Reflection for the website, Sunday 6th October 2024 (Harvest Festival)
This Harvest Weekend offers us the perfect opportunity to give our grateful thanks to God for all his bountiful gifts to us, and to commit ourselves to using those gifts more generously as we also remember all those people for whom there seems little reason to celebrate at harvest time – among them, the victims of wars and natural disasters across the world, as well as those who are homeless or suffering from food poverty in our own land. Whether by supporting the Harvest Supper a on Saturday evening, the proceeds from which are to be donated to the Caterham Food Bank; by coming along to the Harvest Festival service on Sunday morning (the collection from which is to be given to East Surrey Welcare), or by donating to these or similar charities if we cannot be there in person, we’re both remembering God’s great gifts to us all and trying to do what we can to share those gifts with those who are not as fortunate as us.
The numbers of people needing support from bodies such as the Food Bank and Welcare continues to increase year by year, and in the light of this, the advice in the Gospel reading for today (from Matthew 6), when Jesus tells his hearers: “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear” may on the face of it feel rather discordant. Those who struggle for the basic necessities of life are bound to be worried, we might think.
We can be sure that Jesus would have understood their concerns. Jesus was speaking largely to the poorer people in his society, who would have been living at more or less a subsistence level. Jesus was fully aware of their situation, and we know from other stories about him that he was deeply concerned that people should have enough to eat and drink. In telling us not to worry about food and drink and clothing, then, he’s not being insensitive or uncaring, but rather, trying to encourage us to concentrate on what really matters. He does this, by urging us to look outwards, out from our own immediate concerns, at the natural world – at the birds and the lilies he speaks of – and then reminding us of how God created and cares for everything in the world, and that should try to remember that God is already “on the case”, as it were, and so pray for him “give us our daily bread”, and then trust the situation to him.
And beyond that, Jesus wants us also to realign our priorities, away from worrying about situations we cannot change by our own efforts, away from being overly concerned about material things, and to “strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness”. So the most important thing is for us to make the values of God’s kingdom our priority, which will both help us to trust more deeply in God’s provision for us, and prompt us towards sharing that provision more fully with others – towards bringing God’s love and righteousness to those who are in need. In the strength of our belief that God will take care of us, we’re sent out to try to take care of God’s justice in the world, in whatever ways we can each undertake. If we can try to do this, Jesus’ almost impossible sounding instruction not to worry can become the prompt for us to live in a more kingdom like way not only at harvest time, but throughout our lives, as this prayer from Christine Longhurst encourages us to do:
Do not worry about anything in life— what you’ll eat, or what you’ll wear.
Look at the birds of the air, or the flowers in the field.
If God takes such good care of birds and flowers, how much more will He care for you?So don’t be afraid. Instead, let your lives be marked by compassion and generosity, sharing what you have been given with those in need, storing up your treasure in heaven instead of here on earth.
And may the blessing of God—Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer— encourage and strengthen you in every good word and deed. Amen.