Harvest 08
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 they looked up expectantly as he climbed into the pulpit, so they 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 and sorting himself out, 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, especially as the following week was Harvest festival, 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 there was particular expectancy as 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…”
Last Sunday evening I attended a retirement service and Bishop David spoke at the service. As an aside the man who was retiring said first that when he told his father, who was also a Parish Priest, that he wanted to go into the ministry, his father gave him 3 pieces of advice : If you go into the ministry you will never be a rich man, if you go into the ministry you had better have the skin of a rhinoceros to put up with the criticism you will get and thirdly if you go into the ministry, please yourself, because at least that way you’ll manage to please somebody !
Anyway back to today, and Bishop David. He began by saying he had preached in a Church in Lesotho and as he went to the pulpit ready to speak he noticed a note which had been left for him, ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus’.
And as he thought about these words he realised that there is nothing more important than that for anyone. However long we spend preaching, however hard we prepare, however dedicated to any particular cause, the most important thing is to help people see Jesus. That is certainly the role of a preacher, but on a much wider scale it is the role of every Christian – helping people to see Jesus more clearly.
In Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians (9:6) we read, ‘he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop’. It’s certainly a passage about giving, but it’s also a passage about responding – responding to the love of God, and that’s what we’re doing at harvest.
At one time the harvest festival was the most important service in the year throughout many communities – each year villages made up primarily of people who were farming would watch and wait and pray that there would be a good harvest. When the harvest was eventually brought in it was a time of incredible celebration as communities were secured for the winter.
Today our culture is very different and we can go down to the supermarket and usually buy whatever we want whenever we want it. Yes, we still have farmers working tremendously hard, people who we couldn’t manage without, but for many of us, the process can seem a little more distant. But in those days gone by, the harvest wasn’t primarily about flowers or fruit, but it was about absolute necessities.
But although we may feel more distanced from that process of planting and harvesting than some people, it is important to take a moment to say thank you to God for His provision for us. Whether we dig our own potatoes out of a farm field or an allotment, or go down to the greengrocers and buy them, the fact remains that they are a gift from God, a product of His creation, and we need to remember that and to say thank you.
And that is where those words of Paul are so important - ‘he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop’. This isn’t a passage about crops, but about giving and receiving and, as I said earlier, about responding.
A lady called Hetty Green was once one of the richest women in America. When she died in 1916, her estate was estimated at nearly $100 million. Yet she was incredibly miserly, living in cheap boarding houses, wearing tattered clothes, and riding in a carriage that had apparently once been used as a henhouse!
Today as we celebrate the harvest we must remind ourselves of the dangers of such an existence, keeping the riches we have in Jesus hidden away from others. We want to see Jesus, and others need to see him too… We have received so much from God, and we are called to respond… And we do that by living generous lives certainly, caring for those in need, whoever they are. We respond by living good lives, as Jesus calls us to live, loving one another, serving one another, and we respond by living joyful lives, celebrating the gifts of God, which are given to us every day of our lives.
God has blessed us richly, and he continues to bless us…
‘Sir, we want to see Jesus’ was the message those people in Lesotho gave to Bishop David, and it’s a message of hope for the world today – ‘let the people see Jesus’.
Today as we celebrate the harvest, talking of God’s goodness means absolutely nothing unless we are responding to that goodness in our own lives, not just with words but with every part of us. We receive the gifts of God in all their abundance with open arms, and we must respond with our love, and with our lives, and so let it be our prayer to use the words of Psalm 67 taken from the Good News Bible, ‘God be merciful to us and bless us; look on us with kindness, so that the whole world may know your will; so that all nations may know your salvation… May the people praise you O God; may all the people praise you.’ AMEN
The following week they looked up expectantly as he climbed into the pulpit, so they 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 and sorting himself out, 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, especially as the following week was Harvest festival, 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 there was particular expectancy as 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…”
Last Sunday evening I attended a retirement service and Bishop David spoke at the service. As an aside the man who was retiring said first that when he told his father, who was also a Parish Priest, that he wanted to go into the ministry, his father gave him 3 pieces of advice : If you go into the ministry you will never be a rich man, if you go into the ministry you had better have the skin of a rhinoceros to put up with the criticism you will get and thirdly if you go into the ministry, please yourself, because at least that way you’ll manage to please somebody !
Anyway back to today, and Bishop David. He began by saying he had preached in a Church in Lesotho and as he went to the pulpit ready to speak he noticed a note which had been left for him, ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus’.
And as he thought about these words he realised that there is nothing more important than that for anyone. However long we spend preaching, however hard we prepare, however dedicated to any particular cause, the most important thing is to help people see Jesus. That is certainly the role of a preacher, but on a much wider scale it is the role of every Christian – helping people to see Jesus more clearly.
In Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians (9:6) we read, ‘he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop’. It’s certainly a passage about giving, but it’s also a passage about responding – responding to the love of God, and that’s what we’re doing at harvest.
At one time the harvest festival was the most important service in the year throughout many communities – each year villages made up primarily of people who were farming would watch and wait and pray that there would be a good harvest. When the harvest was eventually brought in it was a time of incredible celebration as communities were secured for the winter.
Today our culture is very different and we can go down to the supermarket and usually buy whatever we want whenever we want it. Yes, we still have farmers working tremendously hard, people who we couldn’t manage without, but for many of us, the process can seem a little more distant. But in those days gone by, the harvest wasn’t primarily about flowers or fruit, but it was about absolute necessities.
But although we may feel more distanced from that process of planting and harvesting than some people, it is important to take a moment to say thank you to God for His provision for us. Whether we dig our own potatoes out of a farm field or an allotment, or go down to the greengrocers and buy them, the fact remains that they are a gift from God, a product of His creation, and we need to remember that and to say thank you.
And that is where those words of Paul are so important - ‘he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop’. This isn’t a passage about crops, but about giving and receiving and, as I said earlier, about responding.
A lady called Hetty Green was once one of the richest women in America. When she died in 1916, her estate was estimated at nearly $100 million. Yet she was incredibly miserly, living in cheap boarding houses, wearing tattered clothes, and riding in a carriage that had apparently once been used as a henhouse!
Today as we celebrate the harvest we must remind ourselves of the dangers of such an existence, keeping the riches we have in Jesus hidden away from others. We want to see Jesus, and others need to see him too… We have received so much from God, and we are called to respond… And we do that by living generous lives certainly, caring for those in need, whoever they are. We respond by living good lives, as Jesus calls us to live, loving one another, serving one another, and we respond by living joyful lives, celebrating the gifts of God, which are given to us every day of our lives.
God has blessed us richly, and he continues to bless us…
‘Sir, we want to see Jesus’ was the message those people in Lesotho gave to Bishop David, and it’s a message of hope for the world today – ‘let the people see Jesus’.
Today as we celebrate the harvest, talking of God’s goodness means absolutely nothing unless we are responding to that goodness in our own lives, not just with words but with every part of us. We receive the gifts of God in all their abundance with open arms, and we must respond with our love, and with our lives, and so let it be our prayer to use the words of Psalm 67 taken from the Good News Bible, ‘God be merciful to us and bless us; look on us with kindness, so that the whole world may know your will; so that all nations may know your salvation… May the people praise you O God; may all the people praise you.’ AMEN
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