I’m taking a break from Questions of Faith this month to think about harvest. By the time this goes to print we will have already held our harvest celebration at Therfield Chapel but we’re still very much in the season of harvest. There are upcoming harvest services at St Mary’s (5th Oct) and St Faith’s (12th Oct), in fact the reason for our early service is due to the busyness of the potato harvest for the farming family in our congregation. That’s all to say it is still very much harvest time, something we are more acutely aware of living in the rural countryside. But what is the significance of harvest? We may notice the change in the seasons, the change of landscape but rarely, in our busy hectic modern world, do we slow down and ponder on the significance of familiar sights and experiences.
What is the significance of harvest? Well, we might respond, it is acknowledging the hard work of our farmers and giving thanks to God that we have food to eat. Growing up I remember being made to write thank you cards, often to relatives that I didn’t really know, for birthday and Christmas gifts. Sometimes harvest can feel like that, saying a thank you to someone we don’t really know, or we’re not even sure is real. Harvest becomes a date on the calendar, a service to attend. When that happens, we miss out on savouring the significance of harvest and impoverish ourselves as a result.
The Bible records the apostle Paul’s plea to the people of Lystra, encouraging them to slow down and reflect:
‘…he has not left himself without testimony: he has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.’ (Acts 14:17)
Harvest has not been given to us so that God could be lauded with praise, like some sort of insecure despot. Harvest has been given as a signpost to show us something of what God is like. So, if we simply ‘pay our dues’ and then get on with the busyness of life without pondering what harvest shows us about God, then we’ve missed something of great significance.
The people that the Apostle Paul was speaking to in Lystra had a completely distorted view of God – a capricious and cruel ruler, demanding and needing to be served. Paul calls them, and us, to drop these manmade notions of God; our experience of harvest should undermine that distortion, if we give it thought. Harvest points to a God who gives, who delights to give what is good and satisfying. When God entered this world He did not come to demand and take. Jesus Christ came to give, to laydown His life so that we might receive life.
Sometimes we keep Jesus at a distance because we’re holding tightly to what we have. We fear what we might lose and we fail to see what we will gain because we fail to see God for who He is. So, this year, ponder and savour the sign. Let harvest point you to the God revealed in Jesus Christ, and come and discover the abundant harvest of life that He gives to all who come to Him.
0 Comments