This is the oldest service in the world. It is as old as the hills. It began when primitive man felt within himself a stirring of thankfulness to some one or thing.

The ancient Israelites had and the present day Jews still have their service of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth. It was not until Jesus Christ came and taught to see this thankfulness to a personal God who cares and provides.

As well as being an old service it goes without saying that it is also one of the most popular. It is popular even with those who do not find other services of the Church much to their liking.

 

Is there not in the Harvest Thanksgiving Service a closer link with people’s daily life and work? There is a sense of reality and personal involvement in the thanksgiving for harvest which can too often be most sadly lacking in other Sundays.

So we welcome the Harvest Thanksgiving again. Of course there is a small attraction in the array of produce we see decorating the churches so tastefully and thoughtfully displayed; just as there is an emotional attraction in singing harvest hymns with which most people are familiar: but more than these things and all else is the deep feeling, often unanalysed, that our God is a bountiful Provider and in that provision we learn of God’s goodness to us as we see it in the harvest fields. We come here today to remember our manners and to say thank you. God has given its all things to enjoy. The sun that warms us, the rain to make the earth fruitful. The wonderful scenery of land and sea that we have in real abundance in this land of ours. Notice well that all these things are free. It is always so with God’s gifts. There is nothing mean, nothing grudging about His giving for our material welfare, at every harvest there is enough food in the world to feed every one in the world. If more than half the children in the world go to bed hungry every night it is not because God has withheld His hand. Markets are manipulated for the greed of man.

But not only does God care for our bodies but for our spiritual well-being also. Every soul is precious in God’s sight, the most degraded, the most unlovely and unlovable, all are precious in God’s sight. He wishes their salvation and ours even if it meant that Jesus had to die on Calvary.
This salvation is free. We cannot buy it. We cannot earn it, we can never deserve it.

 

‘Could man’s tides for ever flow
Could my zeal no respite know
All for this could not atone
Thou must save and Thou alone’

On this happy day of thanksgiving let us accept God’s gift of salvation with penitence, humility, gratitude. The harvest fields spell out for us of God’s provision and goodness but they also spell out for us another lesson we may learn. That is God’s Design.

A farmer sowing seed in a field in the cold Spring day may seem to be doing a foolish thing~ and when the young shoots appear they seem so frail as to have no chance of survival. It is not until the harvest, when food for man and beast is before the eyes of men that the whole dark process is made clear. Perhaps we can see no design, plan or purpose in our own life and many question and sometimes wonder. Surely as Christian people, as we look back over our life we can see the design of God and know that behind all the harrowing things that we could not understand and found difficult to accept at the time there was a loving Heavenly Father. God has a design and a plan for each life. No life need be useless. Think well of God’s goodness and learn of His design and pray for the grace to accept His goodness and follow His plan.

Life has a meaning and a purpose. It is moving inexorably towards a goal. Our lives here are a preparation for a fuller life, for the perfect vision of Gad, who has prepared wonderful things for those who love Him. Great then will be our joy at harvest.

Again let us learn that there are not two Gods. The God of Nature is one God. It took many centuries to appreciate this. Even the Greeks, the most advanced people in the ancient world believed in many gods and even set up an altar to an anonymous god in case they had been guilty of leaving one out. There is not a different power behind the rain from that behind the sunshine, any more that there is a different power behind that of the growth -of a grape or pomegranate. The power behind all nature’s gifts is one power. This is a great truth of the harvest, and ordinary men and women, however mystified by the form the power takes, recognise it, and some -of us believing this power to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give thanks to Him for all these gifts.

The Churches are decorated with the best of fruit. True thanksgiving shows itself in the rededication of all that we have and are to God and too, one day will come the harvest of our souls. The day when God’s kindly reaper, the angel of death will come and we shall know ourselves even as God already knows us. We shall be able to see what sort of growth there has been in the harvest of our lives. It is a solemn thought with which to finish a harvest service for of that day and that hour there is but one thing to say:

 

‘0 Holy, Awful Reaper
Have mercy on that day
Thou puttest in the sickle
-0 cast us not away

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