In the book of Exodus Chapter 23 and verse 16 we read: You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first fruits of your labour, of what you sow in the field. You shall observe the festival of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labour. and again in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 26, and verse 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.

As we celebrate a harvest festival, we are returning to the very roots of our faith. Indeed, the harvest festival links us to the God who shepherded his people out of Egypt into the promised land. It is part of the commencement of the relationship between the Hebrews, their land and God. The question is HOW is this relevant some three thousand years later in an urban rather than a rural setting?.

I think that the image of the harvest are vitally important to Christians today, in a number of ways. As we open up God’s word, we find that the harvest is spoken of in three ways.

First, there is the sense of the physical harvest. As we look around this church decorated with the abundance of the harvest, we should be reminded of the generosity of God to those who he loves. It is an abundant generosity, given to those who love him and to those who turn their backs on him. The harvest is very much the work of God in response to the work of humanity. The festival is the response of humanity to the work of God. This is quite in contrast with the fertility rituals associated with planting in some cultures. Here the ‘god’ is to be placated in order to reward the people with a harvest. The Harvest festival is not about placating God, but about acknowledging his presence in our lives and his gifts to us. God is the God who gives.

Even as we move away from our rural roots, we still have cause to make an offering of thanks and praise to the God who has given to us in abundance.

Where we worshiped in Africa, at St Paul’s, Suntreso, they would hold an annual harvest festival. Living in a city of eight hundred thousand people, many had lost their connection to the land, but they brought with them the fruits of their labour - (For traders and office workers, the harvest was not of produce but of money. The Harvest Festival was an opportunity for them to say thank you to God in his infinite generosity to them. It was not just about the produce, but about what it represented, the gift of God to them in abundance. Here is the challenge of their giving. In a church about twice the size of St Johns., they raised through giving on that day the sum of around $6,000. (This is in a society where the average daily wage is less than $4).

Perhaps our African Brothers and Sisters could be a challenge for us today. Each was prepared to thank God for His abundant gifts to them with two to three days pay, 1% of their annual income. (This was over and above their normal giving). Harvest then is a special time for you and I as God’s gathered people to say thank you as we count his blessings showered upon us.

Second, the harvest for Christians is more than just the physical reward for our work. Jesus himself said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Do you not say, `Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting

Jesus saw in the people around him, the opportunity for the harvest, in the spiritual sense. Opportunities that presented themselves. Now is the season of the harvest, yet in many churches we seem to be more concerned with what colour to paint the harvester than to get out into the fields.

Jesus would change the concept of harvest for his followers. No longer would the disciples fish for fish, but they would fish for people. The harvest would be the harvest of souls drawn into the kingdom.

This is what Paul meant when writing to the Romans, "...I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles." and when he wrote to the Corinthians, "He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness."

Harvest time then should be more than just a reminder of God’s abundant gifts, but a living parable describing our purpose as Christians, our purpose as the body of Christ. In Philippians, Paul describes its purpose, "the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. " And James describes its source "a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace".

But this is all theoretical. All this will mean nothing unless you and I are prepared to put it into action. We may know about the harvest that is outside our door, but the question is what are we doing about it. Now I am not talking about the overseas mission field, although that is a valid concern. What I am concerned with is that as the Body of Christ here in Launceston, we are not bringing in any harvest at all. For all our rhetoric and endless activity, there are none who coming to join us from outside the kingdom. Now you and I can make endless excuses about things, and point to the inactivity or mistakes of others, but the truth of the matter is that each of us will stand before our heavenly Father and be asked to give an account of our own actions as God’s children, and this will include how we have progressed the kingdom through St Johns.

The third sense in which Harvest is used in Scripture refers to personal growth. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, said this "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness"

Jesus teaching his disciples in the Upper Room said: "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples." Fruit is not seen in terms of more disciples - but the fruit is what makes us disciples in the first place. The fruit then is the change from within, caused as we draw near to Christ. As we abide, then we will experience fruit bearing - the fruit of the Spirit which Paul list as love, joy, peace patience, goodness kindness gentleness and self-control. The word is singular not as a list of alternative, but the multiple dimensions of the activity of the spirit in our lives. There is no choice, it is all or nothing. John's image of the vine, shows us that the source of the fruit is our relationship with Jesus. Fruit then is the result of our own personal development. It is a direct result of our abiding in the Lord.

We can then give thanks to God for the harvest of righteousness in our own lives. At harvest time, you and I have cause to reflect on what it is that is being wrought in us that we might be like him. When St Francis said to his followers, ‘Go and preach the Gospel, and if necessary use words’, he was pointing them, and us, to the necessity of the development of holiness in our lives. Successful proclamation of the Gospel to the world was not just about getting the words right, but about living out the kind of life that is attractive to others. The kind of life that is an alternative to that offered by the world.

The actual description of this as a harvest suggests that it is not the work of humanity, but the gift from God. His response to our efforts. Like the physical Harvest, we play our part, but these things come as the gift of God. As we work in co-operation with God the Holy Spirit, then God can change us as the potter and we will see in our lives, the abundance of the harvest of righteousness, and so will the world.

So let us therefore as we contemplate this harvest that surrounds us,

• be reminded of the generous gift of God to us and contemplate our response,
• be reminded of the harvest field that surrounds us and contemplate our response,
• be reminded of the harvest of righteousness required in our lives, and contemplate our response.

Let us pray

Help us heavenly Father to respond to responded with gratitude to your generosity and to the tasks you have laid out before us.

AMEN.