We had our first Harvest Celebration at
Seaside yesterday. Quite appropriate for
Thanksgiving week, right? The idea was
to focus of sacrifice and appreciation for what God has blessed us with over
the past year. I wanted to do more than
just take up an extra offering and serve turkey at the dinner on the
grounds. We had some unique challenges
to overcome, though. Only one member of
our praise team was able to be on hand Sunday, with all the family travel as
well as work responsibilities going on.
That meant I had to figure out the best way to work in “canned”
music. It’s not that we haven’t done that
sort of thing before. That’s how we got
started years ago before we had any musicians.
We just sang along with cd’s and used one of those really old things
called an overhead projector to get the words up on the wall. Lots of fun, but not the same as live music, I
must say. So here’s a rundown of what we
did.
Technology has come a long way since
overhead projector days. I was able to
download some music videos of the songs that had the words already
embedded. Then is just became a matter
of regulating the volume. That problem
solved, I moved along to the service itself.
We started out with a look at the Hebrew Feast of Tabernacles in
Leviticus 23. I even built one and crawled
inside briefly, although I’m sure mine would never have passed muster as far as
regulations for building sukkahs is concerned.
The idea was to make a connection between that Feast and our own
Thanksgiving. They sure sound similar. Wouldn’t be surprised if the Pilgrims did a little
modeling after what they had read in Scripture.
There were several different stations scattered around the room,
depicting each emphasis of the service.
The wave station was first. I had
some flat bread there and I “waved it before the Lord” to show things like all
things belong to God, our commitment to bring our first fruits to him, and our
recognition that he promised us a Savior. Then everyone walked to that table and broke
off a piece of bread. After a time of
encouraging one another, everyone received five pieces of candy corn. They represented the meager rations the early
Pilgrims had during their rough winter months – five kernels of corn per person
per day. For the community prayer time
we each walked to a table of stuffed animals – lamb, ram, bull, and birds (I couldn’t
find a goat) – all types of sacrifices from Temple days, and prayed as we
touched one of the creatures. The Blood
table followed. That’s where we
recognized the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made when he gave his life as a perfect
sacrifice. After hearing the Gospel, everyone
came to the table and drank a cup of juice.
The next station included a teaching about giving, and everyone was encouraged
to pass by our giving boxes and present their offerings. One family even gave a collection of
groceries as an extra offering to the Lord.
The final station involved waving before the Lord two loaves of bread
made using yeast. The idea there was to
recognize that there is now no longer any distinction between Jew and
Gentile. Under Christ we are a new
creation, the Church, because of the presence within us of the Holy
Spirit. Everyone walked by and tore off
a piece of that bread, then formed a large circle of unity. In that circle we sang our final song, The Family
of God.
The final event of the day was dinner on
the grounds. Among the food served was
some actual lamb (along with the requisite turkey), as well as some other first
fruit kinds of things. There was this one issue, though. Cailyn came with us to church, and when it came time to eat, she was
adamant about where she wanted to sit – on the floor. Chris argued with her about coming to the
table, but Cailyn finally countered with “But Nani, you said we were eating
dinner on the ground.” There you
go. Watch your words.
Psalms 40:1-2 says, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the
mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”
Father, thank you for a great thanksgiving experience
yesterday. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment