Today, we celebrate Harvest Sunday, a celebration of bringing in the fields, of giving thanks to God for the fruits of our labour and the produce God’s own soil. 

Often this would include assembling the produce used to decorate the altar into care packages for those in need and in some places more elaborate rituals took place to bless the fields. In some places and times the last sheaf of wheat to be harvested would be paraded in from the fields. Then braided into ornaments of blessing or ground for the making of a special loaf to be donated to the church as communion bread. In more agrarian times Harvest Sunday was a huge festival, and in some rural communities it still is.

But I think that fewer of us are rooted in a culture of planting and harvest these days. Our produce comes from the markets and stores and even if we have gardens we find it difficult to find the time or energy to tend them. So, it may seem a bit …well fruitless …to give thanks in a personal way for the soil, rain and sun that God provides.

That doesn’t mean that we nothing to celebrate this year, after all a look at our life in this church shows us that although we may not have great harvests of produce we haven’t forgotten those who are less fortunate then ourselves. The non perishables we have gathered will be given to those in need with thanks to God for all the blessings we have to share.

Because we are in a time when the need is great.  We see that clearly in our food bank days, in our neighbours and in ourselves.  Groceries have never been so costly.  The information from Harvest Manitoba tells us that food bank use has increased 150% in the past five years, with a quarter of the population of Canada using food assistance.

 

We are distanced from the cultivation of our own food, but we are certainly feeling the impact of the economy of food insecurity.  Many we don’t have access to land on which to try and grown their own foods, and so many of our neighbours are hamstrung by the price gouging and the tariff inflation that is now common.    The discussions that take place in the produce aisle are less about what fruits and veg do we want this week and more to the tune of ‘are there any fruit or veg we can afford this week.’

And in times like these our responses are guided, as always, by God’s own laws.

In Deuteronomy we encounter a people who had finally become established, had become settled and who truly felt surrounded by a land of milk and honey.

“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.”

 

However, these good words came with a caveat.  “Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God” and an imperative to keep the law of the lord.   A law that at it’s heart always deals in justice and hospitality; ensuring that everyone the people of God encounter are welcomed and cared for, especially those in need.  The Laws of Deuteronomy ensure that everyone was fed; farmers, those with orchards or vineyards were prohibited from harvesting to the edges of the field or stripping the branches bare so that those in need could find food for their needs.

There we laws ensuring that no person would be punished for nibbling from private harvests, travellers and passerby’s were allowed to eat what they could pick by hand and eat on the spot.  

This ensured that those without land to produce or means to provide for themselves would not starve.  These laws were a vital part of the agricultural culture that we celebrate today.

So, what to do if we do not have fields to leave gleanings in?

Corinthians reminds us that  

“The one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written,  ‘He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever.’”

 

The world may have shifted and our city life may be out of touch with Deuteronomy, but some of the concepts and law found there can still be pertinent. So, when we look at the fields of our lives, at the harvests they produce, we will find that there is always some to share..

The time to spend with a friend.  The opportunity to hear a stranger’s story.  The prayers given for those in need. A ‘two for one’ grocery find can help a food bank.   A meal and a coffee means a lot to the person in the parking lot.  To much supper made can be  meal for a friend recovering at home.

            We all have something to share from the harvest of our lives and for that we should truly be thankful.  And not just feel thankful but give active and prayer filled thanks to the one who has provided that harvest of abundant blessings.   

To live life abundantly, generously, gratefully, just as those in scripture have shown us how to do. 

 

 

 Abraham wasn’t told he would have a son, he was told he would be the father of nations…of a number greater than the stars in the sky.

Joel doesn’t speak God’s words and say the people of Israel will be okay, he says that their threshing floors shall be full of grain and their vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

Deuteronomy doesn’t say people will be sustained, he says God is bringing you into a land with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity,

Jesus when he feeds the 5000 doesn’t hand out a piece of fish and a slice of bread each, Jesus provides enough for all to eat their fill then have leftovers to spare. 

 

Today’s celebration isn’t just about food, it is about abundance about the overwhelming blessings that we have received.  IT is about taking the time, in the midst of thanksgiving to turn to God and intentionally say thank you, then to live out the covenant we have inherited and care for our neighbour as God commands throughout scripture.

            To harvest blessing and thanksgiving in our lives and to give those around us cause for thanksgiving as well.  Living our lives in blessed mutuality, giving and receiving in turn.

“ You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for (giving to others) not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.”

 

Thanks be to God for all the blessings we harvest in our lives,

 and thanks be to God for all the ways we can be a blessing to others.

amen