From the Editor-In-Chief
Greetings!
As our new issue on SUPERABUNDANCE comes to light, the fall season is firmly in place. It is the time of harvest with the bountiful gifts of heaven. In certain parts of the world, preparations are under way to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends. Some of us who celebrate harvest by the lunar calendar have already made a note of seasonal superabundance, thanking God, who brings forth bread from the earth as the Jewish blessing of ha-motzi says. Recently, we went to the Asian harvest celebration known in the West as the Chinese mid-autumn festival. It coincided with the Jewish feast of Sukkoth. One year when it rained on Sukkoth, I asked a rabbi whether that meant God was angry, and he replied, “My friend, God is never mad at the people of God.” Yes, God comes to us with superabundance that neither destitution nor despair can defeat.
In the course of conversing as to what this issue is going to be about, many asked, “Why superabundance?” Once again, our authors guide us. As a reader, I am blessed with an excess of generosity from our writers, who have shown that superabundance comes as an antidote to the poisonous ethos of scarcity that emboldens the rich to withhold wages and embitters the poor. Superabundance is a generous giver that gives without expecting anything in return. We are charged to be good stewards of the good news of the reign of God, from whom superabundance flows.
While it is a modern tendency to go “hyper” and “super” about everything, “superabundance” has been in the English vocabulary since the fifteenth century. One of the earliest examples includes the prayer for daily bread. There is no other path to superabundance than our complete dependence on God for divine generosity. Perhaps, Victor Hugo saw it in the book of Ruth, a story of superabundance in the midst of famine and displacement. He wrote in his poem, “Booz endormi (Boaz asleep),” saying, “His sheaf was neither miserly nor spiteful.” Alternatively and more crudely, the line may translate, “His sheaf was neither grabby nor malicious.” In Boaz’s field, the ancient custom of gleaning was going on for the poor. The same generosity is seen in the widow of Zarephath, who had nothing but a morsel of flour and a few drops of oil and prepared her last meal with her son and with Elijah as the guest. Superabundance is also in the feeding of many with five portions of bread and two fish.
Superabundance is going to prevail at the time of Christmas and Hanukkah. During Advent and Christmas we reflect on God who became poor to be among us and made us richer by grace. The pure oil of Hanukkah that brightens the world never runs out.
May God’s superabundance fill your day and give you shalom!
Jin H. Han, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
