Sermon for the 24th of September - Trinity 16 - All Age Harvest Service

Harvest Sunday – a time to give thanks for the harvest – meant much more in previous generations when there wasn’t the same multitude of shops and foods, from all over the world that are now available to us. The weather had a much greater impact on the availability of food and the ability to make a living from the land. So people were really thankful for each harvest in a way that perhaps we don’t connect so well with today.

So today I want to think about thankfulness, and I’ll start by asking you a question: What are you thankful for?

But when did you last take time to stop and really appreciate the things you are thankful for?
Many of us are very bad at stopping. Life is busy – there is always lots to get done and we live in a world where achieving things means success – busy-ness is worn like a badge of honour.

Kids – how often have your parents told you to hurry up? Charlie will tell you I say it – a lot! Life is so often a rush to fit one more thing in, get to the next thing as quickly as possible.

That doesn’t mean we should be late for everything – but it does mean, perhaps we should not try to fit so much in!

The late Dallas Willard said Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day”. When asked how to improve one’s spiritual maturity he said, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life”.

Sounds easy to do – but for many of us it’s not – and all the access to screens today I think makes it even harder.

Can you think you could eliminate hurry and slow down a little? I’ve got a really challenging thing I want us to do – do you think you can? It’s to…stop for one minute, be completely quiet, and think about the things we are thankful for……maybe close your eyes so you don’t get distracted by others….just think about the things you want to thank God for.

I wonder how that felt – Difficult? Relaxing?  Did anything new come up for anyone, that you hadn’t thought of before? There is an enormous power to stopping, to stillness, to silence. When we slow down, we create space to notice things, space to appreciate what is around us, space to give thanks for each moment.

The readings today both call out the provision of God for us – but they also warn against taking these things for granted, or being too self-satisfied when you are successful.

Both readings stress the importance of looking to God’s provision and remembering it comes from God, not from us.

God has given us a beautiful world to live in, with an abundance of provision – it really is amazing.
But we have fallen into the trap of storing up treasures for ourselves, wanting more, and rushing from one thing to the next…..and in doing so, we are destroying the very gift we have been given.

Perhaps, if we were to slow down just a little, we would notice how beautiful our world is, and be motivated take better care of it.

Perhaps we can be satisfied with a little less and take pleasure in sharing our gifts with those less fortunate.

I wonder what you can do to slow things down in your life – so that you can truly give thanks for all the good gifts God has given you.