Tu’apulelulu Me 25, 2023
The
Farmer's Creed ארמי אבד אבי
KO E TUI ‘A E TANGATA FA’AA
DEUTERONOMY 26:5-6
"A WANDERING ARAMEAN WAS MY FATHER. AND HE WENT DOWN INTO EGYPT AND SOJOURNED THERE, FEW IN NUMBER, AND THERE HE BECAME A NATION, GREAT, MIGHTY, AND POPULOUS. AND THE EGYPTIANS TREATED US HARSHLY AND HUMILIATED US AND LAID ON US HARD LABOR."
TEUTALONOME 26:5-6
5 Pea te ke fokotu‘u atu ho‘o lea ‘i he ‘ao ‘o Sihova ko ho ‘Otua, ‘o pehē, Ko e motu‘a Sīlia tuēnoa ‘a hoku tupu‘anga, pea ne ‘alu hifo ki ‘Isipite, pea ne nofo muli ai ko e momo‘i kakai; pea ne hoko ai ko e pule‘anga lahi, mo kaukaua, mo kakai: 6 pea ngaohikovi‘i kimautolu ‘e he kau ‘Isipite, mo nau fakamamahi‘i, mo nau hilifaki mai ha fatongia faingata‘a.
These sentences are part of a longer confession that Israelites spoke when they presented a basket of produce at the sanctuary. Early rabbis called it the Mikra Bikkurim ("the firstfruits recitation"); we might call it the Farmer's Creed. It wasn't just thanksgiving for crops but joy over redemption. The opening alliterative words are poetic: "Arammi oved avi [A wandering Aramean was my father]." "My father" is Abraham, who came from Aram (Gen. 24:4, 10) and, at God's behest, wandered from his homeland (Gen. 12:1). When Abraham's family grew and eventually were enslaved, the Lord of the covenant redeemed them. He brought them to the land that now flourished with crops. Wandering no longer, they were rooted in holy soil.
God does blush over being the Creator. He loves physicality. His redeeming work and his creating words are two sides of the same coin. After all, our salvation is a flesh-and-blood man, who himself would have confessed not only that God was his heavenly Father but also that "a wandering Aramean was [his] father." Jesus, Son of God and son of Abraham, is our Creator and Redeemer.
Blessed are you, Jesus Christ,
who has both made us and remade us as your own.
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