God's Story is a Circle

Readings: Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Luke 4:1-13, Apocalypse Explained 865:2 (see below)
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Photo by Thuan Vo
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We begin today by hearing from Deuteronomy, a section containing instructions for the ancient Israelites regarding the sacrifices of their first fruits. Now, first fruits are pretty much exactly as they sound…they are the first things to be grown agriculturally from the land in a given growing season. The first fruit sacrifice was different from tithing, which is also detailed in this chapter. Tithing was a specified amount to be given every third year, while first fruits were to be celebrated and given each year out of the abundance, tenderness, and delight of a new growing season. Both tithes and first fruits were laid upon the altar, then communally enjoyed together with the landless and the foreigner, those who had no means to grow their own crops. What seems like something that purely honors God actually gets turned around into an act of community and care for each other. 

So what might these instructions mean for us today, those of us who are not farmers, or an agrarian people? Perhaps we might make a practice of tithing financially. We can certainly also think of fruits as just about anything we produce in the world through the work of our bodies and minds, though it is definitely more nuanced to imagine how we might make an offering of our intangible “non-edible” work.

In our reading, Swedenborg invites us to explore that, just as there is the fruitfulness of our work on a natural level, there is also the fruitfulness of our work on a spiritual level. When we turn our minds away from purely natural things, and start thinking about spiritual things, we become fruitful in a different way; we yield spiritual fruits. We do this by opening our minds to larger questions: What kind of God do I believe in? What do I need to learn, or how might I need to change in order to love other people more effectively? How might I stop living selfishly, or conversely, how might I engage appropriate boundaries to allow for self-care? How might I learn the courage to stand up for others?  There are obviously many more examples of questions, as many as there are people willing to engage with them.

In the very opening of our minds to such questions, there is a goodness that is produced, that is made alive in ways that were not alive before. As these questions and their potential answers grow within us, they start to take form. We recognize what is true for us about them…we may decide we need to start listening more, we may decide we need to learn about our privilege and another’s oppression, we may choose a spiritual practice or habit…and as we live into the implications of these decisions, first fruits are born within us. Tender, green, alive, nourishing, delightful, and beautiful spiritual fruits. As we live out our life, we harvest the results of these fruits and they, thanks be to God, make for wonderful feasting.

This is the ideal template for Lent, the liturgical season that we are currently in. It is a time to focus on really becoming open to spiritual questions, of recognizing our limitations and flaws, so that we can become more open to the ways God is growing those spiritual fruits inside of us. But of course, as we attempt this, we will also bump up against the forces that prevent us from asking the necessary questions, prevent us from engaging those questions with openness.  What are these obstacles about? Why do they come up? Why are we not always naturally open? Why are we so distractible or averse to the process of self-examination? Part of it has to do with the kinds of stories that we are telling ourselves. Our ability to open up our minds and our hearts is held within the stories that we tell ourselves about God and the world and the purpose of all things.

In our gospel text for today, we hear about Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. The devil (or as we might understand that character— the forces of evil and hell) has a specific kind of story that it tells. A story that tries to close down the growing of spiritual fruits, that tries to keep our mind on things that are earthly and craven.

The first temptation is issued thus: “If you are the son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” This is not so much a taunt as it is an invitation. The “if” here is better translated as “since.”(1) “Since you are the son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Since you have this special power, gift, vocation, position, just use it for yourself, and for your own purposes, that’s what it is for. The Devil is telling their story about reality, and inviting Jesus to take part in it. That story is: We are all just in it for ourselves.

Then the devil says: “If you worship me, all this will be yours.” This time the “if” is as it sounds: an offer. But it stands upon another false story. Who said the devil had ownership over all that stuff anyway? The devil is asking to us believe that the powers of evil and falsity have the power to give, to own, to be generative, creative and generous. Asking us to believe that the world was created by such powers, and is driven by such powers, and belongs to such powers. If you want to get anything out of this world or this life, says the devil, you’d better wise up to how things really work; that’s how you’ll get yours.

Finally, the devil says: “Since you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.” Now the devil is telling a story about our relationship with God. Truly, the devil would prefer there was no God at all, but if there must be one, the devil will cheapen our relationship with God, and cast that relationship as purely transactional. If you have any standing with God, says the devil, make sure you get some more; test God, wring as much out of God as you can, make God do things for you, again surely that’s what God is good for.

And so we are told the devil’s story: keep your eye on what you can get..out of privilege, out of the world, out of God. There is no need to trust, no need to explore, no need to engage with anything beyond that which accumulates power and status. Our fruits are our own, and must be used to make more and more external fruits. There can never be enough. This is the devil’s purpose of life.

But what was the story that the Israelites told themselves and each other in our reading today? It is a very different story. They told the story that their beginning was with someone who was lost, desperate, itinerant. Someone who found a home in a place that wasn’t their own but thrived in that place, where they were valued. That over time, challenges and oppressions arose, and they felt lost again, so they cried out and God heard them. And God brought them out of their challenges, and gave them a land and an identity that was truly their own, gave them sustenance and thriving.

And then, they weave that story into their yearly cycle, practicing remembrance of the story in each first fruit of the land. They remember how far they have come, how their challenges brought them into a place they called home, that they have a God who listens and responds.  And when they remember, they not only so to shore up their own sense of security and gratitude, they turn around are care for those within their circle who need support. They remember their own challenges, and that prompts them to be present for others. 

Two different stories. The devil’s story wants to take power and fruitfulness and increase it for personal gain. According to the devil this is what these things are for, getting more of what you want. This is the only kind of generativity the devil believes in: accumulation. Like a black hole that sucks everything toward it, even light, the devil’s story is zero sum; more for me has to equal less for everyone else. And if one is ever lowly, then the point is to become not lowly as quickly as possible, for all things must lead back to the aggrandizement of the self. Challenges and obstacles are not for deepening relationship; they are just in the way.

The story from Deuteronomy however, is much more nuanced and redemptive. It recognizes that we all experience our lowly and broken states, externally and internally, but that such states are the fertile starting point for an amazing story. We might see humble and discouraging beginnings, we might see obstacles and a winding road, but God sees a beloved people in the making. 

In this story, God is generous and we are recipients of gift-giving. God’s generativity is not about getting more but about becoming more, coming into our own identity, finding our place, our land, our ground, our space to grow. And as we grow, we alternatively expand and struggle and cry out, because this being human, this being ourselves, is difficult work. But God is listening. When we feel stuck, when we are oppressed, when we find it difficult to breathe, God works a wonder for us. God brings us out and through our challenges over and over again, into a land, into a selfhood, that is truly our own. But that land is not the end game; we are instead expected to close the circle by reaching out to others. We remember back to our beginnings, and we use that experience to reach out to those in our present who need us. The devil’s story is a black hole. God’s story is a circle.

Which brings us back around to Lent. Why Lent? What is its purpose? What story are we telling about what we are doing and why? Yes, for a time, we might put ashes on our foreheads. We might take the time to notice that which we might not otherwise notice about ourselves. We might zero in on where we can improve, what we can give up. But why? Are we working towards an ideal self that is perfect, that is high above and disconnected from an icky and difficult world? No, we are entering into God’s circular story, in which our challenges are that which guide us both forward and back-around, toward heaven but a heaven-on-earth. A heaven that exists when we remember to take those first fruits and hold a feast in gratitude for all those who need a place at the table. 

Lent is a time when we remember to unhook from the devil’s story; it is pervasive and persuasive and we all believe it at times. Instead, in Lent, let us dive deep into God’s story; a story in which there is challenge and desperation but also redemption, gratitude, and care.

Amen.

(1) David Schnasa Jacobsen, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3984


Readings:

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

1 When you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, 2 take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name 3 and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the land the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us.” 4 The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God. 5 Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. 6 But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. 7 Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our ancestors, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. 8 So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; 10 and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, LORD, have given me.” Place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before him. 11 Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household.

Luke 4:1-13

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” 9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Apocalpse Explained 865:2

It shall now be stated in a few words what first-fruits in the Word signify. They signify the same as the first-begotten; but the latter term is used of animals, and first-fruits of vegetables. Thus the first-begotten are what are born first, and first-fruits are from the first things produced; and both signify the spiritual good first formed, which is essentially truth from good from the Lord. The origin of this is as follows. There are two minds in humankind, natural and spiritual. From the natural mind alone nothing but evil is produced, and the falsity therefrom; but as soon as the spiritual mind is opened, then good is produced, and the truth therefrom; this which is first produced is meant by the first-begotten and by the first-fruits. Now because nothing born and produced from the spiritual mind is from people but from the Lord, therefore those things were sanctified to Jehovah, that is, to the Lord, because they were God’s, and consequently holy.