000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

Ash Wednesday/Year C
Joel 2:1–2, 12–17 (Alternate)
For comments on this passage, please see Ash Wednesday/Year A.
Isaiah 58:1–12 (Alternate)
For comments on this passage, please see the Fifth Sunday after the
Epiphany/Year A.
First Sunday in Lent/Year C
First Sunday in Lent/Year C 229
Deuteronomy 26:1–11
The authors of Deuteronomy shaped Moses’ sermons to Israel as they
were about to cross into the promised land so as to speak to people in the
years after the exile (see Proper 17/Year B). This phenomenon is clear in
today’s text, as it prescribes practices for liturgy that are to shape community
life. The community symbolically acts out in ritual how they are
to live in covenant with God and one another. The liturgical action takes
place in three parts—the offering of the first fruits (26:1–4), recalling God
bringing the people into the promised land (26:5–10), and eating some of
the first fruits in a festal setting (v. 11).
In Deuteronomy 26:1–5a, the people are instructed to present the first
fruits (reshit) of the harvest in a basket at the Temple to the priest. Giving
the first fruits, often considered the best, was a symbol acknowledging that
the harvest (and all things that made for life) resulted from God’s grace.
In a larger sense, making this offering was a way of committing oneself to
use the harvest and other gifts of God in ways consonant with God’s purposes
in covenantal community. The offering was also a down payment or
pledge on the full tithe. Furthermore, the offerings served as a practical
channel for God to provide food for the Levites (who had no land) as well
as the alien, orphan, and widow.
The words of the worshiper to the priest when presenting the basket
voice a distinctive understanding of history: “Today I declare to the LORD
your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors
to give us” (Deut. 26:3). Worshipers, even at the time of the exile and
to the present day, speak as if they themselves were among the people who
entered the promised land (cf. Deut. 6:20–25).
Upon making the offering, community members are to recite Deuteronomy
26:5b–10, an ancient creed used here as a summary of God’s