Harvest
For many
people, harvest services are a throw-back to the past when they marked a
definite point in the year in the cycle of food production. We have become
blasé about food. We can buy tomatoes and bananas all year from Tescos. After
all, there is not much now about our food or indeed our lifestyle that is
seasonal. So-called seasonal vegetables and plants are with us all year round.
We no longer get up with the light and go to bed when it gets dark. We can work
and play, go shopping and enjoy ourselves more or less any time we want, all
year round. Some celebrations begin long before it seems appropriate: even now
shops are already beginning to stock Christmas items. But while we may have
lost sight of natural endings and natural beginnings harvest can still be a
time for shared celebration and for us to remember that we do have a harvest
both of growing things and our lives.
In the Old Testament
Old Testament
law required that strangers, widows and orphans should be cared for, and
including them in harvest celebrations. It was an important sign for them of
how much they were cherished in the community. Harvest has never been an
individual celebration. It has been fundamental to people for generations, to
communities, to futures. In Deuteronomy the writer describes the whole
community coming together to celebrate. Slaves took their place alongside
landowners. Everyone was invited to the party because everyone had reason to
give thanks for the harvest just as in more rural times in Britain. None of
them would go hungry through the coming year.
So perhaps
harvest is a good time to take stock and give thanks, and to recognise that we
cannot celebrate in isolation from our neighbours around the world. Our lives
could make all the difference to some of the world’s poorest countries and as
we know from the prophet Amos, God judges us by the way we treat the poor.
Some, inspired
by Greenbelt Angels try to embrace LOAF principles, Local, Organic, Animal
Friendly, Fairly Traded. In Brierley Hill the churches had a stall in the
Farmers Market selling LOAF products. In my allotment this year, I have planted
many vegetables. Its not been been a particularly good year. Some like the potatoes,
garlic and apples have been a success.
Some like the carrots and parsnips, brassicas have been a failure. So it is
with all harvests. We thank God for what is good and reflect during winter
months of dwindling light and frosty mornings of our hopes for the spring and
what we will sow in the New Year.
The Sower
The story of
the Sower draws on two Old Testament begins with Jesus telling us to listen
There are two
background themes;
- The Shema (Dt 6.5) where 3 types of soil represent our struggle to
love God
- The idea that Gods word goes into the world and always produces
fruit. (Is 55v10)
Each hostile
soil represents our resistance to the gospel.
Where the seed
fails to take root, the discipleship is temporary.
The obstacles to
the seed growing are;
- Satan, the accuser, who subverts
- Tribulation and persecution which causes us to fall away
- Worries and wealth,
The good soil
yields phenomenal return.
In Palestinian
farming they sowed and then ploughed the seed in.
The tenant
farmer normally experience poor yields on poor soil and was in a constant state
of servitude, dependent on the landowner. So the description of the success
would be exceptional and mean he not only had money left over to pay off his
debts but would be able to buy the land which was a challenge to the economic
context.
How the Sower
sows is the main point of story!!!!
When the poor
Palestinian farmer went out to sow his seed, he did so in a kind of mindless
fashion, chucking it into small corners of rocks and crevices, in poor soil,
amongst weeds and finally some was thrown on good soil. Indeed it would seem he
did so not heeding the consequences of his actions. He went out to sow seed, in
the field, on the paths, on rocks among thorns whether birds were present or
not. The implication seems to be that we should also be sowing the gospel, the
good seed everywhere, not just where we would expect it to grow, certainly not
just in church buildings or church meetings but in the pub, the club, at the
school gate, in the office, at the football match. It’s not our problem to
worry about the yield. Our job is just to sow. Like the mustard seed large
plants can grow from small beginnings. And then we leave it to God, who has the
last word. But we must leave it to grow.
What have we
sown and harvested this year in our lives? The Spirit of God encourages us to
go places we don’t want to go- the rocky soil. We are called to sow and harvest
good news, love, peace, justice even though this is no easy task.
So what harvest
are we gathering? What are we harvesting as a world, as a society, as a church,
as individuals?
