Harvest Thanksgiving

A Sermon preached in Annahilt Parish Church on Sunday 26th September 2010 at Harvest Thanksgiving. Readings Joel 2: 21-27, Matthew 6: 25-33


May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be now and always acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

It is a great privilege to be asked by your rector Cannon Howard to join you in your harvest celebrations this year. To see a church decked out with all the fruit, flowers and vegetables is great - I love this time of year. It brings me back to my youth when on a Saturday morning I would go down to the Big Church in Banbridge with mum in a car stuffed with greenery which dad had cut down from our garden, lift it out into the church building and start the decorating.

Harvest is a wonderful time of year, when we see the fruit of our labours, we thank God for the farmers, for the fishermen, for the whole supply chain that gets what we have on our tables from here in Northern Ireland and from exotic places across the globe. We thank God for creation, for sun, rain, nutrients in the soil. Harvest time is a time to pause and thank God for his blessings which he sends to us.

This evening I would like us to pause and think for a few moments on the idea of partnership. The idea of working together to achieve a common goal/ purpose.



When we think of of the term partnership we might think of a working relationship.
At lunchtime I am usually back at home between 1 & 2 for lunch and after the 1o’clock news on the BBC comes the soap-opera Doctors and if you are familiar with this there are two or three of them are partners in the surgery - they are the ones responsible for making sure the place runs smoothly, that all the patients are cared for. Other doctors may come and go but the partners stay throughout. They help each other out, they are responsible for the running of the surgery

Or perhaps partnership throws up thoughts of a deeper relationship - that of marriage. The ideal of which is Looking out for and caring for one another - on all sorts of levels, physically providing for one another, helping each other through difficulties, when things go wrong, rejoicing when things are going well, partners stand up for one another and share in the problems of life.

When one party of a partnership fails in their work, in their duties, in their responsibilities then there is indeed problems for the others.

Harvest is a time of year when the whole idea of partnership is highlighted again and again.

In our Old Testament reading we seek through the prophet Joel how God is promising to his people how he will fulfil his side of the partnership:



O children of Zion, be glad
 and rejoice in the Lord your God;
for he has given the early rain for your vindication,
 he has poured down for you abundant rain,
 the early and the later rain, as before. 
The threshing-floors shall be full of grain,
 the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

Partnership between God and humanity in terms of creation - way back in spring - seeds were planted, sun and rain together with the nutrients in the soil helped them grow and now we take a moment to pause and thank God for the season, for the exact balance of nature which allows the earth to produce all that is needed.

This idea of partnership is found right throughout the Bible, whether we think of Genesis God as creator, Whether we move though God as liberator of his people in the exodus and Exile or God as redeemer when he Humbled himself as a servant.

This provision is essential for us, whether or not society today recognizes it.

As was highlighted in the Popes visit, a wake up call to all Christians. We are living in a time when God’s name is being less and less confessed by what is termed as ‘militant atheism’. Harvest has to be a wake up call when we who call ourselves Christian stand up and thank God for his blessings to us.

The gospel from Matthew this evening speaks about God as provider, God comforting us when it looks bleak, God being the source of all things.

Do not worry, look at the birds - God provides.

It would be very easy to take this passage and sit back and do nothing - don’t worry but actually we need to take this passage and look at it in the context of the whole of scripture.

When God provided - he provides when his people turn to him, when they work in partnership with him and when they are prepared to play their part.

Partnership doesn’t work when one of the partner sits idly by while one or other does 100% of the work.

We are all called to be stewards of our world - In terms of physical resources and the resources of all kinds that is the mission to which God is involved and to which we are called.

Harvest is indeed a time when we are called to be thankful, but that thankfulness we need to turn into a partnership which will last and which will produce more of a harvest of all types.

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited along to the Ladies Guild in my Parish to look at various trips I had been on to Uganda and Zambia. During my talk I recalled how mission partners from Ireland were interacting with the locals. They didn’t come in and tell communities what they were going to do but rather they sat down with a group of people and asked what were their needs and discussed with them what the priorities were ... maybe healthcare, maybe employment, maybe clean water. Then the partners were able to help the community help themselves.

As we were chatting I wondered what in the community I am in at the moment, what are the issues. For St. Columba’s our issues which were highlighted by the community include:

Around the church Getting Teenagers involved, keeping them after confirmation, having youth organisations, families coming to church, the welcoming of visitors and new parishioners, those not able to get to church, communication within the parish and between churches.

Within society today - The suicide rate, Apathy to Christianity, crime, unemployment, isolation, loneliness, the effects of budget cuts.

I suspect this would be similar to other churches.
It is here I would like to draw the various threads of partnership together.

We are here this evening to thank God for his blessings to us this year, for the food we have on our table
for the people involved in getting it from field, sea, through the shops to the table

We are here this evening to hear God’s word to us in our own generation - a word which speaks of God’s concern and work for us and amongst us

We are here to be encouraged to Go from this place ready to live thankful lives for his countless blessings but also to work in partnership with him where we find ourselves every single day. That is the living out of the good news. In a world that is increasingly hostile to the gospel, to anything christian we as followers of Christ can do nothing else but witness to the provision which he gives us each and every single day.

Let us pray
Living God, help us in our every day life to live as Followers of Christ in a way that challenges those who are living their lives without him. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

The Neglect of the Blog - rectified

I have just realised that I have been neglecting the blog over the last while (apart from sermons), well for a couple of months. Perhaps it has been the pace of parish life, perhaps it has been just laziness but whatever it has been, it will hopefully be rectified now.

We have reached harvest in the churches year. Today I was preaching at the all-age service in Hillsborough parish church which was full, music once again was great. It was lovely to be back in the church where I was ordained just over 3 months ago.

This evening was spent back at St. Columba's with a wonderful evensong - the choir were sounding fantastic :-)

In all the services today the theme as rightly been thanksgiving for God's bounty. Below are

some photos just off the memory card from my digital camera, around the theme of thanksgiving and God's provision.

The first is of the creation window in St. Finnbarr's Cathedral in Cork taken during Summer Holidays.

The next is of a market in Barcelona at easter -an amazing place

The others are some of the flowers and veg from St. Columba's harvest provisions.

In our prayers this evening I was challenged, as I prepared them that we need to be thanking God but also looking out for those who are without, those who have needs across the world and at home also.

This evening's intercessions as I have reflected upon them at home are very challenging.

As we come together this day to celebrate a good harvest in this land we know that across the globe there are lands where they do not celebrate, we pray for our brothers and sisters struggling with drought and starvation we pray particularly for Kenya where people are dying for lack of food.

Forgive us O Lord, and challenge us when we are content to throw away food when others would be content with our scraps. Help us see more clearly, as individuals and collectively as a society what our response to world food shortages should and could be.

We also pray for those in this land who, because of the financial crisis find it difficult to put food on the table for themselves and their families. Be with them O Lord and help them find help, help those who are called to minister to them to find the resources required to provide for their need.

We know that we all are called to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Help us to fulfil that calling here on the streets of Belfast as well as in the slums of cities in Africa.

Today I was reminded of something I spoke to a friend about as they were preparing an assembly a few weeks back .... Kindness and from that ... random acts of Kindness. I received one today which was great, and I do intend over the next few days to pass it on.

But surely this shouldn't be a big thing, surely Christians always should be kind and showing love to those who are in need day in day out.

R