Today we mark Harvest Sunday. It is a day when we acknowledge the gift that is present in every tiny thing that is part of God’s Creation; we focus on the truth that all creation is God’s, from the first to the last, and we give thanks. It is a day when we are surrounded by the extraordinary bounty of gifts of food and drink plenty for all as long as none take too much; and it is a day for noticing these gifts, and giving thanks.
When I was with Little Seeds on Friday we did an autumn scavenger hunt. We had a picture list of things to find, but of course found all sorts of things that weren’t on that list! And I was particularly struck that the things that I noticed compared to a 3 year-old were very different. Trying to see with the eyes of a 3 year-old, the world became a place of wonder and surprise in things that I would normally just not see, or even prefer not to see! Weeds were just as likely to be regarded as treasures as the carefully planted and tended vegetables.
And it brought to my mind a poem inspired by words of St Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is also, very appropriately, celebrated today:
I think God might be a little prejudiced.
For once God asked me to join God on a walk through this world,
and we gazed into every heart on this earth,
and I noticed God lingered a bit longer before any face that was weeping, and before any eyes that were laughing.
And sometimes when we passed a soul in worship
God too would kneel down.
I have come to learn: God adores God’s Creation.
When we stop rushing on, and take time to really look at the world in this beautiful season, we see the Creation, even in the unexpected places, that God adores.
Look around you at the wonders of Creation all around us today, displayed so beautifully and creatively in order to help us to sit up and notice, and give thanks.
And now look around you at the unique gathering of God’s Creation in Holy Cross Church today that is every one of us. For we ourselves are a breathtakingly beautiful display of God’s creation, made from love. We live and move and have our being in God, and that God lives and breathes in, with, through, and beyond us. For God is not some far off distant being. God is here, right here, all around us, in us and beyond us just as surely as we are in God.
It seems very appropriate to turn our attention to St Francis on this Harvest Sunday; St Francis, who reminds us that all of Creation is in God.
Francis was born into a wealthy merchant family and spent his young life striving to become a knight. He had an exuberant love of life. He fought in battles between rival Italian cities and whilst he acquired a position of high regard he discovered that possessions, wealth, and power brought him prestige, but never peace. And so, Francis dramatically gave up his wealth and powerful position in Italian society, and entered into a life of poverty.
He saw the church hierarchy gathering wealth and power to itself and became a fierce critic. He challenged the powerful and wealthy Church, pointing to Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels. He insisted that the Church could not follow two masters, and that following Jesus meant forsaking wealth and power and becoming servants of the poor.
Francis drew great solace from Jesus’ words from this morning’s gospel: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them … And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these … Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ … your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Inspired by the gospels, Francis gave up fine clothes and put on a simple homespun brown garment. Through stripping away the trappings of wealth and deeply engaging with Creation all around him, Francis … saw … love, and in this love he recognised God.
Nowhere was this more evident to Francis than in the people the world cast aside; the poor, the infirm, the outcast, the enemy. All of them, as Francis could now clearly see, were loved deeply by the Creator.
The power of Francis’ way of being in the world flourished, and indeed continues to inspire some who see following Jesus as a call to renounce wealth and power, and to offer their lives in service of the poor and the marginalised. But what might we draw from it in our lives?
Every week, our liturgy ends with an instruction: ‘Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord,’ to which you all respond ‘In the name of Christ. Amen’. It is a wonderfully concise ‘sending out’ especially if we really attend to the words within it, and then really respond from our hearts.
Go in peace – we are to be people of peace, in a world that is ravaged by hatred and conflict. This is not an easy call, but it is an essential Gospel call;
Go in peace … to love – we are made in love, of love, for love, even as we are beloved by God who is love itself. Now we are called to be that love in the world.
Go in peace to love … and serve the Lord – through being that love and acting in love we give ourselves in service of God, and all God’s Creation.
In the name of Christ, Amen – we do all of this in, and with, and through Christ’s presence, in us, and in all Creation. Amen
One of our children, when they were young, was clearly very taken with this sending out, and one week responded loudly and with great conviction, ‘In the name of Christ, I will!’
There was of course, something funny about it, but there is also something very wonderful about the fact that they had heard the words of dismissal as an instruction (which it is) and proclaimed ‘I will!’ in response.
Can we say such a confident and determined ‘I will!’ today? Let’s at least try to go out from here and live lives with the focus on love. To learn from the way the wildflowers grow. To see those we encounter, both here and beyond these walls, as a beautiful gift from our Creator who is love itself. Let us be love in the world by loving all that our Creator loves.
In this we shall find peace which passes all understanding and be richly blessed, even as rich blessings shower down upon all the world, not just in the season of harvest, but in all places and people, and for all places and people. And for encouragement, we can pray the prayer, though not by Saint Francis, commonly referred to as the Prayer of St Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow peace;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.