All good gifts around us
are sent from heaven above; then thank the Lord,
O thank the Lord for all his love.
Familiar words, and words that we will sing this morning as we metaphorically; ‘Plough the fields and scatter’.
When was the last time you saw a field being ploughed? For some of us I suspect it was a while ago and the closest we are likely to get to scattering seed are the seeds we sow in the hope they will germinate and find a home in our gardens.
Decades ago as a society we lived closer to the land. We might have known farmers and we would have certainly been more in tune with the cycle of the seasons in relation to what we could eat. As a teenager I used to look forward to the late Spring arrival of asparagus and trying to make the most of it as I knew its
presence in the shops would be brief. Today, I can buy asparagus at anytime of the year, flown in from over half way around the world and lacking in taste. Just because we can do something does not mean that we should do it. Think of the carbon footprint that asparagus has before it reaches our mouths. Is that taste worth the price our planet has to pay?
I follow on ‘instagram’ a friend of a friend of a friend who is an organic farmer in Herefordshire. It is fascinating to see his farm over the 12 months of the year and how this year he has struggled with flooding, too cold a spring for germination and the recent over hot weather. As a result his Winter planting of wheat has done well but the Spring planting was as he said; ‘Not worth harvesting!’.
The changes in our climate are playing havoc with our harvests, not only at home but around the world. A recent book published suggests that we have 60 harvests left if we don’t address the climate crisis NOW. But, also suggests that there is great hope for the future if we do change our ways. (Perhaps some of the
obscene profits made by our energy companies at our cost, could be ploughed into new eco- friendly alternatives to carbon based fuels, hopefully bringing energy costs down and substation ally reducing our carbon foot print every time we cook a meal of turn a light on.)
I find it sobering to think that, if we do nothing or not enough then within my life-time there will be very few opportunities to give thanks to God for the Harvest left.
Giving thanks or rather NOT giving thanks is, I feel, part of the problem. The food we eat and the fuel we use, we take for granted. What we are doing this morning might appear bizarre to many people outside these walls. Giving thanks to God for our food? Don’t be daft? God doesn’t exist and even if God does then its not God who gives us the harvest its ourselves who do so. And, there is the problem! We are all too self-obsessed as a society and think ourselves to be ‘God’ rather than be thankful to God.
The Harvest should not be taken for granted, even atheist farmers would agree with that
statement and I believe if we were more truly thankful to God or Nature or simply planet Earth itself we might as the human race respect the planet more and be truly thankful that we are fed and watered as we are.
Those of us here today, obviously value the Harvest and are thankful to God for the gift of food that he provides for us. We are no doubt also grateful to those who farm the land and those who produce the eventual products we consume. We have so many and so much to be thankful for at Harvest but let us never forget God from whom it all comes:
“9 And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. 10God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.” Genesis 1:9-13
God it is who created the Earth and all that we enjoy upon in and in it. If nothing else the Book of Genesis makes it plain that all we have is finely balanced in the being of God and our rôle as God’s chosen ones is to care for the Earth and to be good stewards of its resources. Not to take and take and take without any regard to others or the future. We need to be more thankful as a society and as the human race. Thankful for what we have and what we can share, even if some of us are not thankful to the God we believe creates it all.
Thankfulness engenders respect for those who give things to us and respect engenders care and so on. In this Harvest season try to take time to truly give thanks to God for the Harvest and to encourage others to do so as well. If nothing else say the grace at your dinner table today and pause to allow those sitting with you a cane to be thankful as well. If
not today then try this coming month to say the grace when you do eat with others - you never know what effect it might have on them and if nothing else it might make them thankful for what they are about to receive and acknowledge the debt we owe to those who ensure we are fed.