St Margaret's Church Prestwich

Rev Helen preached this sermon during our Harvest Festival on Sunday 6 October. Here it is again:

I’ll be honest harvest is a festival that I have always struggled with especially as a child. I think it is very much a case of the festival has, at times, gotten behind what’s really happening in the world. I’ve been to churches when at Harvest they have these big baskets on the altar full of fresh fruit and vegetables freshly picked, eggs, milk and images of animals on a farm in the background. That’s all lovely but unfortunately, I grew up in the bottom of Oldham where there were lots of mills but no farms. All our food came from the supermarket and if we ever saw animals, they were usually a bit sad looking on a city farm. There was a goat kept on the allotments behind our houses which used to keep getting out and nibble any washing that was out, heard some beautiful words from my mum when she saw it nibbling at her posh towels. We also had a lady who kept a pot bellied pig in the lounge which was an…interesting creature.

So the way we see and think about harvest has changed, this is a country that has changed. Our first reading from the book of Joel speaks of abundance, abundant rain for one thing which I can understand them asking for in West Asia but in Manchester, not so much so what else has changed since then? Where are we with the basket of fresh food, well we do still have farms and farmers but they struggle, especially with the demands made for cheaper and cheaper food, when it’s cheaper for food to be bought from abroad than farms in this country there is something seriously wrong! I mean you just watch a few series of Clarkson’s farm to see the issues facing farmers in this country it’s appalling! So the image of the basket of food is gone.

We are now a country of supermarkets and big stores. All the little independent traders are gone as they just can’t compete, even our own local high streets are going fishmongers, greengrocers, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers all gone. It’s sad but that is just the way things are right now. Even our harvest gifts have changed, tins of food, cereal and non-perishables. When I was younger harvest gifts were bagged up and delivered to the homes of congregation members who couldn’t get to church anymore with a bunch of flowers. Sadly we’ve moved on a bit from that today.

It’s funny isn’t it as we don’t think of things like food shortages and poverty happening in this country, we, as a country have tried to do our bit with Comic relief, band aid etc but sometimes we don’t need to look that far afield to see those who are hungry and unable to get food.

Here’s some statistics for this country:

• Food inflation has risen by 14 – 19% since 2021 (we’ve all noticed the rise!)
• 21 Million people rely on food banks
• June 2023 17% of families are described as food insecure, this means they either have to eat less or go without food at least one day a week.
• 2 Million children are entitled to free school meals – that’s more than during the 2008/09 financial crash.

We have a reading today that talks about plenty and abundance provided by the lord, when you look at these figures it’s like a bad joke.

In todays gospel, we are told not to worry about trivial or material things, clothing or excess as these things don’t have real value. We also need to think about the world we live in and creation as a whole, we’ve just had the season of creationtide and thinking about the planet we live on, the beauty of creation, how we abuse it and what we could do better to preserve it for the future. God showed love for humanity when creating the world for us to live in, God still forgave and gave us another chance and another and another when we screwed up many times. God loved humanity so much that (in some theological reading of the crucifixion) he allowed his own child to be killed as the final blood sacrifice to save humanity. The rivers of blood that flowed from the wounds of Jesus created the river of life in the new Jerusalem where there would be no more pain, no more crying, death, pain and suffering would be no more and everyone would have enough to eat, it’s a lovely thought isn’t it.

So what do we do about this? Well at harvest and sometimes at other times, what we have in excess we can maybe give a little extra to those who need it the most, whatever cause we chose. As my mum says, you can’t take it with you. As Jesus says in today’s gospel, as he is the way there ‘Think of the future, think of God’s way to the Kingdom of God’ I think Jesus would want us to make sure those principles were here on earth, he said to build his kingdom here, be his loved in action. Continue to gather our harvest and even though things have changed the harvest still goes to and will continue to help those who are most in need. That’s what Jesus would want of us so let’s make sure we have plenty to tell him when we see him in the future.