Old Testament law required that strangers, widows and orphans should be cared for, and including them in harvest celebrations must have been 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.
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 my garden this year like last, I have planted many vegetables. Some like the garlic have been a great success. Some like the onions 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.
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. As we remember the harvest this year, let's remember too our offering 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.
To Harvest you have to sow seeds and so to the parable of The Sower.
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 we 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 Blues or Villa. Its 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.
What is the word of God? It is Good news, the message of salvation, peace, healing.
How do we sow the seed?
We have to be different, to stand out from the crowd in our relationships, in our attitude, to others, the earth, animals, to old people to teenagers, to little children, to people it is difficult to love.
We have to listen to what God wants.
We have all sown seeds in our lives. Some of it has produced good growth/good harvest. Some has produced bad fruit. What have we sown and harvested this year? The Spirit of God encourages us to go places we don’t want to go- the rocky soil. But we have a heavenly mandate, a vision. We are not tied down by ordinary human prejudices or the behaviour of people around us. We are called to sow and harvest good news, love, peace, justice even though this is not an easy task.
What are we harvesting this year in our lives?
What are we harvesting in our church?
