10 October, 2021, Trinity 19, Year of Mark: Worship
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15
Reflection (Sermon)
Today I’d like us to think about
Harvest.
We may call this a Harvest Festival, even though – to
state the obvious – we are not surrounded by the fruits of the harvest (the
grains and the fruits and the nuts and the tins of soup and the bags of pasta),
as many churches are, when they have harvest festivals.
You may well say that Harvest
Festival is not a good theme for us, here and now.
·
You
may well say that you know we are in the countryside, but fields don’t really
come into view, let alone people harvesting crops in fields.
·
You
may well say that, here, you don’t have the resources to bring foodstuffs for
those more in need, which is also a Harvest pattern.
·
You
may well say there are other themes that are more fitting. And certainly, this
is the beginning of Prisons Week, and so people in churches up and down the
country will be mindful of us all, and praying for us all.
·
Today
is also World Homeless Day, and World Mental Health Day, and it is also Safeguarding
Sunday, and more.
·
You
may well say that today’s readings point us in a different direction.
·
Amos
seems to be speaking of God’s judgement,
of God withholding the good things
around us, not helping us revel in them.
·
Jesus
speaks of giving things away, of
going without, of choosing (we may as well say it…) of choosing poverty. He offers this to the rich young man, and he
praises his disciples who have actually done it.
These objections to Harvest, here and
now, are well and good.
The thing is…
I suggest that there is here
something
that is not necessarily always stable
in Christianity.
On the one hand,
we are all about joy,
joy in God, and joy in our lives upon
earth.
As joyful people, we are meant to
give thanks,
give thanks in all circumstances,
and give hearty (full-on) thanks,
when we have abundance.
We are not called upon to hate this
life,
to hate our life in our bodies, or as
bodies.
All good gifts around us are sent from God above.
Then thank the Lord (oh thank the Lord) for all his
love.
Nothing (I want to say) nothing is
more Christian than this.
And yet… and yet…
this is not all that there is to say.
Something more must be said.
That something more… can be set out
in different ways.
Let me try one.
That something more says that,
alongside our love for the gifts and
joys and pleasures and comforts of this life,
all of us are also called upon to
have our own adventure with God.
And adventures are things that
require sacrifices.
They cost.
They take us, sometimes, to narrow places,
to places without comfort and
pleasures.
Adventures mean risk.
But adventures are good things.
They give meaning.
They make us more fully who we are.
For some of us,
the adventure involves us choosing
poverty,
choosing going without,
choosing being with those who are poor and go without.
Christianity has always said this may
be the case,
has always said you may need to
listen to God’s command, taking this
form.
But, in truth, that’s only one way of
taking on an adventure with God.
So the message of the day has two
parts.
On the one hand,
it is always good to enjoy good
things, and give thanks for good things.
It is always good to treat life as a Harvest Festival.
On the other hand, that is not all,
and, alongside that,
it is always good to seek to listen
to how God may be calling you to another adventure,
an adventure for you alone, a
you-shaped adventure.
Prisons are not always places
where thanksgiving,
or where adventure,
feel easy.
(I am not telling you anything you
don’t know.)
But God is God, and is not held back
by our limitations.
We heard it in today’s Gospel:
“For God nothing is
impossible.”
So I dare to ask the question:
are you listening out for God’s invitation,
·
to
give thanks for the harvest you do
have
·
to
take on the adventure you are called
to?
Amen.
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