Shaking the Trees - a Harvest Celebration

With uniformed organisations – ask them to have a look at what they can see in the porch … and remember as many things as they can …

It’s great to welcome everyone to our celebration of Harvest – let’s all stand as we welcome our uniformed organisations

Welcome uniformed organisations

Our year has a pattern to it – just as the school year begins in September, I always think of our year at church starting in September and at the end of the month each year that I can remember we have celebrated harvest thanksgiving.  This year, Shirley, our worship ministry leader asked people to request some of their favourite harvest hymns – between both services we have managed to use all of them.

And so we begin with a favourite hymn for harvest …

292      We plough the fields and scatter

Opening Prayer from the Harvest Sheet

Heavenly Father,

You have given us the green earth,

The wide seas,

The arable lands and the pastures,

The forests and the rivers.

You have created plants

that will grow in rocky places

and you have given your people

the inventiveness to survive. 

You accept all of us as your children

in spite of our differences. 

We thank you for all that you have given us.

May we begin to hunger and thirst

for justice and peace.

In the name of your son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Celebrating God’s Creation

For me harvest is a celebration of the wonder of God’s creation – it’s great to have things that have grown – not just flowers – a great welcome in the porch – a challenge – how observant were you as you came in.

Can you tell me ten things that were in the wonderful display in the porch?

What else can you see?  - a reminder of the wonders of God’s creation.

And this is something to celebrate.

Judi wanted us to celebrate – her choice of songs was to catch that spirit of celebration in all we do – so Hy-Spirit are going to lead us in two songs of celebration – as we celebrate God’s creation around us

Hy-Spirit Songs – Come on and celebrate

                        O give thanks to the Lord

One of the age old customs that I associate with Harvest is to give a special gift – and that is something that goes way back to the mists of time.  In the Old Testament as the people settled in the land – they were to bring an offering to say thank you to God.

Reading;  Deuteronomy 26:1-3 and 10-11

In those passages there is a call to think of other people.   But all too often we fail to do just that.  Maybe we need to say sorry – that’s what we are going to do in our next prayer, a prayer of confession.

Prayer of Confession

Lord God,

You have given us this world

and all the beautiful things in it.

You have given enough

for all your people to share.

But we have created imbalance.

We who have plenty have wasted our resources and left others with nothing.

We see images of want in distant lands,

and we feel sad but helpless.

We see conflict

and say there is nothing that can be done.

We pretend to be too insignificant

to make a difference.

We do not love our neighbours as ourselves.

Forgive us our sins

and teach us not to make excuses.

Teach us to speak out in situations of injustice

and to work together

so that all may share in a plentiful harvest.

In the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen

That’s what we do at Harvest as we invite people to bring gifts of packaged food that can be used in CCP’s  Foodshare.

Thinking of Others – CCP Foodshare

Song:  At harvest time

Jean to introduce our Harvest collection – with its focus on our mission project and a world project.  Introduce the Olive Tree Project

News ofEmbrace the Middle East and its work

Olive Tree Projectvideo clip

Richard to reflect on what olive trees need to grow – water, tender care … and patience – as it’s 8 years before they bear fruit and have olives.

Maybe a thought for us to take to heart – things sometimes need tending, and patience before they happen.

Then a bit of fun with the children …

When apple trees bear their fruit how do you harvest the apples?

When pear trees bear fruit how do you harvest the pears?

When plum trees bear fruit how do you harvest the plums?

Maybe get three people out to be an apple tree, a pear tree, a plum tree …

And then a fourth – when olive trees bear fruit how do you harvest the olives …

Listen carefully to this reading from the Bible – and see if you can spot how it’s done

Reading Deuteronomy 24:17-22

You have to shake the olive tree

That gives me something to think about.

Sometimes if we want something to be done … or something to happen we have to shake things.

Can you think of something that needs shaking so that something can be done – and maybe that’s something we can each commit to doing

Make an affirmation of faith

Harvest service sheet

Whenever we see a seed of hope planted

We trust you, Lord to make it grow

When we see fragile green shoots reach for the light

We reach for you

as our protector and guide

When we climb strong branches and view the world you have made

We remember your olive branch of peace

When green leaves shelter us from rain

We have faith

that you will bring justice to the oppressed

When we shake the tree and harvest the fruit of the branches

We look forward to a future of plenty of all

When we plant the seeds again, in a never ending cycle of renewal

We celebrate

the promise of salvation and eternal life.

Offering for our Harvest Collection

and Dedication

282      God whose farm is all creation

Prayers of Concern

CP 650 Now sing we a song of the harvest

Words of Blessing

From the Harvest Service sheet

May God the Father,

who is the source of all growth,

the provider of refreshing rain,

nourishing the earth and warm sunlight,

pour his blessings on us and all his children, and send us out in the power of his spirit

to live and work for his praise and glory.

Let us go in peace

to love and serve the Lord.

Amen.

Shaking the Trees - a Harvest Celebration

CP

Welcome

649 To Thee, O Lord, our hearts we raise

A big thank you to Shirley for gathering in requests for favourite harvest hymns.  Between our two services today we will have managed to include everyone’s requests.

Favourite harvest hymns

To thee, O Lord, our hearts we raise. William Chatterton Dix* (1837-1898). In 1862 the Convocation of Canterbury issued a form of service for harvest thanksgiving. This harvest hymn was written shortly afterwards, in 1863. It was one of six hymns added to the 1864 edition of Hymns for the Services of the Church, and for Private Devotion, the hymn book of St. Raphael’s Church, Bristol, where Dix worshipped as a youth. I

Harvest is from the Old English word hærfest, meaning "autumn".[note 1] It then came to refer to the season for reaping and gathering grain and other grown products. The full moon nearest the autumnal equinox is called the Harvest Moon.[1] So in ancient traditions Harvest Festivals were traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the Harvest Moon.

By the sixteenth century a number of customs seem to have been firmly established around the gathering of the final harvest. They include the reapers accompanying a fully laden cart; a tradition of shouting "Hooky, hooky"; and one of the foremost reapers dressing extravagantly, acting as 'lord' of the harvest and asking for money from the onlookers.

Early English settlers took the idea of harvest thanksgiving to North America. The most famous one is the harvest Thanksgiving held by the Pilgrims in 1621.

The modern British tradition of celebrating Harvest Festival in churches began in 1843, when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited parishioners to a special thanksgiving service at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall.Victorian hymns such as "We plough the fields and scatter", "Come ye thankful people, come" and "All things bright and beautiful" but also Dutch and German harvest hymns in translation helped popularise his idea of harvest festival and spread the annual custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce for the Harvest Festival service. Another early adopter of the custom as an organised part of the Church of England calendar was Rev. Piers Claughton at Elton, Huntingdonshire in or about 1854.^[3]

Wikepedia

Harvest Thanksgiving

For the rich soil of the countryside, for

the good seed, and for the green corn

springing out of the earth,

we thank you God,

and praise your holy name.

For the warm sweetness of the fertile

rain, for the hot days of ripening sun,

and for the harvest,

we thank you, O God,

and praise your holy name.

For the yield of the forests, the earth

and the sea,

we thank you O God,

and praise your holy name.

For all who work on the land, in the

mines, or on the waters, and for their

courage in days of difficulty and

disappointment,

we thank you O God,

and praise your holy name.

For those who work in office, shop,

factory and in transport, to meet our

needs, we thank you O God,

and praise your holy name.

For these and all your blessings we

make our harvest thanksgiving and

give you all the glory:

Glory be to the Father,

and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now,

and shall be for ever. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our harvest each year has a focus – part on our own mission project – for our Children’s worker and part on a world project.

This year the Olive Tree Project – the olive tree harvest inPalestine isfast approaching – Sue McLellan who joined us from Embrace the Middle Esat willbe going out to help in the planting.  The tragedy is that the harvest is very much at the heart of the conflict in Palestine and Israel – water denied, trees uprooted.  Support in planting – the simplest of gestures working for peace

The Olive harvest involves shaking the tree – our Old Testament reading reminds us that as with so many references to the harvest in the Old Testament the shaking of the olives is for the alien, the orphan and the widow …

Reading:  Deuteronomy 24:17-22

The hills around Bethlehem are the hills of this wonderful Psalm – how important it is to look to the hills and find help in God -

Psalm 121 – the Congregation  CP 858

Help from God – that sense of protection is what is at the heart of the Olive Tree Project

It is a small gesture – but the tiniest of gestures is so important.

Parables of the seed.

Reading:  Mark 4:26-32

Psalm 121 is one of a set of pilgrimage hymns – pilgrimage to the Holy Land is filled with a sense of conflict and a sense of God’s presence in times of trouble.

Psalm 126

 "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."^[1] 

It was this verse that inspired Knowles Shaw, an American from Ohio, to write the next of our hymns.

How important it is to sow those seeds of kindness.

But also notice – it’s in the bad times as well as the good.

Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,

Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;

Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Refrain:

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,

Fearing neither clouds nor winter’s chilling breeze;

By and by the harvest, and the labor ended,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Hymn:  Bringing in the sheaves

The tiniest of seeds grows into the greatest of trees.

Sowing seeds of kindness

We are in our harvest service challenged to think of those small seeds to plant for justice and for peace in Palestine – the focus we have on the Olive Tree – the Olive Tree Project.

It is the small things that make for peace and for justice.

Not to be despised.

But for each of us there are small things we can do.  Practical things.  Maybe a word that is helpful.  Some small gesture.  Good to think what it is that we can do – this week.  Make a commitment to do just that.

But it is harder than you think – and sometimes we let God down – we let ourselves down – we do not do as we ought.

How we need to lift our eyes up to the hills from whence cometh our help – our help cometh from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.

Prayer of Confession

O God our ~Father, we confess that we have often used your gifts carelessly, and acted as though we were not grateful.

Hear our prayer

And in your mercy

Forgive us and help us.

When we enjoy the fruits of the harvest, but forget they come from you

Then, Father, in your mercy,

Forgive us and help us.

When we are full and satisfied, but ignore the cry of the hungry and those in need –

Then, Father, in your mercy

Forgive us and help us.

When we are thoughtless, and do not treat with respect or care for the wonderful world you have made –

Then, Father in your mercy

Forgive us and help us.

When we store up goods for ourselves alone, as if there were no God and no heaven – then, Father in your mercy

Forgive us and help us.

How we need to lift up our eyes unto the hills from whence cometh our help.

Our help cometh even from the Lord who hath made heaven and earth.

Let’s turn once again to that Psalm and seek the strengthening of God – number 858 – and make this our prayer – as the choir this time sing those words

Psalm 121 – the Choir

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil

He shall preserve thy soul

The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in

From this time forth and even for evermore.

In the knowledge of that forgiving love of God – we can reach back now and reaffirm our commitment to those most in need – to that justice and that peace that God longs for.  That justice that is at the heart of our Harvest thanksgiving service.

We reach back to Deuteronomy 26

You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.

 When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings. When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.

 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this.

It is that commitment to justice and to peace that inspired Henry Roberts Moxley, who was Minister of what was then the Summer Town Congregational Church in Oxford just after the war when Oxfam was founded.   Our thoughts as we sing this turn to his sister in law, Mrs Moxley and to Caroline Gregory – who will be thinking of us this evening – and is having a week’s respite over at the Summerfield home.

652 Praise we now the God of heaven

Now we make our Harvest Collection

Our Harvest Collection

John Gurney had once ministered in the Parish Church in Lutterworth which was home to John Wycliffe – he was passionate in the work of mission through the Religious Tract Society and the SPCK.  One suspects, however, that when he wrote his hymn inviting us in our mind’s eye to go to Canaan’s pleasant land where fair waved the golden corn … he had little knowledge of that land.

Indeed at the time it was a land that lived in relative peace.  As Jewish, Muslim and Christian lived side by side in the time of the Ottoman Empire.

We have very much more vivid pictures of that land now – and we think particularly of those who work for peace and for justice in that place.

This is a hymn that seeks God’s blessing from the morning to the evening of our lives, from the time of sowing to the time of reaping.

647 Fair waved the golden corn

Prayers of Concern

The next is one of those anthemic harvest hymns I have grown up with – but Congregational Prasie is the only hymn book it has ever been published in.

The only other hymn by A C Ainger in Congregational Praise is another anthemic hymn – God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year.

Maybe as we sing this hymn it is a hymn that prompts in us a sense of hope in times of adversity.

The Olive Tree Project takes us into the midst of conflict with that commitment to working for peace and for justice in the smallest of ways.

As our country has again formally gone to war again this weekend, there can be a sense of despair.

This is a hymn that invites us to go back in order to look forwad with hope, that kind of sure and certain hope that knows nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lrod.

More than that, however, it takes us back to the importance of sowing little seeds – we do our part in the trust that God too is at work in his world.

We sowed the seed and watered it

In sorrow and in care:

But God alone the increase gave

And bade it blossom fair.

God is our hope and strength to-day

And therefore we will not fear

For the harvest of bygone ages

In the hope of the coming days

Go into his gates with thankfulness

And into his courts with praise.

651 Let all our brethren join in one

Let all God’s people join in one

And in verse 3 let’s personalise the hymn and sing We sowed the seed

Words of Blessing

May God the Father, who is the source of all growth, the provider of refreshing rain, nourishing the earth and warm sunlight, pour his blessings on us and all his children, and send us out in the power of his spirit to live and work for his praise and glory.

Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Amen.

Jesus - the Word of God

Sometimes the simplest of ideas make you stop and think.  They can be most moving.  It was the simplest of ideas and it hadn’t occurred to me before.

I teach on the course that our churches run – we have a new name – the Congregaional Institute of Practical Theology.   We have an introductory course for anyone and everyone, called the Gift Course.  Then we do a Foundation Degree in Practical Theology and finally an honours degree top up as well.   That meant last week I did effectively two weekends back to back.  It was great the Karen Waldock was with us from the Wednesday evening to the Friday when I was teaching three sessions with Karen.

Then over the weekend there were about 40 of us, tutors and students, with 10 people from churches all over the country starting the FdA in Practical Theology   I teach the first of their modules and so spent the whole weekend in their company – I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did!

What I was exploring and then shared in preaching at the final service of the weekend is something that I am more and more passionate about.

I believe it is really important that we work out how it is that we read the Bible.  And the thing more than anything else for me that unlocks the bible is a very simple idea.

We are Christians, for us reading the Bible we are on the lookout for the way Jesus is right at the centre of the Bible.  Especially when it comes to the struggle we have at times reading the Old Testament the key is to read it through the eyes of Jesus.  Some will remember a series we did quite some while back now – The Idiots’ Guide to the Old Testament.

We used a time cone – saw Jesus at the centre and then in reading the Old Testament we must always see it through the eyes of Jesus.

With all sorts of other things going on – it’s exhilierating, and exhausting in equal measure.  But so important to do.

The weekend over I went to have lunch with my predecessor here at Highbury, Eric Burton, and meet up with Cherry and Graham and their son Mark.  Eric and the family all send their love to everyone – it was lovely to share with Eric for the afternoon.  Great to catch a glimpse of that little prayer book Eric keeps and to know of his prayers for us.

Coming back from such a weekend is always a bit like coming back down to earth with a bump.  Into the pattern of things.  And a busy week.

Tuesday lunch time was the lunch meeting we have as Church Leaders in Cheltenham – bringing together ministres representing different denominations and networks of churches.

On Tuesday it was good to welcome someone from the Police who is the Christian Police Association representative in the Gloucestershire constabulary.  He was talking about the growing role of chaplaincy in the police locally – at a time of reduced numbers in the police and increased work loads all the support services are recorded – except for the chaplaincy.  It is being developed to provide a completely confidential listening ear.  Interesting to see.  And a call for us to pray for the police as they go through a difficult time at the moment of changed patterns of working and significantly reduced levels of policing.   All very much for our prayers.

Tudor Griffiths who is the Rector of Cheltenham was leading the meeting and he it was who shared with us the simple idea that in the opening prayers somehow spoke very much to me.

I found it very moving  And I felt I simply wanted to share the idea this morning.

Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in the Book of Psalms.

It is one of those highly crafted psalms that is Hebrew Poetry at its finest.  The Good News Bible doesn’t really do the craftsmanship of the Psalm justice.   Neither for that matter does my NRSV.  The Authorised Version on the table in front of the Communion  Table does.

The Psalm is divided into 22 sections of 8 verses.  Although the verse divisions don’t appear in the original Hebrew, that’s exactly how the original Hebrew is divided up.

There are 22 letters in the Hebrew Alphabet.

The first section is made up of 8 couplets, each of which starts with the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, Aleph, A. The second section is made up of 8 couplets each of which starts with the second letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, Bet, B.  And so on right the way through the Hebrew Alphabet.

it is one of a number of acrostic poems in the book of Psalms.

That in itself suggests something.

Maybe it’s an ABC with a teaching message to press home.

Maybe it’s an all encompassing Psalm that includes everything from A to Z.

No matter, it has a clear structure.

Look carefully at those 8 couplets and you will find that in almost every one of those 8 couplets is a reference to a single thing – thought the writer of the Psalm actually uses different words to describe it.

The single thing is the Word of God, or the Law of God, or the Commandments of God,  or the Precepts of God.

Let’s read it through in the NRSV …

You have dealt well with your servant,

   O Lord, according to your word.

66 Teach me good judgement and knowledge,

   for I believe in your commandments.

67 Before I was humbled I went astray,

   but now I keep your word.

68 You are good and do good;

   teach me your statutes.

69 The arrogant smear me with lies,

   but with my whole heart I keep your precepts.

70 Their hearts are fat and gross,

   but I delight in your law.

71 It is good for me that I was humbled,

   so that I might learn your statutes.

72 The law of your mouth is better to me

   than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

Look out now for the word or phrase in each couplet that refers to the Word of God or the Law of God.

You have dealt well with your servant,

   O Lord, according to your word.

66 Teach me good judgement and knowledge,

   for I believe in your commandments.

67 Before I was humbled I went astray,

   but now I keep your word.

68 You are good and do good;

   teach me your statutes.

69 The arrogant smear me with lies,

   but with my whole heart I keep your precepts.

70 Their hearts are fat and gross,

   but I delight in your law.

71 It is good for me that I was humbled,

   so that I might learn your statutes.

72 The law of your mouth is better to me

   than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

The poet has a book of synonyms, a Hebrew equivalent of Roget’s thesaurus.  You can do the exercise in any section of Psalm 119 and you have this wonderful celebration of what the Word of God means for us.  In its own right it is great.  But as Christian readers we put Jesus at the centre of the Bible, we see the Bible through the eyes of Jesus.

More than that when we come to the New  Testament Jesus is described as the Word of God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

Let’s come back to the Psalm – and see how it is transformed from being an interesting reflection on the Word of God, to a wonderful celebration that is at the same time thought-provoking of Jesus himself.

In the place of that phrase or word that refers to God’s word let’s put Jesus.

It is a wonderful reminder that Jesus is the one who has dealt kindly with us.

Jesus is the one who provides us with good judgements and knowledge.

Jesus is the one who lifts us up when we are humbled, who brings us back when we go astray.

Jesus has about him a goodness – it is that goodness that we seek to suffuse our lives and pour through us.

Sometimes we come up against the arrogance of those who spread deceit athings that hurt – it is at that point so important for us with our  whole heart to focus on Jesus.

Sometimes things can overwhelm us and it feels as if everything around us is out of sorts and gross … at those moments how good to find in Jesus all we need.

It is perverse – sometimes it can be good to have a humbling experience because that takes us back to our reliance on Jesus.

Indeed, Jesus is better than all the riches of the world

Just try it with these verses – try it with other sections of Psalm 119 – and something very moving happens.

You have dealt well with your servant,

   O Lord, according to Jesus.

66 Teach me good judgement and knowledge,

   for I believe in Jesus.

67 Before I was humbled I went astray,

   but now I keep Jesus.

68 You are good and do good;

   teach me Jesus.

69 The arrogant smear me with lies,

   but with my whole heart I keep Jesus.

70 Their hearts are fat and gross,

   but I delight in Jesus.

71 It is good for me that I was humbled,

   so that I might learn Jesus.

72 Jesus  is better to me

   than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

As in a moment we gather around the Table of our Lord to share in the Lord’s Supper how, maybe we can use this as our meditation – and seek in all things Jesus.