Firstfruits

“ Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”

“Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.” Proverbs 3:9

A person comes to church with a certain need. He may not even know what it is he needs, but it's a gnawing, a yearning, a longing to be acceptable, to get something right for once. Something is missing in his life and he doesn't know what that thing is, but it might have something to do with God. Who knows? Let's see if God can make the vital difference.

He may go to one church where the cliques and established members have staked out all the prime positions, their own favorite pews, places in the hierarchy and are secure in a pecking order that will make sure the newcomer knows he will not threaten anyone – and he'd better not try. One scared minister comes out in velvet robes and an impenetrable sermon – fully approved by his deacon's board – with music sung too loudly and a coffee hour where no one will seek out the stranger.

He goes next to a church where everyone is God's pal and the music is endless and everyone seems to be having a really good time. There are no ties, suits or dresses. It's a really great sound system, with an engineer running the PowerPoint lyrics on a huge screen. After a while, a message is given by a very friendly pastor who earnestly seeks to touch our hearts. There are hundreds of people and a very efficient staff of ushers and greeters who make the newcomer feel wanted and welcome. But that gnawing feeling wasn't reached, even by the evident effort of many to make contact with him.

Next he visits a church where everyone has their hands in the air most of the time, many voices cry out, strange languages and utterances buzz over his head and the music hovers and slows to a rumbling vibrato, and a minister breathes into his microphone, “Yesssssss, Lord. Mmmmmmm….” The man finds a chance to slip out the back.

I just hope that when he comes here, if by chance he comes in those doors, that he will find what he's been looking for. For, perhaps what he has been longing for, yearning to do, reaching out to find is not a place where he can find status, get a rousing message, or have a spiritual experience orchestrated for him at all. His need is not really to get something for himself. The missing part of his life can't be filled by human beings, however sincere and well-crafted their outreach.

He needs to give himself to God. It's an exchange that may never happen during a committee meeting, in a crowded room with great acoustics and state-of-the-art public address equipment, or by matching the emotional tenor of a spiritual state of ecstasy with others in such a state. He just needs to give something to God, something that he senses must belong to God . God is calling him to give it and for that he needs an altar.

In Old Testament days, God asked of Israel its firstfruits . This might be the first-born male of any animal, or a sacrifice made for one's first baby boy. It would be the first portion of a barley harvest, the fruits of trees, grapes from a vineyard, or wine pressed from it, a portion of the profits from a business, or whatever first showed God's favor in anyone's life by increase and well being. A tithe should be a firstfruits offering, as it should be accounted first before all other concerns for expenses be made. “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God.” Exodus 23:19 “And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.” Exodus 34:22 “When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest.” Leviticus 23:10 “Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord.” Leviticus 23:17 “All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee.” Numbers 18:12

Firstfruits were not only to be first in yield, but first in quality . God doesn't get our chipped plates and mismatched silverware, the odd lots of our unsold yardsale items. He gets first quality, the things we might like to keep ourselves. In the movie Abraham , done in the Old Testament series by Turner, the old man explains to his son Isaac that a sacrifice to God must be something precious, something that means a great deal to him. The boy held his favorite baby lamb in his arms, and hearing this looked down with understanding, and a little pang of regret for what he must do. The next scene shows an altar where a burnt sacrifice is being made of just that little lamb. Sacrifice hurts, but it satisfies that longing to be acceptable to God. Isaac knew he had done right, and Abraham was satisfied that his son had learned the lesson. In the very next scene, God asked Abraham for Isaac.

Firstfruits represent something more than our gifts to God . He gave a clear message in the Bible that He didn't need the food, and didn't make these demands of us because He needed anything. The cattle on a thousand hills already belong to Him and if He were hungry, He wouldn't need our help. Firstfruits are a way of giving Him ourselves . God called Israel His firstfruits, a first offering of humanity to Himself, representing the whole human race. St. Paul calls Jesus the firstfruits of humanity in dying and rising to new life: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” 1 Cor. 15:20 St. James, in today's epistle, calls us God's firstfruits, “ Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” God created us, but then He begat us with the word of truth, made us new creatures by His Word, Christ having uttered with the very voice of God among us, what God wanted of us, what God seeks in us. If, by His grace, we respond, we are made new creatures, His children by adoption and grace, and are the firstfruits of a new mankind. St. Paul speaks of this new relationship in the Holy Spirit as God's gift back to us that we, having: “the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8:23 We have been given this Third Person of the Trinity, so that we might await our resurrection and come into fullness with the entire Godhead.

The firstfruits is a promise of more to come, therefore. We give our tithes, we say our prayers, we worship the living God at His altar, and we go home. The sense of membership, of belonging to Him lingers in our hearts as we go to merge with our daily lives again. But it is a down payment, an installment on what will finally be given in full: our entire lives, every moment, every experience, each breath, every word. Eternity will be God. Our experience of Him, full face, unashamed, in communion, sharing everything will be an inexhaustible reality. The taste we get here, in His Presence, only whets our appetite for what is yet to come.

But our religion is not only about what comes after. This offering of ourselves, our souls and bodies, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God Romans 12:1 , is not just a promise or a down payment on something on layaway. (People don't do layaway so much anymore, they just take it home and charge it. Layaway was for an item you couldn't take home until you made all the payments and owned it outright.) But this is not a credit card or a layaway: this is the God of the universe and He wants to start heaven right here in you. You make your sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, offer your body and soul as a living sacrifice to Him, lay your heart, as it were, on His altar, and seal it with your tithe—and then, He doesn't keep you waiting for your death. The Body of Jesus and Blood of the Lamb comes to you for a full, worthy, satisfying relationship between you and the Son of God. You are His firstfruits, a holy offering representing mankind in this age back to a God who is worthy of your humble offering.

Our visitor kneels down, makes an attempt at a prayer, feels the Presence of God's Spirit here, and waits… Will he find what he is looking for in our service, in my vain attempt at a message, in the music of a real pipe organ and our old hymns, in the lofty words of our classical liturgy? I hope these help him, but these are only expressions of what is really going on here. We are offering our firstfruits to God, making the acceptable gift every creature owes its Creator. We come not to take something away, to be added to, to be entertained or coddled or manipulated—I hope. We come to do business with Almighty God, and the first order of business is our gift to Him. Prayer, worship, love, sacrifice, time, abiding, confessing, and humbly receiving. May our friend find his peace here. May we be God's firstfruits.

O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

PFH+