A kind of first fruits. First fruits of God’s creatures. James writes,  “In fulfillment of God’s own purpose, God gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of God’s creatures. First fruits.
 
In the early chapters of the Hebrew Bible, those narratives in the Book of Genesis that portray our ancestors in faith, Jacob gathers his twelve sons to offer his last words before death. He begins with Reuben and ends with Benjamin, and not all of his comments would be considered a blessing on those twelve sons, those twelve tribes. Jacob refers to Reuben, the oldest child, as his first fruit. (49:3) First fruits and the family tree.
 
Near the very end of the canon of the Bible, in the Apocalypse to John, back there in the Book of Revelation, in one of those interludes of eternal praise within the kingdom of heaven, John describes the scene of thousands around the Lamb of God singing a new song. As John tells it, they are pure and chaste, they follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed. “Redeemed from humankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb.”(14:4) First fruits and the harvest of salvation.
 
A kind of first fruits was what James wrote.
 
“You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field.... The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.” (23:16, 19) First fruits and the Word of the Lord at Mt. Sinai. The Law. The Torah. As first fruits is introduced there in the Book of Exodus, the Lord actually says, “Don’t come before me empty-handed.” (23:15) First fruit both in the Law and then in the Wisdom literature of the Hebrew tradition. Proverbs 3:9: “Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” The first fruits of your labor. The first fruits of your ground. The first fruits of wheat. First fruits of course new grain. First fruits of the new harvest. First fruits of your grain, your oil, your wine, your fleece. The first fruits of all that is in your land. Don’t come before me empty-handed! First fruits and the obedient, thank offering of sacrificial praise to God the Creator and Giver of All.
 
First fruits. In the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah invoked the image of first fruits to describe God’s faithfulness, compassion, and love for the people of Israel. “Thus says the Lord, ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of God’s harvest.’ (2:3) First fruits and God’s devotion.
 
So that we would become a kind of first fruits of all God’s creatures. That’s what James wrote.
 
The Apostle Paul also refers to Israel as first fruits in his understanding of the relationship of Jews and Gentiles and the Gospel. He works it out  his Epistle to the Romans. “If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy. (11:16). And there in Romans, in chapter 8, Paul also describes the first fruits of the Holy Spirit. The first fruits of the Spirit are at work in those who eagerly await the full experience of salvation in Christ. The Spirit gives us a hint, a guarantee, a foretaste. These first fruits of the Spirit at work in us, it is our hope. “For in hope we were saved. Hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?” (8:23-24) First fruits and the work of the Holy Spirit within us. The very hope of God in us.
 
And again, the words of the Apostle Paul, this time in First Corinthians. Paul’s trumpet blast for Easter morning. “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” (15:20) Paul trumpets the resurrection and trumps this bible survey on first fruits. Christ and his resurrection. The first fruits of the “Great Gettin-Up Morning”. The first fruits of when “the Roll is Called Up Yonder.”  “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.”
 
First fruits. His resurrection and then ours. Or the hope of the Spirit that churns within us. Or the steadfast love of God revealed in all of God’s faithfulness and devotion, revealed in God’s covenant. First fruits. The very commandment of God that no one come empty handed before the Lord, that thank offerings, that festive portions returned, that the very best of what we have we give back as a sign of this life in obedience, this life of thanksgiving, this life of faith for those who would follow the Living God. First fruits. That vision of heaven. The kingdom gathering around the Lamb upon the throne. Or simply a reference to the ebb and flow of the heritage, the lineage, the history that is ours in the family of God. First fruits.
 
"In fulfillment of God’s own purpose, God gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of God’s creatures.” That’s what James wrote. A kind of first fruits.
 
Just this week I met again with some Presbyterian pastors that get together regularly to support one another, swap ideas, brainstorm about denominational stuff, and study timely matters and current issues. We met this time in Farmington Hills, Michigan and much of our agenda was about interfaith dialogue among Muslims, Jews, and Christians. One evening we had dinner with a dozen or so presbyterian elders working in the auto industry. The speaker that night was a senior executive for one of the auto companies who offered some fascinating thoughts and opinions about a whole lot of things. Near the end of his presentation he was comparing leadership needs in the corporate setting with leadership in the church. It was then that he brought up the importance of “branding.” He apologized, saying “I know you pastors, you theologians won’t like the term. But in our business, branding is everything. It goes far beyond one product or another, one model or another. It’s about culture, leadership and vision. Branding helps shape a crisp vision. It informs what you do well and what you don’t do well. It is about identity and your relationship to competitors. It goes a long way to helping the whole organization understand who it is.” He concluded by affirming that when it comes to vision and change and organizational culture, good leadership is about communicating who you are and who you can be.
 
A kind of first fruits, is what James wrote. 
 
When it comes to my organizational leadership of Nassau Church and my responsibility to its future, those who work most closely with me know of my concerns. Session and staff members know of my moments of discouragement. I worry that we can’t compete for dollars, or in planned giving, or in wills emphasis with the institutions and the development programs that surround us. We could name four, maybe five major capital campaigns that will launch in and around town in the next few years. I worry about losing the theological foundation and the voice of a stewardship life in this patron culture of Princeton where in the last two or three weeks, my wife and I have received six invitations to fund raising events and three requests for annual giving to academic institutions. I worry about the privilege and the burden of this historic building, in which we have invested more than a half a million dollars in my first six years of ministry here, most of that funding coming from bequests. I worry that in the affluence of this community it is far too easy for all of us to look around and assume someone else will step up to support the current breadth of ministry and insure it’s future as well. As I was told at a social gathering this summer, “O you presbyterians in town, you have all the money!”
 
Indeed, God is, God has been, and God will be faithful to Nassau Church. But as one of your leaders, I worry about our future and I have this sense deep within, that we could be doing so much more together in ministry, in outreach, in service, in welcoming others, in providing for yet one more generation that will follow us here. So much more with what has been entrusted to us, the resources given to us by God. The voice of that elder in Michigan keeps coming back to me.   “You have to know who you are and who you can be.”
  
According to James, it’s a kind of first fruits. That’s who we are. Who we can be. A branding of sorts. First fruits. It is to claim our place in God’s family tree. Not first place. Not winners here and losers there. But a celebration of our lineage, our place there with all of God’s children: Muslims, Jews, and Christians and beyond. That we have our place in this heritage and that from where we sit on the branch, we best offer nothing other than a radical embrace to all God’s children, and that all are welcome here; young and old, seekers and saints, immigrants and aliens, doubters and proclaimers, the intellectually elite and the laborers in the vineyard, rich and poor, white and black and brown, gay and straight, the theological righteous and the spiritually out there, the reformed and the always reforming. A kind of first fruit in the very family of God. That’s who we are here at Nassau Church.
 
Maybe we can’t compete institutionally with those around us when it comes to securing a financial future, insuring our organization and its life and growth and existence, but we’re a kind of first fruit and God’s devotion to us, God’s love for us, God’s faithfulness to us, it is sure and true. And with the Holy Spirit at work within us to give us hope we shall press on. And with that vision of salvation that lies ahead of us, that thirst for God’s justice that burns within us, that longing for God’s righteousness that drives us, we shall press on. We shall plan accordingly and faithfully and boldly. That our witness may not be to a building or to an institution or to our legacy, but to Christ and to Christ alone. To Christ and to his resurrection! A kind of first fruit in our desire to point not to ourselves, but to the power of God at work in us, and beyond us,  and in God’s world. For Christ has Risen! He has Risen indeed! That’s who we are here at Nassau Church.
  
This promise of first fruits, it is a unique promise to the church, not to the church as an institution, but to the church as the living, breathing body of Christ. A part of God’s own purpose for us, that we would become a kind of first fruits. First fruits and the body of Christ here and now. The ministry to which you have been called here and now. That which is your life at Nassau Church. Our life together, not there, or over there, or over there. But here. Here in the body of Christ. That’s who we are at Nassau Church.
 
A kind of first fruits. Who know ourselves in this place, through Word and Sacrament, to be, by the promise of God, the body of Christ. His Church.
 
Let us not return to God empty handed, but with festive portions of the best that we are, and the best that we have been given, and the best that we can be, all given back to God in joyful obedience as a sacrificial thank offering.
 
A kind of first fruits. That’s what James wrote. That’s who we are. That’s who we can be.    

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