Harvest Festival 2007

There is something comfortable about Harvest Festivals. There is something that gives us that warm feeling. Like a favourite pair of slippers and a warm mug of tea, and your favourite program on the telly, harvest always brings out the best in any Church community.

Surrounded by the gifts of God, you may remember the great Harvest Festivals of times past, and the trees changing colour for autumn – the slow onset of winter and the anticipation of advent and the festive season. It is true isn’t it, that as soon as harvest is gone Christmas seems just a few days away. (sorry to say that!!!!)

But today, through the readings, the trees outside, and the gifts in the church, we can pause and see just how blessed we are, just how much we are subjects of God’s grace.

Harvest is a good time, because we come before God to give thanks for all that is good, for the wonder of creation, for the gift of food and the gift of others to share God’s gifts with us. Being grateful is the root of Harvest, and that gratefulness should be at the heart of our faith, if we are to fully experience the transforming power of God in our lives.

We are all here today by the grace of God, able to share these gifts, and that is good enough reason to give thanks.

In the book DEUTERONOMY we are told what Moses told the Children of Israel to say as they brought their offerings to the temple. They were to say;

“The Lord has brought us into this place, and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first fruit of the ground, which you, O God, have given me.”

The Lord has brought us to this place, and the Lord has given us the fruits of the earth in this place, he has given us our daily bread, he has brought each and every one of us safe to this point in time.

This is not just the message for this Sunday though, it is the message of the whole Bible; that everything around us, and everything we have and everything we are, is a gift from God.

Gifts from God however, are usually through the hard work of others. The Church buildings, the pews we sit on and the windows, are all gifts of God given by others. The fruits of the earth here today are also gifts from others – all of these things didn’t just appear, they are the gifts of God, brought by those who work for God. And that’s the way it is…God works through US to share HIS gifts with OTHERS. This is why of all the gifts of God the most important are those who work for others. People are the greatest gift of God.

The gifts of God are with us today because of the people sitting next to us, the people who sat here before us, and the people who sat here before them. People! With all their good points, difficulties, problems and flaws, all serving God.

Now that is quite awesome isn’t it! When we think of that, we then need to try and imagine how much others who serve God have helped us

Then, of course, the question is – “have WE thanked God enough, and are WE his servants for others?”

Without us being grateful to God for his gifts, we seem to fall short of the mark. This week look around you, at the mountains, the river, the fields, and most importantly other people, and give thanks to God for his wonderful gifts.

Unfortunately, it is easy to forget to give thanks to God, because we are usually beset by the trials of daily life. We see pain and grief, hatred and division on a daily basis especially at this time of unrest in our world. And this undoubtedly wears us down. We may feel that people do not appreciate us, or we may be downtrodden by others. To give thanks to God is hard sometimes – that is true, but we need give thanks to strengthen our faith.

We learn to love by loving, we learn to believe by believing, and we learn to appreciate the gifts of God by giving thanks to HIM

Have you ever met or heard of people, who in the midst of terrible events, can still give thanks for the good things and good times? I regularly meet people who count their blessings and give thanks for each day. They sometimes make me feel that I forget to thank God enough. I usually thank God that I am not in the same situation as them, but that isn’t enough really. Perhaps they are a gift of God to me, enabling me to count my own blessings, and strengthen my own faith.

God asks us for thanks, whether we feel like it or not, so that we can experience the comfort it brings to us, and the comfort it brings to others.

The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church tells us that HARVEST THANKSGIVING is an unofficial religious festival of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth. It tells us that it is customary to decorate the church with fruit, flowers and vegetables, and to sing special hymns. Seems like that’s all done! However it also told me something else. It told me that the festival was revived in 1843 in Cornwall, by a man called R.S.Hawker.

I then thought of the people of Wales at that time, and what it meant to them. One hundred and fifty years ago, many people were dreaming of working the land, in the same way that we may dream of a holiday home in the sun somewhere. They dreamt of producing fruit and vegetables, and rearing cattle and poultry. They were dreaming of a time when they could make enough money from farming and go back to working the land.

They were dreaming because their Harvest was worked twelve months a year, up to eighteen hours a day. Their children, as young as six worked with them to harvest and process the fruits of the earth – Coal and Iron. They did this for tokens, not money, to spend in the company shops. If work was stopped for whatever reason, they starved. Death and disability were commonplace as were the outbreaks of cholera and other diseases we never now hear of.

Amidst all that, the people of God still joined to thank God for his gifts.

Their fight for fair rights and democracy through the charter started here for many. The people of this area joined the marchers to demand a fairer life, not just for them, but their sons and daughters and the generations to come. Many were killed by the Government, but the message was heard in Westminster.

Our harvest today is their harvest. We are giving thanks for all that we have, and all that we are. We are thanking God for those who have gone before us – God’s gifts to us. And we are rejoicing that we are here today to enjoy those gifts.

The reading from the Gospel of St John reminds us that Our food, our harvest is doing the will of God, being as Christ to those we meet, sharing HIS love with them. We are all called to strengthen our faith by helping to build the kingdom of God; the Kingdom of solidarity, justice and peace.

Now, this path is a difficult path in the midst of growing poverty and contempt for the human rights of people are harassed in so many ways.

Our task is not to issue hollow promises to the poor and needy, but to work ‘through our faith’ to make lives better. We are entrusted with them, and to do all we can for them. TO MAKE OUR FAITH STRONG BY HAVING AN ACTIVE FAITH.

As the Church, the body of Christ, we need to understand the sacrifices made by those who have gone before us, so that we can build on the foundations that they have left us.

The memories of Harvests past and the thanks offered to God in this Church and many others are our starting point to step out in faith. NOT ONLY to SHARE the Gospel message, but to BE the Gospel – the good news of Christ – in all we say and do.

We learn to love by loving, we believe by believing, and have faith by being faithful to the teachings of Christ.

We have many things to thank God for, and our faith tells us that thank God we must! I would invite you, today and during the week to ‘count your blessings’ and give thanks to God for his great and wondrous works.