July 1, 2010

In Whose Hands Does the Fate of America Rest?
Deuteronomy 16:13-15 (NLT)

“You must observe the Festival of Shelters (Sukkot) for seven days at the end of the harvest season, after the grain has been threshed and the grapes have been pressed.

14 This festival will be a happy time of celebrating with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows from your towns. 15 For seven days you must celebrate this festival to honor the LORD your God at the place he chooses, for it is he who blesses you with bountiful harvests and gives you success in all your work. This festival will be a time of great joy for all." Deuteronomy 16:13-15 (NLT)

Pastor’s Blog

Moses was very clear about in whose hands the fate of Israel lay. Re-read verse 15.

Today’s passage is the institution of the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Booths or Sukkot. It will be celebrated around the world this year beginning on Thursday September 23 and continue for one week. Jews everywhere will set up tents and other temporary structures in their yards, on their sidewalks and roofs, and even take their campers out. It’s a big celebration to remember the fall harvest, God who provides the harvest, and the 40 years of wandering in the desert which was tough going and required the people to be nimble, ready to uproot and follow God at any moment. I think it’s true that school’s out and work cancelled for observant Jews for the first two days of the festival.

This tradition, this practice, this ritual, serves to remind Jews the world over that their future is dependent on God, YHWH, who created them and has sustained them for over three millennia.

As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day we may do well to ask what celebrations, what practices, what rituals in our individual lives and in our national life together remind us of our dependence on God. What practices keep us reminded that we are a nation no less dependent on God’s Grace than any other?

Perhaps we would do well to consider why Independence is so huge for us Americans and why dependence so anathema to us. We know the answer historically, but I suspect the reason not only goes deeper than that, but that it is also a dangerous indicator of our spiritual temperature as a nation.

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