Harvest Festival – morning
Sunday 22nd September 2019
Harvest Festival – morning
Deut 26. 1-11
John 6. 25-35
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
“All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above!”
Now that is an easy sentiment to sing or to pray here this Sunday morning with all these wonderful arrangements around us in church and the Lady Chapel full of the gifts that the children brought here on Friday! But how often do you think that thought standing in the queue at Sainsbury’s, or the Co-Op, or Aldi or Lidl or even Waitrose! (other food retailers are available!) I know I don’t – but perhaps I should? And even if the thought occasionally crosses our minds, I bet it doesn’t occur to many other people?
We simply don’t see ourselves as beneficiaries of gifts, but as purchasers of commodities. Not sent from heaven, but delivered to our supermarket or to our doors by Amazon or Ocado (other delivery services are available!)
Farmers and keen gardeners are more directly dependent on the elemental forces of nature, the weather, seasonal variations and the natural world, than the rest of us. And that close connection with nature can lead to feelings of gratitude and even wonder and awe. But it exposes the unpredictable character of nature and the natural order – and one that (thanks to climate change) may become even more unpredictable in future!
The gospel tells us not to be concerned with food, drink or clothing. Try telling that to the increasing numbers of people that are forced to turn to Food Banks in our modern, prosperous economy!
Recently a report was published saying that people still wanted their children to experience a traditional Harvest Festival in school – and I am pleased to tell you that our local schoolchildren do just that! There is something warm and nostalgic about Harvest celebrations, recalling images of an idyllic rural past. But surely for Christians, Harvest should be about more than that.
Richard Dawkins – seemingly this country’s professional atheist, has a new book out and i heard him being interviewed on the Radio on Friday. He is predictably scathing about the idea of a God and anything the Bible might have to tell us. For a clever man and I believe a considerable expert when it comes to the science of Biology, he talks a great deal of nonsense whenever he turns to matters of faith and religion.
What I would like to share with you from my own observations and study is that God is not some kind of control freak, masterminding the movement of tides and winds, decreeing that this place will have good weather and that place will have poor conditions ; that this people will have plenty, while that nation starves. The world is not just running its course like some over-wound and faulty clock, left to itself. Creation did not just happen once, but God goes on creating and inviting us to share in that process. He is like the composer or playwright in residence- re-working, re-creating as we go. The world is being held in being, day by day, minute by minute. To quote the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, “There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.” And people of faith claim that great climactic events, like the Exodus, the life of Jesus, the resurrection etc. are unmistakeable clues reveal God.
It’s just that most of the time he remains anonymous or we fail to recognise him. He is like the generous by rather shy benefactor who stands behind and with and under his creation, but he doesn’t leave post-it notes or signatures reminding us to thank him, just hints and glimpses. And his love means that he even gives us the freedom to forget him – even to doubt his goodness and reality. He does not even deprive us of his gifts when we fail to give him thanks and treat them as though we are entitled to them.
Do you know the story about the Man who wanted to see and hear God? He went to a hilltop and yelled and pleaded with God, “Speak to me!” – but all he heard was the song of a bird. So he tried again – and all he could hear was the sound of children playing in the distance. “Please God, touch me!” he cried – and the wind blew across his cheek. By now, feeling thoroughly discouraged at not having his pleas answered, the man prayed. “God, show yourself to me!” and a butterfly flew across his path. And when he arrived home, feeling utterly abandoned and forsaken by God, his daughter ran out to meet him and threw her arms around him – but he still felt abandoned by God. Seen aright, almost anything can be a gift from God.
When we pick up a tin of beans, or soup, or smell the scent of a sharp autumn morning, we may not immediately think of God. But the inherent fruitfulness of the land, the variations of the seasons and weather, the labours of farmers, distributors, retailers etc., and the fact that there is a world at all rather than nothing, and the fact that we – of all people – are alive and blessed, and that this is a new day, is cause for living thankfully.
God’s gifts flow to us, but they should not stop there – they must be passed on, which is what we try to do at harvest time especially – but which needs to happen all year round. Ghandi said, “to those without food, bread is the only form in which God dares to appear.” The hungry are doubly deprived; deprived of food, and of the opportunity to rejoice in God’s provision. Food is political with a small ‘p’, and our giving takes the form of political choices and actions.
Harvest, therefore invites us to see life not just as a given, but as a gift. And if we can do that, if life is seen as a gift that is free, unconditional and undeserved, our life and our view of life will change for ever. We’ll recognise the Giver, behind the Gift, and love him for the sake of Godself. And we will be channels of his gifts to others. Amen.