Harvest Festival - Fellow Workers with God

HARVEST FESTIVAL - FELLOW WORKERS WITH GOD

The story is told of a country vicar who was visiting his parishioners in the village one day. He came to one man who was doing some gardening of his vegetable patch. Admiring the garden, the vicar turned and said, "I see God and you have got a good crop this year". The man replied: "Yes, but you should have seen the mess God made of it when he had it all to himself'.

This story contains an important message for our harvest thanksgiving, namely that our thanksgiving should be directed not only towards God but also towards people because the production of food is the result of a partnership between God and people.

It is God who provides us with the raw materials with which to produce our food. He provides us with the water, earth, heat and light. Even the seasons of the year follow a regular annual cycle.

But God also needs our cooperation to develop these raw materials so as to produce the food. He needs people as his co-workers. He needs the farm labourer who ploughs the soil, sows the seed, and reaps the harvest. He also needs the miller to turn the grain into flour, the baker to manufacture the bread, the transport driver to deliver our daily bread. Not to mention the shop assistant who sells us our bread from behind the counter. Behind each loaf of bread

there is a wonderful story of God and people being fellow workers together.

Therefore our thanksgiving must include not only thanksgiving to God but also the many men and women who are his fellow workers in the production of our food.

It is also as fellow workers that the needs of the world can be solved and especially our shortage of food. It is of little use praying to God to solve the problems of hunger with our sleeves rolled down and our hands in our pockets. He needs our hands as fellow workers.

The solution to hunger in the world will not be solved by a miraculous delivery of manna from heaven. The solution to the problem means the working together of a vast army of people with knowledge of such things as birth control, the experience in different farming methods, techniques and the use of machinery; those who understand soil composition, fertilization and irrigation; those who are experienced in teaching others these skills. It is a great army of men and women such as these who are doing so much work in the under-developed countries of the world today under the banner of Christian Aid. They are working together with God on the problem of hunger.

So today we come together to thank God for the harvest, and as we thank him let us not forget those who are less fortunate than ourselves. But above all let us remember that it is as fellow workers with him that we are able to produce the harvest not only for ourselves but also for those who suffer hunger in the world today.

We plough the fields and scatter,

the good seed on the land;

but it is fed and watered

by God's almighty hand:

he sends the snow in winter,

the warmth to swell the grain;

the breezes and the sunshine,

and soft refreshing rain.