I don’t think it’s any secret that Harvest Festivals are not universally liked. Some people absolutely love them and for those people, their parish’s Harvest Festival is something to really look forward to and also to spend a lot of time and effort on. Other people though, loathe Harvest Festivals and for them, the parish’s Harvest Festival is something to be left to others in preparation, and to be suffered on the day itself. I don’t want to go into the reasons people have these very different opinions of Harvest Festivals, but what I will say is that, personally, my problem with Harvest Festivals is with how completely OTT some people can go with them. I’ve known churches where people have acted as though the annual Harvest Festival is more important than Christmas and Easter rolled into one. That’s quite preposterous in itself but has been made all the worse by the petty rivalries and jealousies and arguments that have been caused because of people’s over inflated opinion of the Harvest Festival, and very often of themselves too, it must be said! But that’s a problem with people and their behaviour, not with Harvest Festivals per se.

These days we seem to have largely moved away from speaking of Harvest Festivals and instead, we call them Harvest Thanksgiving services. And I think that’s a much better name for them because it’s a name that reminds us of what these services are really supposed to be about. They’re not about who gives the most or gets the most, they’re not about who has the best or most prominent display in church on the day, they’re about giving thanks to God for the food we eat. And it can’t ever be wrong for us to be reminded of our need to give thanks to God, whatever the reason.

But as we think about our Harvest Thanksgiving, we’re also reminded that it takes a lot of hard work to produce the food we eat. It takes people to sow the seed, raise the crops to fruition, harvest the crops when they’re ripe, process them so that they can be eaten, and transport them to shops and markets for us to buy. And this reminds us that, as well as our need to give thanks to God for all his good gifts to us, we have to work with God and use what God has given us if it’s going to be of any benefit to us, or to anyone else either. And this applies whatever the gifts we’ve been given and every particular gift we’ve been blessed with.

We all know, I’m sure, that to be given a gift and not to thank the one who’s given us that gift, is to be ungrateful. But showing ingratitude is not simply a matter of failing to say ‘Thank you’ to the one who gave us the gift. To be given a gift and not use it can also be seen as showing ingratitude because by not using the gift we’ve been given we can show that we don’t appreciate it, didn’t really want it and don’t see that we have any need for it. We can also show our ingratitude for a gift by wasting it. And we can show our ingratitude to God too by not using the gifts he gives us, by wasting them or, perhaps especially, by misusing them.

God gives us gifts for a reason. We might speak about having gifts in order to build up the Church or to bring the love of Christ to other people, but we could simply say that our gifts are given to us so that we can fulfil that great commandment to love God and love our neighbour as ourselves. And so, if we use our gifts to do these things, as God intends us to use them, we show our gratitude to God for the gifts he’s given us. And by using them in the way he intended us to, we also give glory to God because in the process of using our gifts we show something of God and say something about God to the world. But there’s a flip side to this. If we waste our gifts by not using them, then we show our ingratitude to God, we also fail to fulfil the great commandment, and we give no glory to anyone. But misusing our gifts is just as bad, if not worse than not using them at all.

If we do good works to show our love of our neighbour but don’t give thanks to God for the gifts that have enabled us to do that, who are we really glorifying, God or ourselves? And if we use our God given gifts for selfish purposes, then whether we thank God for them or not, we’re glorifying no one but ourselves. For example, if we rise to the top in our work or profession, there’s no point in thanking God for the gifts that have enabled us to be successful, if we’ve used, abused and trampled underfoot anyone and everyone who’s stood in our way, along the way. And if our success has enabled us to have a very high standard of living, there’s no point in thanking God for the gifts that have given us that, if we couldn’t care less about people who are struggling to make ends meet, especially if our success has come at their expense.

Doing these things is glorifying ourselves at God’s expense, patting ourselves on the back for something we should be thanking God for. And this is the lesson, the warning, of the parable of the Rich Fool. This man was successful, and his success had made him rich. I think we can assume from that that he was a gifted man, who’d used his gifts. Being gifted though doesn’t guarantee success unless you’re prepared to work hard at what you’re doing. So we can probably also assume that he was a hard-working man. So, gifted, hard-working and successful. But also very ungrateful and very selfish. A man who patted himself on the back for what he’d achieved rather than thanking God for the gifts that had enabled him to achieve it. A man who used what God had given him for his own selfish purposes, so that he could sit back, relax, take it easy and have a good time, whilst other less fortunate people worked his land, harvested his crops, pulled down his old barns and built  bigger ones, and gathered his crops into them. Perhaps a measure of this man’s selfishness can be seen in his words. Have you ever noticed how self-centred they are? His monologue is all about ‘I’ and ‘me’. Do we really think this man pulled down and built barns and gathered crips into them personally? Surely someone else would have done this for him. But this a very common way of speaking isn’t it. Rich, powerful people saying ‘I’ have done this when what they really mean is someone else has done this for me. In effect, taking the glory for someone else’s toil and sweat and then keeping the lion’s share of the benefits for themselves.

Such was the Rich Fool in the parable. A man who was richly blessed by God, and richly rewarded in earthly terms, but who was poor in God’s sight because he was ungrateful and selfish. A man who had a great deal to thank God for and who could have given great glory to God because of that by using his gifts in the service of God and his neighbour. But a man who, instead, chose to glorify himself. And that did make him poor, and foolish, because, in the end, self-glorification can only last as long as our earthly lives last. In the end, all out pride and boasting about how great we are and how well we’ve done, all that ends. And when it ends, all we have is the hope that God will glorify us by raising us to eternal life with him. And if we want that hope to be a sure hope, then we’d best make sure that we’ve not been the kind of fools whom Jesus spoke and warned us about in this morning’s Gospel.

To use some harvest imagery taken from the hymn, Come, ye thankful people, come, we have been planted in God’s field and we have been given all that we need to ripen into fruitfulness in God’s service. Our hope is that , when the Lord himself comes to gather his harvest, we may be among the wholesome, pure and fruitful grain that will be gathered into God’s store. So let’s be thankful for what God has given us. Let’s show our thanks, not only in praise, but by using all his gifts in the way he intends then to be used, to give him glory by showing our love for him and our love of our neighbour through the thankful, unselfish way we use his gifts. If we can do that then, by God’s grace and mercy, we can relax in the knowledge that we’ve stored up many good things for ourselves, not just for many years, but for eternity. 

Amen.

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Propers for Harvest Thanksgiving 1st October 2023

Entrance Antiphon
The earth has yielded its fruit, the Lord our God has blessed us.

The Collect
Eternal God,
you crown the year with your goodness,
and you give us the fruits of the earth in their season:
grant that we may use them to your glory,
for the relief of those in need and for our own well-being;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)        
Joel 2:21-24, 26-27
Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 7-8
1 Timothy 6:6-11, 17-19
Luke 12:15-21

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Deuteronomy 8:7-18
Psalm 65
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Luke 12:16-30

Entrance Antiphon
I am the Saviour of all people, says the Lord.
Whatever their troubles, I will answer their cry, and I will always be their Lord.

The Collect
O Lord,
we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)        
Isaiah 55:6-9
Psalm 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18
Philippians 1:20-24, 27
Matthew 20:1-16

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Psalm 145:1-8
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16

On Thursday of last week, September 14^th, the Church celebrated Holy Cross Day. That’s a day in the Church’s calendar that’s also known as the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and, as that title suggests, it’s a day when we remember and celebrate the Cross of Christ, its meaning for us, and its importance to us. And the Cross is of vital importance to us. The Cross is the instrument of our salvation because it was on the Cross that Jesus bore our sins and died to take those sins away so that we might be raised with him to eternal life. But, whilst it’s right and proper that we do exalt the Cross in this way, it’s also of vital importance that we remember too that, as important as the Cross is to us and for us, we still have work to do, in spite of the Cross.

I think it’s very easy for Christians to think that, because Christ bore and paid the penalty for our sins on the Cross, we’re home free; we’re in a nice, comfortable position because we’re assured of eternal life, whatever happens. But that is not what we read in Scripture and it’s not what Jesus himself said during his earthly ministry. The Gospels tell us that, at the very beginning of his ministry,

Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

During his ministry he told people on numerous occasions about the need for repentance, and indeed his teaching and parables are full of warnings about the terrible fate that lay in store for the unrepentant. And those warnings weren’t nullified by the Cross because even after his Resurrection, Jesus said,

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” 

And, in fact, this is just what St Peter preached to people on the Day of Pentecost;

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…”

So I don’t think that we can be, nor should we be, under any illusions about our need to acknowledge our sins and to be repentant, to make a real, determined effort to stamp out sin in our lives, if we want to receive the benefits Christ won for us on the Cross. We can’t take the Cross for granted. We can’t simply live our lives as we please and take it for granted that we’ll be forgiven our sins and raised to eternal life.

I’m assuming that no one who takes their faith seriously can be in any doubt whatsoever that they are sinners who need to repent, and who are in need of forgiveness. But to what extent do we believe those things? I think the answer to that can often be gauged by our attitude towards forgiveness, both the extent to which we think we need to be forgiven and our willingness to be forgiving ourselves.

Our Gospel reading this morning leaves us in no doubt that, unless we ourselves are ready and able to forgive others when they’ve wronged us, we can’t expect God to forgive us for the wrongs we’ve done either. In reply to Peter’s question, Jesus says that we must forgive others not,

“seven times, but seventy times seven.”

and in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, he warns us that unless we do forgive others, God will not forgive us either. And this is something that should remind us of another of Jesus’ teachings; that the measure we use to judge others, will be the measure used by God to judge us.

But this is something we shouldn’t need to be reminded of because it’s something we probably acknowledge every day. It’s certainly something we acknowledge every time we come to a church service because it’s in the Lord’s Prayer. When we pray that ‘Our Father’ will

“…forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”,

we’re not only acknowledging that God will forgive us only to the extent that we forgive others, but we’re actually asking God to do this. So how willing are we to forgive others?

I think one of the great problems we have with forgiveness is honesty. By that I mean, how honest are we when we call to mind something that’s happened that we think requires forgiveness? How honest are we willing to be with ourselves, and with others about what really happened?

It’s true isn’t it, that when something has happened that shouldn’t have, when some wrong has been done, we like to play the innocent? We like to downplay our part in what’s gone on and portray ourselves as the wounded party rather than acknowledging any part we might have played in what’s happened. So we highlight the faults of others and ignore whatever we might have done to cause a problem or make a situation worse. A problem that might really have been a case of ‘six of one and half a dozen of another’ becomes, in our telling of it, all the fault of the other, a completely unprovoked and unjustified sin committed against us. And, if we’re forced to admit some part of the blame, usually because other people know the truth and we can’t play the innocent entirely, we try to claim that we were provoked into doing what we did. We say that it wouldn’t have happened if the other person, or people, hadn’t done what they did first (and it always is the other who acted first in our telling of these situations isn’t it?). This isn’t always true, but it’s invariably what people do and I’m sure we’ve all been on the receiving end of it and been the one who’s done it to others too. In fact, some people do this so often that, in the end, they really do start to believe their own distorted version of events and can become very angry with anyone who tries to correct them with the truth. I’m sure we’ve all dealt with people who’ve done that too.

But as Christians, doing this kind of thing is something we should try to avoid like the plague. As Christians, we’re called to be repentant, and we can’t be repentant if we don’t acknowledge our own sins. So we can’t blame other people for the wrong that we’ve done  As Christians we want God to forgive us our trespasses, so we have to forgive those who trespass against us. But that doesn’t mean blaming other people for what we’ve done so that we can get on our moral high horse in order to forgive them for wrongs that we’ve committed. We can’t show ourselves as forgiving by trying to deny our own need of forgiveness. 

As Christians we can’t be in any doubt that the standards we use for other people will be the standards God uses to judge us, so we can’t be in any way dishonest or duplicitous in our accusations of other people, nor in our thoughts and claims about ourselves. If we do these things, if we are dishonest and duplicitous in these ways, the Gospel, and Jesus himself tells us that we’re going to find ourselves in serious difficulties with God, regardless of the salvation Christ offered us on and through the Cross. It won’t be a case of double whammy when we stand before the Lord on the Day of Judgement, more like quadruple whammy, at least!

If we try to play the innocent and deny our own sins – wham! We’re  unrepentant sinners and, as St John reminds us, liars in whom there is no truth. If we try to downplay our sins by highlighting the sins of others and criticising them for what we’ve done wrong – wham! We’re hypocrites looking for specks in other people’s eyes but ignoring the planks in our own. And the only mercy and forgiveness we can expect from God is the same lack of mercy and forgiveness we’ve shown to others. If we try to shift the blame for what we’ve done wrong onto others by accusing them of sins that we’ve committed – wham! We’re blackening the name and character of another person and we have Jesus’ assurance that we’ll leave ourselves,

“…liable to the hell of fire.”

And if we try to take the moral high ground, sententiously forgiving others rather than humbly accepting that we ourselves are at least equally in need of forgiveness – wham! We’re just like the Pharisees, people full of spiritual pride and self-righteousness, and how then will we ever be able to claim a place in the kingdom of heaven?

The Cross of Christ is the instrument of our salvation. Christ bore our sins on the Cross and through the Cross we have the assurance that our sins can be forgiven and that we can be raised with Christ to eternal life. But that doesn’t mean that we’re there already. We can’t take things for granted. We still have to live as Christ taught and commanded and, in part, that means that we have to see ourselves as sinners who are still in need of repentance and forgiveness. It means loving our neighbour as we love ourselves, treating them in the way we would like to be treated by them. It means applying the same standards to ourselves that we apply to others and vice versa. If we’re lenient with ourselves, we must be equally lenient with others is we want God to be lenient, and merciful and forgiving to us. If we’re harsh with our neighbour, then we’d best make sure that we’re equally harsh with ourselves because if we’re not, God will be.

Amen.

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Propers for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Trinity 15) 17th September 2023

Entrance Antiphon
Give peace, Lord, to those who wait for you and your prophets will proclaim you as you deserve.
Hear the prayers of your servant and of your people Israel.

The Collect
God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)        
Ecclesiasticus 27:30 – 28:7
Psalm 103:1-4, 9-12
Romans 14:7-9
Matthew 18:21-35

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Genesis 50:15-21
Psalm 103:1-13
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35