02 October 2022 is Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday and the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost.
2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (from The Message translation of the Bible)
6-7 Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.
8-11 God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,
He throws caution to the winds,
giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
never run out, never wear out.
This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.
12-15 Carrying out this social relief work involves far more than helping meet the bare needs of poor Christians. It also produces abundant and bountiful thanksgivings to God. This relief offering is a prod to live at your very best, showing your gratitude to God by being openly obedient to the plain meaning of the Message of Christ. You show your gratitude through your generous offerings to your needy brothers and sisters, and really toward everyone. Meanwhile, moved by the extravagance of God in your lives, they’ll respond by praying for you in passionate intercession for whatever you need. Thank God for this gift, his gift. No language can praise it enough!
The text of today’s sermon
What comes to mind when you think of harvest?
Harvest festivals have been celebrated since ancient times and although they are not part of the liturgical church year, we are in Ordinary Time at present, many churches now celebrate harvest at some point in the autumn.
But where does the harvest festival come from?
One tradition teaches that the harvest festival used to be celebrated on 1st
August and was called Lammas, meaning ‘loaf Mass’.
Farmers made loaves of bread from the new wheat crop and gave them to their local church where they were then used as the communion bread during a special thanksgiving service.
This custom seems to have ended when Henry VIII broke away from the Roman
Catholic Church.
The Auld Lamma’s Fair which is held on the final Monday and Tuesday of August every year in the north Antrim town of Ballycastle, retains the name, although it’s not loaves of bread that are consumed in celebration but a type of edible seaweed called dulse and a hard sweet called Yellowman that are taken instead. None the less, it is a joyful festival of thanksgiving.
Harvest festivals have remained a part of our tradition ever since.
Although it isn’t an exclusively Christian festival, the tradition of giving at harvest-time is found in the Hebrew Bible as well.
The Jews would give a tenth of the harvest to God. This was known as a tithe. In this country, farmers used to give a tithe of everything that came from the ground. They would give their crops, wool, or milk, which totalled an agreed amount of their yearly profits. Tithes were often given to help support the local church and its clergy. Grain was stored in huge tithe barns, some of which can still be seen today.
Although this law no longer exists, many Christians still choose to give a tithe of the money they earn – ten percent or more – to help with the work of the church.
These days, many churches in Britain still have a Harvest Thanksgiving service.
The church building may be decorated with a display of flowers and food, perhaps
including a large loaf in the shape of a wheat sheaf.
Often people bring more gifts of food to add to the display during the church service. Afterwards, the food will be sold to raise money for charity, or given directly to those in need.
At harvest time, the sharing of food helps Christians to remember that all good gifts come from God.
Giving is a way of saying thank you to God in a practical way whilst
remembering that He commanded all people to love and care for others.
But does it ever make us think of justice and equality?
In the Bible, we find that harvest and justice are closely linked.
Specific provision is made in God’s law to ensure that harvest time is used to create a fairer, more equal society:
‘When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back
Deuteronomy 24:19-22
to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow…
‘When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second
time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
‘When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again.
Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.’
In Leviticus, similar instructions are given to leave a portion of the harvest for
people living in poverty (Leviticus 19:9-10 and Leviticus 23:22).
The message is clear.
We are blessed for a reason – to share that blessing with others.
The message is clear. We are blessed for a reason – to share that blessing with others. Abundance is an opportunity to create a fairer society, one in which the marginalised and oppressed are provided for.
REV. GEOFF MCKEE
Abundance is an opportunity to create a fairer society, one in which the
marginalised and oppressed are provided for.
God’s kingdom is one where no one has to go without – where all are provided for equally. Our job as the church is to help build this kingdom here and now.
We give today and, as we do, it is good to spend some time thinking about how we
can use the gifts that we have been given to bless others throughout the year.
We will pause for a few moments of quiet silence and reflection and then I will lead in
a harvest prayer.
Let us pray
Creator God,
We thank you for the gift that is creation –
For the beauty of the earth and how
you have created us to care for it.
We are sorry for the ways we have neglected this,
Help us to work together to repair the world.
Lord of the Harvest, hear our prayers.
Generous God,
We thank you for the gift of food –
For how it brings us together and nourishes us.
We pray for those without, whose harvests and
store cupboards are empty,
Help us work together to share the world’s resources
so that everyone can be fed.
Lord of the Harvest, hear our prayers.
Sustaining God,
We thank you for the gift of those who farm
and prepare our food –
For their labour, their innovation and their care.
We pray that everyone will be able to work with dignity,
that there will be no more poverty.
Help us work together to call for just and fair systems
of pay and working conditions.
Lord of the Harvest, hear our prayers.
Amen.
