Harvest Thanksgiving

Deuteronomy 26.1-11; John 6.25-35

One of the abiding images of my childhood is going to church at Harvest Festival and seeing the church decked out with flowers and fruits and vegetables and all sorts of other reminders of the time of year. And especially the aroma in church that went with it. In those days, where I lived was much more rural than it is now and I remember helping with the harvest in early autumn and potato picking in October. School half term used to be called the potato picking holiday. Joining in the harvest itself and going to church to celebrate it was a very meaningful experience. Although I realised in my boyhood that it was a thanksgiving, what I didn't understand was the deeper meaning, the spiritual meaning and also the reality of the connection between ourselves and the world in which we live, the planet of which we human beings are given the stewardship. There didn't seem to be the worry about those things in those days because I think people felt and appreciated more of a connection with creation than they do now in this Western world. Even fifty years ago, people were much more aware of the bond between and our dependence upon the resources the earth provides, and our lives and livelihoods. And of course over the last 30 years or so we've been made vividly aware of the need to have a consciousness of the growing scarcity of the earth's resources and the need to take care of them.

But it's not just a matter of finding a balance between production and consumption and a living in harmony with creation. There is something much deeper than that, which this festival is all about. It's about the workings of the relationship between God, creation and humankind. Something which is fundamental to life itself, that goes back to the Creation. And it's here in the readings this morning.

In Deuteronomy we see that the people are reminded never to forget their history and God's part in it. At least once a year they are to think about and celebrate God's saving work, the ways in which, throughout history He has continuously upheld and supported them. And part of that remembering is to offer back to God a proportion of what He has given them along the way. And that proportion isn't just any old offering, any bits and pieces gathered together; but it's to be the first fruits, the very first of that which they have grown. And that offering is an act of faith in itself and so an act of love. It's an act of faith and love because in giving away what grows first you can never be sure that anything else is going to grow to replace it. Growing food in the first place is an act of faith but then giving away what comes up first is a step of faith which is an act of love.

But this is the sort of relationship God wants with His people, and the sort of relationship we should want as well. It's a part of our human selfishness to keep not just the first that we get but everything that we get for ourself. It's part of our fallen nature. But God didn't create us like that. He created us to live in a relationship of real love, putting the other before ourself. And the people's offering the first fruits of their labour is a reminder of that lost relationship and the beginning of a restoration of that lost relationship, it's a step in the direction of faith and so a saving act.

I wonder how many of us, out of our income, put a proportion of it first of all in God's direction, or do we give Him what's left over when we've seen to all our other commitments? The point is that God doesn't give us the left overs. He gives us Himself first. He does this in Jesus Christ. And this is where our faith in Christ comes in. When we give ourself to Him we find that He sustains us, that He Himself is our bread, our bread of life. And therein lies our example and our way of life as Christians.

The thing about being a follower of Christ is that we are meant to give ourself first to Him, the first of all we are to Him. I wonder how many of us, for instance, mentally and physically, tag our prayers and our churchgoing onto the end of all we do, when in reality those things should be the first of all we do, the most important thing in our life, the part that's not negotiable at any price? I wonder how many of us see our Christianity as something added to our lives rather than everything in our lives being added to our life in Christ? Do you understand what I mean? I can put it this way. Is our life in Christ as important as our breath or our heartbeat, both of which have to happen first if we are to live?

Well, that giving of ourself first to Christ isn't simply an offering, it's also a celebration and a restoration of our life before the fall of Adam. When we live that way, when we offer the first of ourself to God, we are then in a 'right' relationship with God. We are getting the living of our life the right way round. And then we begin to realise and reap the goodness, the grace and the love of God for us. We can only experience God's grace when we live our life in Him the right way round, when we live it by faith so that the offering of our life to Him is the first of our offerings.

Then and only then do we see and know what Jesus means when He says 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty'.