we tend to forget
entirely of those blessings, instead choosing to focus on the wrongs and
injustices before us.
Now, I’d say that this is probably a byproduct of our
society and culture, but our Scripture reading this morning seems to speak
toward this being an integral part of the human condition: we always want new
things, and unless we work toward it, we always become complacent and
ungrateful for them. Let’s read together again the words of our Lord in
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Once you have
entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you
take possession of it and are settled there, take some of the early produce of
the fertile ground that you have harvested from the land the LORD your God is
giving you, and put it in a basket. Then go to the location the LORD your God
selects for his name to reside. Go to the priest who is in office at that time
and say to him: “I am declaring right now before the LORD my God that I have
indeed arrived in the land the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us.”
The priest
will then take the basket from you and place it before the LORD your God’s
altar.
Then you
should solemnly state before the LORD your God: “My father was a starving
Aramean. He went down to Egypt, living as an immigrant there with few family
members, but that is where he became a great nation, mighty and numerous. The
Egyptians treated us terribly, oppressing us and forcing hard labor on us. So
we cried out for help to the LORD, our ancestors’ God. The LORD heard our call.
God saw our misery, our trouble, and our oppression. The LORD brought us out of
Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with awesome power, and with
signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land—a land
full of milk and honey. So now I am bringing the early produce of the fertile
ground that you, LORD, have given me.”
Set the
produce before the LORD your God, bowing down before the LORD your God. Then
celebrate all the good things the LORD your God has done for you and your
family—each one of you along with the Levites and the immigrants who are among
you.
God knew that unless the Israelites had a practice in place
to remind them who they were and to be thankful for the many blessings they
have received that they would soon forget about them and grow complacent. To
help them remember, to help them continue to remember all that God had done and
was continuing to do for them, God set up the tithe, the offering of the first
fruits. This was a way to celebrate in perpetuity the great things that the
Lord had done for the Israelite people, a way to always remember the wonderful
work of God.
Starting from the time that God’s people first settled in
the Promised Land and continuing on throughout the ages, the Israelite people
would take the first yields of their harvests—whatever they were throughout the
year—and present them before the priests as an offering to God. This was a
solemn gift of gratefulness, but it was also done in celebration. It was a way
of saying, “Look what God has done for me and my people!”
And so in an act of celebration, there would be a festival
at each harvest where Israelite and alien alike could come together in praise
and thanksgiving for what God had done for them. It was a way to reignite that
honeymoon period, to enjoy anew the relationship between Creator and created.
This sounds a lot different than the way we see our
offerings today, doesn’t it? We don’t have loud celebrations where we invite
the community to share in our joys. We don’t take time as a church family to
remember all that God has done throughout the years and is continuing to do for
us before putting our money in the plate. We do not come before the altar to
give it anymore, but instead we anonymously place our gifts in a brass plate.
Now, I’m not saying that our practice is bad, but there is a
considerable amount of joy that should be in it seems to missing from it,
doesn’t there? It is like we’ve passed through our honeymoon period and we
don’t want to re-engage it anymore.
Well friends, I’m here to tell you that our individual and
corporate relationships with God can be so much more than they are now, and one
of the ways to make this so is by joyously engaging in this very type of
celebration. Even if we do not want to exactly emulate the ancient Israelites,
we should find ways to remember just how blessed we are and to celebrate what
God has done and is doing in our lives.
Because the truth is that life is so much better when we
remember our blessings and take advantage of the opportunities presented to us.
Two weeks ago, when I was home this time, I spent a little
time petting Pete. I picked him up and was surprised at how little he weighed.
He didn’t seem to be as strong as he used to be, and even though he purred when
I pet him, he seemed to just hang limply in my arms. But I gave him some love,
because he was my pet.
Two days ago, Korey called me to tell me that Pete had to be
put down. He was almost 17 years old, and his body had simply given up on him.
As I heard this news, the first thing I thought of was how much I wish I had
spent more time with him in his later years. I stopped petting him, stopped
sitting with him, and would rarely go out and see him. But then, as I kept
think about it, I realized how thankful I was to have gotten to hold him and
pet him one last time, this cat who had been my friend for most of my life.
During this season of Lent, we’re going to be talking about
what it means to give to God’s kingdom and receive from God’s gracious love.
But before we can talk about any of that, we have to know how to be thankful
and grateful and how to praise God for the things we already have in our lives,
both individually and as the church. So may we take the time to be thankful and
grateful for what God has given us in our lives. May we take the time to thank
God and celebrate with those around us for the blessings that are amply evident.
May we stop taking for granted the gifts God has given us—be they friendships,
vocations, or even pets—and may we always praise God for them. Amen.
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