Harvest

THE IMAGE OF HARVEST

It was the Revd R S Hawker, Vicar of Morweston, a rural parish on the windswept north Cornish coastline, who first introduced, in 1842, the service of Harvest Thanksgiving.

The popularity of this annual service quickly spread far and wide, beyond the confines of Cornwall and, only twenty years later, we find the Convocation of Canterbury issuing a special form of service.

Many people live in urban communities far removed from the original source of their food. It is therefore appropriate to ask whether or not Harvest Thanksgiving still has relevance today?

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The word 'harvest' is used in three different ways in the Bible. It refers to the harvest from the land; the harvest of the church and the harvest of our lives. So let us briefly look and see what the use of the word 'harvest' in each context can teach us.

First of all, the harvest from the land.

In the Old Testament, Moses instructs the people of Israel with these words:

'When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and possess it. and settle, you shall take some of the first fruit of the ground. which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you. and you shall put it into a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.' (Deut 26.1-21)

There they are to give the basket of the first fruits to the priest who will set it down before the altar. There, the people are to recall how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea into a land of plenty.

Being essentially a rural and nomadic community, they were more than ever conscious of the precious nature of their lives and their dependence upon God.

Unlike the Israelites, we live in settled communities but are also subject to variable weather conditions.

Therefore, as we, like the Israelites, thank God for the harvest of the crops, let us also look back and recall how God has blessed our lives in so many different ways, and,

as we offer our gifts as tokens of our appreciation, offer also ourselves anew to God.

Secondly, the harvest of the church.

St Luke in the New Testament reminds us that,

'The Lord appointed seventv two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was to go. He told them: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send workers into the harvest field".'

It is not enough for us to just bathe in God's goodness in the past. It is also good news we should want to share with others.

Do you realise, that if the seventy two disciples had kept the good news of Jesus to themselves, we would not be here today? We are only here because others have worked hard in the harvest field of people. We are the fruits of their labours.

We may not be many, but let us never give up.

Just stop and think of the number of people who have influenced our lives along the Christian way; our parents and Godparents; our teachers and leaders in our youth; our

marriage partners and our children; our personal friends and relatives; and of course the clergy, who may have touched our lives at significant moments. All these, and many others have sown the seeds of faith in our lives, which have slowly, but surely, grown and flourished to make us the persons we are today. Before we go to sleep tonight, whilst the harvest hymns are still ringing in our ears, let us thank God for all those who have influenced and encouraged our lives along the Christian way.

And what better way do we have of showing our appreciation than by being prepared to accept the opportunities to sow similar seeds of faith in the lives of others for the 'harvest is plentiful. but the workers are few.'

Finally, the harvest of our lives.

Harvest is the culmination of the growth of our crops. In a similar way, there comes a time when there is a culmination of our own lives.

Jesus expressed this in the parable of the wheat and the tares.

'The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while men were sleeping his enemy came and sowed weeds amongst the wheat. and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said to him: "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?" He said to them: "An enemy has done this". The servants said to him: "Then do you want us to go and gather them?" But he said: "No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time, I will tell the reapers: 'Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn'." (Matt. 3.24-30)

The harvest to which Jesus refers is the harvest of all men and women at the end of time. In other words, the last judgment.,when God will gather the wheat into his barn.

There is a natural danger that we tend to think that we are the 'wheat' and not the 'weed'. But who knows? Only God knows, and as for the present, good people exist side by side with bad people, and it is not for us to judge which is which. There will come a time of separation of the wheat from the weed at our final harvest, the day of judgement.

And now to the God of Harvest be all honour and glory, today and forever. Amen.