Thanks be to God

Harvest is a wonderful service where we give thanks, think of others and enjoy the good gifts God gives us. We are reminded that God helps us in our daily lives. 

A vicar had just arrived in his new Parish and the people were looking forward to hearing him preach his first sermon. He got up in the pulpit and said, “I’d like to speak to you today about one of my favourite passages in the Scriptures – the episode in the Garden of Gethsemane where Peter cuts of the ear of the High Priest’s servant,” and he went to preach what they all agreed afterwards was a good sermon.

The following week people were a bit taken aback when he began with precisely the same introduction: “I’d like to speak to you today about one of my favourite passages in the Scriptures – the episode in the Garden of Gethsemane where Peter cuts of the ear of the High Priest’s servant,” and he went on to preach exactly the same sermon as the week before – word for word. After the service, there was a bit of muttering, but people agreed that he’d only just moved in and he must have been busy unpacking, so they could understand that perhaps he hadn’t had time to write a fresh sermon. They would see what happened the following Sunday.

The next week, exactly the same thing happened – the same introduction, the same sermon, but by now people were beginning to feel that something ought to be said, so one of the churchwardens agreed to have a word with the vicar. “We do appreciate your sermons, Vicar,” he said diplomatically, “but we were wondering as next Sunday is Harvest festival, whether you could preach on something topical, something on the Harvest theme?” “Of course,” replied the vicar, “Just leave it to me.”

So the following Sunday the vicar stood in the pulpit and opened the Bible. “My text for today,” he began, “comes from the fourth chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel, and the twenty-eighth verse: ‘The earth produces of itself first the blade, then the ear’ and that reminds me of one of my favourite passages in the Scriptures where, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter cuts of the ear of the High Priests servant…”

Back to today. There are people here, who do not need to imagine what harvesting looks like. There are people here who know exactly what is involved in caring for livestock, watching the weather, worrying about prices, hoping for rain when the ground is dry and hoping for sunshine when rain threatens the harvest.

There are always problems that will be beyond our control, such as weather. There are often times in life when all we can do is trust God, and wait. 

Harvest is the end of that waiting and is a chance to give thanks to God. We don’t only give thanks because a year has been perfect, some years really aren’t. We give thanks because throughout every season, good or difficult, God remains faithful.

In the reading from Deuteronomy (28:1-14), the people of Israel were reminded that God is the source of every blessing. The passage speaks of blessings on fields and flocks, on crops and livestock, on households and communities. It paints a picture of abundance and flourishing.

It is a beautiful picture of everything going well as you follow God, and His commands. There is not a promise here that followers of God won’t face difficulties. Rather, it is a reminder that ultimately every blessing comes from God.

Harvest calls us to stop, and recognise that all good things have their source in God. Sometimes it can feel as if society tells us that if we work hard enough, organise well enough and plan carefully enough, we can control everything that will happen.  This is why it is good to stop and think of the meaning of harvest. This is because harvest is a reminder of our dependence on God.

In our reading from Luke (12:16-30)  Jesus told the story of a rich farmer whose land produced an exceptionally good harvest. The problem for the man was not the good harvest.  The problem was that he made it all about him talking of his barns, his crops, his grain and his goods. Rather than seeing something to be thankful for he wanted to build bigger barns so he could protect what he had. He wasn’t thankful for what he had, he just wanted more. He saw all that God had given him as belonging to him alone and not to be shared with others. 

The end of the story is rather chilling, but it does help in asking the question of what we are doing with the blessings that God has given us ? How are we using the good gifts that God has given to us ? They may not be financial. God gives all sorts of gifts. 

I want you to think for a moment about the good gifts God has given you.

The gifts might include baking, speaking, being a good friend, flower arranging, being a musician, being an artist, helping with building maintenance or being good at organising, being good at administration, being good at praying for others, being able to encourage others. There are so many gifts that people possess.

The harvest gathered in a field does no good if it remains there. The grain stored in a barn only fulfils its purpose when it feeds people. And the gifts God has placed within us fulfil their purpose when they are shared.

There is a a message that runs through this afternoon’s readings. This is that as God blesses, so we give thanks. As God provides, so we share. As God gives generously so we are to respond generously. When all of this happens the blessings of God grow as our response reaches to others so that they too can know the goodness of God. 

So as we celebrate Harvest today, let us give thanks for the land, for those who work it, for the food we enjoy, and for God whose faithfulness sustains us through every season. Then let us also give thanks for the gifts God has placed within each one of us.

And for all God's goodness, generosity and faithfulness, both seen and unseen, today and every day, we say:

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Impossible Forgiveness

  excused and to be given time to repay it. The amount he owed was impossible to pay. A writer called Josephus, writing around the time of Jesus, calculated the taxes in Judea, Idumea, and Samaria as coming to 600 talents, which he said would take 150,000 years to pay off. There was no way that the man in the parable Jesus told would be able to pay off his 10,000 talents.

The king had been forgiving and basically excused this man, whose response was not good at all. This is because the man then attacked someone who owed him a lot less and had him thrown into prison.

This is appalling behaviour, but the ridiculous nature of it reminds us that forgiveness, which is so much greater than we could imagine, must be accepted and should make us want to act differently.

God has given us the best gift ever: forgiveness and the promise of everlasting life. God has blessed us extravagantly, but this means that we are to be extravagant in return. 

Extravagant in our love for God, putting Him first. Extravagant in our love for others, putting their needs before our own. Extravagant in the ways that we forgive others, even when it seems to make no sense to do so.

The writer Corrie ten Boom told of not being able to forget a wrong that had been done to her. She had forgiven the person, but she kept rehashing the incident and so couldn't sleep. Finally, Corrie cried out to God for help in putting the problem to rest. “This help came in the form of a kindly Lutheran pastor,” Corrie wrote, “to whom I confessed my failure after two sleepless weeks.”

“Up in the church tower,” he said, nodding out of the window, “is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what? After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps on swinging. First ding, then dong. Slower and slower until there's a final dong and it stops. I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive, we take our hand off the rope. But if we've been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn't be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They're just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.”

“And so it proved to be. There were a few more midnight reverberations, a couple of dings when the subject came up in my conversations, but the force, which was my willingness in the matter, had gone out of them. They came less and less often and at last stopped altogether. We can trust God not only above our emotions, but also above our thoughts.”

This is how we learn to forgive others. It is also a reminder that we can accept the forgiveness that God offers by forgiving others extravagantly, as we give thanks to the One who loves and forgives us extravagantly. May we be extravagant in our love and in our forgiveness. AMEN.