All Saints Oakham, 10.30am Morning Prayer
Readings – Deuteronomy 8:7-18; Psalm 147: 1-11; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15; John 6:25-35
Harvest Festival used to be simpler. Our ancestors did not look further than the fields and farms of Rutland. At the end of the growing season we rejoiced. In some parts of the county cereal crops were all in the barns, and there were no more 18 hour days, racing to bring in the harvest before the autumn rains. In many parts of Rutland the crop was grass, directly fed to those plump wool-wrapped sheep whose fleeces generated the wealth of our county through the wool trade.
The whole community had a big party. And some in the community would prefer the party to the church festival.
Farmers might be disappointed year by year comparing yields but a real harvest failure was a great rarity, and the Rutland sheep very rarely disappointed.
And if today there were by some extraordinary circumstance a local Rutland crop failure, we would not notice during our visits to the supermarkets– from all over the world food still rolls up in those midnight lorries to fill those shelves.
So in our modern age we cannot on Harvest Festival day look only through those Rutland-facing blinkers.
I have spent quite some time in sub-Saharan Africa over the last 30 years, and in Malawi for example (one of the ten poorest countries in the world) harvest has a different and more intense importance. Beside each hut in a farming village – huts most with mud walls, though some now with corrugated iron rather than thatch roofs – beside each hut is a tall silo made of woven leaves. At the end of harvest it will be filled with maize (corn on the cob) their main crop, their one carbohydrate source, from which the make mealie, the maize porridge which is their staple, eaten with vegetables and any meat they can find. At the end of the annual harvest if the silo is full to the top it will be enough for that family in that hut to last the year. Less full and there will be hunger. Empty, forbid the thought, and there will be real starvation. They cannot pop up the road to buy more. There is no more and they have no money.
In Gaza, there has been no harvest for two years, the lush fertile fields are all destroyed and the lorries cannot get in. In south Sudan there is yet another famine, and so it goes on.
So what should be our reaction as Christians as we gaze at our well-stocked cupboards when we get home, not quite able to imagine real hunger.
What is our right response? Our Bible readings today help us.
- REJOICE
In Deuteronomy the Israelites are soon reaching a Promised Land
7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills;
8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey;
9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing;
10 You shall eat your fill – you shall be satisfied. God does not require us to feel guilt. It is right He says to celebrate harvest, to celebrate arriving in a Promised Land, enjoy a grand meal, eat your fill.
- REJOICE ……… but REMEMBER
- Rejoice but Remember who gave you the land for your harvest
10 You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you
- Rejoice but Remember who created the circumstances for harvest
Psalm 147
8 God covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills, gives, gives the animals their food
- Rejoice but Remember how God has looked after you in the past
The people of Israel above all others surely would never forget that it was God who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt. And on their way to their Promised Land, how God had looked after them as they had endured wilderness, hunger, thirst, and he had met their needs. Our stories may be less dramatic, but we will each know those tough times through which God led us.
How could the people of Israel forget, how could they have short memories
- Rejoice but Remember it is God who looks after you now
- 17 DO not say to yourself ;’ My power, and the might of my own hand have got me this wealth’
Sounds absurd put like that … I did it??
No …. 18 but remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth …….
The successful farmer or commercial fisherman knows full well that they have not done it alone. God’s creation has provided the conditions for harvest of land or sea. God works with us and provides soil, seed, water, sun.
But it is not God’s way to do it for us. God doesn’t magic the food into the shops. These things come about through hard work, and exhausting farming hours to get the job done. And then there are middle men, and food production sites, and overnight lorries. There is work from many across our society…. For our modern harvest.
So REJOICE & REMEMBER….
but also … in our comfort and food security,
BE GENEROUS
So we come to forward a few thousand years to our reading from 2 Corinthians. Paul has been telling the recently formed church in Corinth in southern Greece that there is severe need among the Christians in Jerusalem . And he challenges them – don’t just remember, but be generous, and be glad to do it. And
2 Corinthians 9
6: The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7: Each of you must give as you have made up your mind (what you have decided in your heart to give) , not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
be generous, and be glad to be generous
Whether your generosity is to our Rutland Food Bank or Rutland Community Fridge, or further afield
11: You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us.
Verses 12 & 13 are not that easy to make out – they are written quite a lot in Bible jargon.
12 for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God 13 Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ, and by the generosity of sharing with them and with all others
13 Be generous and people notice: If you are someone who is unashamed to be known as a Xtian, or as Paul puts it in v13,you confess the gospel of Christ …and.. . you are generous, People notice, overflows with many thanksgivings to God, it says
- REJOICE but REMEMBER
- BE GENEROUS
Harvest is a celebration of life. We rejoice more than any other day in the year that our physical needs are met by God, our physical hunger is satisfied by Him. And we can rejoice but must remember.
As our circumstances allow, we can be GENEROUS
BUT, but…. All that is just scratching the surface of our real hunger, our real spiritual hunger, Jesus tells us. However much our physical needs are being met, however much our physical appetites satisfied.
Our gospel reading comes just after Jesus has miraculously fed a crowd of 5000 people with five loaves and two fishes
John 6:25-35
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.
And here comes the message that matters. Remember where your food comes from, rejoice in it, be generous. BUT
27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
The manna that God provided when they were starving in the wilderness was survival food, what you will eat for lunch today, however delicious, is survival food, whatever the Food Bank is able to distribute because of your generosity is survival food.
There is a whole other dimension, a spiritual reality that we need spiritual food – food that does not pass its Sell by Date.
33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
So today:
we do rejoice in the good things God gives us through harvest.
we rejoice but we remember – remember that it is God Almighty’s achievement not ours which fills our larders, and meets our physical needs
Remember that for others today it is different – physical hunger and need are real and painful
And we can each meet God’s challenge of being truly generous.
And we remember above all that our food is merely survival rations….
To live and grow, and fulfil ourselves, we need the spiritual reality of the Bread of Life, we need Jesus. Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry.
So why not each of us make today a personal Harvest Festival day. When we go home, and sit down to eat – Rejoice, Remember, that God has provided it all. Rejoice and remember all those who play their part in our food production machine.
When we go home, and sit down to eat – decide if we each need to renew and extend our generosity.
Above all, when we go home, and sit down to eat rejoice and remember that God looks after so much more than our physical bodies. That, for our souls, he provides bread which means we need never be hungry. Jesus is the Bread of Life.
Amen