Harvesting relevance

  October is traditionally the time for harvest festivals.  We decorate our churches with examples of God's creation -  samples of produce and flowers - and give thanks for the harvest, singing of ‘ploughing the fields’ and ‘scattering the good seed on the land’.

  Some would say that harvest festivals have lost their relevance in our highly mechanised and globalised society.  Few of us today have any direct contact with the growing of the things we eat, unless we are keen (and successful) gardeners!  

  When we look at the food on our plates, we can find beans from Kenya and sweetcorn from Thailand - grown all year round.  The fruit and vegetable sections of our supermarkets are packed high with produce, whatever the season.

  But, rather than see this as an argument for the irrelevance of harvest festivals, it is a powerful reason for maintaining and encouraging the practice of celebrating harvest.

  Harvest gives us an opportunity to stop, reflect and give thanks to God for all that he provides for us - whether or not we are involved in the seed planting and nurturing of any crops.

  All that we have - whether from the garden or the supermarket shelf; whether from outside our kitchen window or from an unseen farm in the UK or from further away - is a gift from God and it is to him that we should offer our thanks.

  Modern harvest festivals, with their displays of more exotic produce, also give us an opportunity to reflect on the inter-connectedness of the world.  We are reminded that, for us to eat a pineapple or a banana; to drink a cup of tea or a glass of orange juice, someone, somewhere in the world, has toiled and worked. This means that we have a debt of responsibility to them to ensure that, in providing for us, they are fairly paid and can work in safe conditions.  That is why our commitment to Fairtrade is important.

  But also, as we look at our harvest displays, we are reminded that we have an embarrassment of riches.  The things we display would be the food stock for some of the poorest people in the world for weeks.  Harvest reminds us that the goodness and generosity of God is for sharing - and that is a responsibility that God gives to each one of us.

  So, is harvest irrelevant?  I don't think so.

by Graham Clarke.