Skip to main content

Harvest...



Today we're having our harvest services, as many churches are, but like many urban churches it is often a little surreal, as our church sanctuary becomes transformed, for one day only, into a giant greengrocer's shop. That isn't happening in our own church this year as we have asked members of our congregation to either support the Belfast Vineyard Church's "Storehouse" programme by bringing along unperishable foodstuffs, or to support our "Nets for Nets" Fundraiser with financial donations, to help purchase mosquito nets for Zambia. This has caused a little disquiet among some of our older members, particularly those with a farming connection, as it won't quit seem like a proper harvest service for them...


But if harvest services were to truly reflect the nature of farming in Northern Ireland these days, the piles of fruit and veg at the front would be largely supplanted by large plastic wrapped bales of silaged grass!


Increasingly though, those of us not living, working and worshipping in a rural environment have no real understanding of the importance of harvest and the sense of relief that comes with a harvest "safely gathered in." We take for granted the fact that we can get fruit and vegetables from our supermarket shelves 24/7 all year round, in season and out of season. It's one of the joys of a global market. New Zealand strawberries in December - no problem! Brussels Sprouts from Bylorussia in August - straight away!


One year, when I was attending a church in inner city Edinburgh, they managed to forget the harvest services - and the thing is, no-one noticed.


We are sadly out of tune with the natural world; out of time in relation to the rhythm of the seasons. That is one of the reasons our environment is in such a mess.


But harvest services are not just a matter of giving thanks for a local harvest safely gathered in, but for the very fact of harvest... and we should not restrict ourselves to one Sunday in the year for such thanksgiving, but should live our lives in thankfulness to the God who gives all good gifts.


But this day may we give thanks for the fact of harvest, recommit ourselves to share God's good gifts more fairly, and take care of this wonderful world that he has entrusted to our stewardship.

This is an adaptation of a "Just a Moment" written for Downtown Radio, broadcast on Friday 9th October 2009.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-
2 comments
Read more