Harvest is here. I remember, as a child, the coming of harvest was rather exciting—after all, it meant half-term must be fairly close, and then, of course, Christmas would follow. I also remember, in school, waiting for the harvest loaf to appear for our harvest thanksgiving and seeing if there was a mouse on the decoration of the loaf. I remember the mad panic and rush to find a useful tin of food to take to school, along with any nice fruit we could find in the house. I also recall seeing other children with their prettily wrapped fruit baskets from the greengrocers.
Harvest—always fun, always a time to be joyful. It is a vital part of life. We need a harvest for our food, for living. It’s not just my memories from when I was younger; it’s real life. In a rural area, it’s part of the year’s cycle. So really, beyond saying thank you, it is part of our year.
Last year, I found some harvest jokes. I’ve done the same this year, so please get ready to groan or laugh. After all, today is a thanksgiving for the harvest, and thanksgivings are joyful.
How do you make an apple turnover? Push it down the hill.
What do you call a corn that joins the army? A kernel.
Why was the apple always getting detention in school? It was rotten to the core.
Our reading this morning from the book of Deuteronomy (26:1-11) reminded us why we need to say thank you. God brought the people of Israel out of a life of slavery, out of misery, into a wonderful new place of freedom. God wanted to make sure the people never forgot what they had been through. To do this, He instructed them to bring the first fruits of the harvest and give thanks. This is what we are doing today. It is a great opportunity to say thank you. This doesn’t exclude us from always being thankful to God, but having a particular set time in the Church’s year ensures we don’t forget.
A while ago, I was asked to lead a children’s workshop on prayer. I was trying to think of creative ways to help children pray, and I came up with a game. I’m sorry, but we’re not going to play a game today. The game involved a football being passed to a child, and they would think of something they wanted to pray about. I used the word STOP to help them remember ways to pray:
S stood for Sorry
T stood for Thank you
O stood for Others
P stood for Please
As I was preparing for this morning, this idea came back to me as a way for us to think about harvest.
It may seem strange, on a day of giving thanks, to think of the word Sorry, but it is an important one. We can be sorry for all the times we do not appreciate the good gifts God has given us—gifts of food, a home, the work of those who prepare food, who harvest on land and sea. These gifts also include the one we heard about in the Gospel reading: the best bread we will ever have.
The passage from the Gospel of John (6:25-35) happened after the feeding of the 5,000. People had seen that Jesus could do incredible things, and so they came to see more. The point is, by doing this, they were making Jesus into a wonder-worker—someone who would perform whenever they wanted—which meant they were missing out on who Jesus truly was. In the reading, Jesus pointed this out to the people, and it almost seems harsh—sort of a “you’re only here to watch me perform, not to hear me speak.”
Jesus pointed out that while He had performed this amazing miracle, the people were missing out if they didn’t see past the food. Jesus Himself was all that they needed. Yes, food is good, but our greatest need is Jesus. By announcing that He is the bread of life, Jesus was pointing out the way we need to be—people who know they need God, people who know that nothing can compare with the amazing love of God. The life we all need.
We must be sorry for all the times we forget the greatest gifts of God—even the gift of God Himself, sacrificed for us.
We now move on to Thank you. This one is the most obvious harvest feeling. We thank God for the harvest and for His continual provision for us. We are thankful for all those who help bring in the harvest, and we are, like the people in Deuteronomy, to make this thankfulness a major part of our lives. God has provided—we must say thank you.
Then we come to Others. This reminds us, at harvest, of the need to pray for all those in need—for all those for whom a harvest would be a great joy. There was an African woman who met someone from Britain she commented that we must always be rejoicing. After all, we have both a hot and a cold water tap ! Something so simple to us, but so needed by others. We need to pray for others, to try and help them, to seek to show our thanksgiving to God by sharing and giving to those in need.
Then we come to Please. This is where we can ask God to help us continually praise and give thanks. To ask God to use us to help others enjoy the good gifts He provides. We can ask for God’s help to reach out to others with His love. In the reading from the Gospel of John, Jesus pointed people to Himself as one to follow and as the bread of life. We are to reach out and point people to Him.
So—harvest. Let us be sorry, be thankful, pray for others, and seek God’s help to please reach out to all those around us.
Amen.
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