FIRST FRUITS – 17th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year B
There is a general law in the world of management that states that twenty percent of a worker’s time will account for eighty percent of his or her productivity. Experience proves that law. The most important activities of our conscious waking life are carried out in twenty percent of our time. The events and activities surrounding them, which are not as important, can consume up to eighty percent of our time.
Time management specialists tell us how to be more productive by concentrating more on the actual production time and doing what is most important first. If we do the most important first, time consumers are lessened and often shown to be unnecessary or even eliminated.
God is a time and life management expert with no equals. When we listen to God, He can reverse our life and make us far more productive. The Lord can, at the very least, move us from being only ten or fifteen percent productive to being eighty-five or ninety percent effective with our life and use of our resources. It takes faith to accept His law of first fruits, which makes such productivity possible.
Many can become more productive, effective and fulfilled in their life by simply following the law of first fruits The law of first fruits keeps our priorities in the right order. The following of the law of first fruits brings God’s power of multiplication into operation. It doesn’t seem to work as well on the other fruits. Giving first fruits shows faith commitment to God’s will, which can’t be inferior to man’s or the world’s law.
Unless we understand this law of first fruits and follow it, our life production and effectiveness, as understood by scriptures, is going to be less. The Book of Kings tells about the man who brought twenty- five loaves of bread “made from the first fruits” to Elisha, the man of God. He did this in a time of famine, when he needed all of it. He had a hundred people to feed. Elisha, speaking for God, gave it back to him and told him to give it to them to eat. The servant, not realizing the power of first fruits multiplication, asked: “How can I set this before a hundred men?” Elisha spoke God’s law of first fruits multiplication. “Give it to the people to eat,’ Elisha insisted, for thus says the Lord, ‘they shall eat and there shall be some left over’.”
God multiplies the first fruits because they have more faith behind them. They reveal dependence on God and recognition that everything comes from God. Giving first fruits demands more trust than giving the leftovers after we have met our own needs. To be more productive in our life, we need to direct the first fruits of our resources (time, energies, efforts, relationships, money, possessions, the first day of the week Sunday, etc.) to the Lord, His reign, the church, and the poor. We are called to do this. “I plead with you as a prisoner for the Lord, to live life worthy of the calling you have received, with perfect humility, meekness and patience.”
Not to live according to our call is to be less productive. To give first fruits of anything to the works of sin is to multiply sin’s fruits. Not only does that become less productive, it also becomes destructive. Observation reveals people are giving first fruits to sin.
The little boy heard Jesus and the disciples discussing how to feed the crowd. He wanted to be productive in his life. He offered the first fruits of his lunch to Jesus through Andrew. Even though he may have heard or read the Book of Kings, Andrew forgot the law of first fruits under the pressure of the moment, and declared “What good is that for so many”.
The Lord made a little boy the most productive of the five thousand people. The Lord certainly knows how to use our resources better than we do. If we want to be truly productive in our lives, we should direct our first fruits to the Lord, who can multiply them many times. What we give to the poor, and the Church is naturally multiplied.
The productive person’s greatest productivity is making others productive by sharing one’s resources. Others take the resources and multiply them. When we give to the Church we build up the Body of Christ, which greatly multiplies our good and the Lord “works through all, and is in all”.
Be more productive! Follow the law of first fruits!
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