Harvest Thanksgiving

I well remember harvest that year. 2004, I think it was. At that point, the Community Summer retreat took place at the end of August and beginning of September: ploughing time. I love that sight, the earth being turned, new and ready to start again. But not that year. That year had been a very wet summer. It had not been possible to harvest the fields by the time our retreat started. Now, I am not at all knowledgeable about farming, crops or when the best point to harvest is, but I did live in the country for about twenty years and I did pick a few things up. I forget what was sown in the field opposite the Convent that year, but it was either wheat or barley. It should have been harvested weeks before our retreat started, but it hadn’t been. Even I could see that by then it was past its’ best. But I can remember the day they were able to start harvesting at last, the sense of joy that it was now possible to bring the harvest in.

Quite what the farmer felt, I do not know; neither do I know how usable the crop was by then, or whether money was lost due to the late harvest. I was not directly involved, merely an onlooker. Thankfully, one of the reasons that year is so memorable is that was rare to start the harvest that late. As I said, normally by then the harvest was in and ploughing had begun. Living in the country, surrounded by fields as we were, did bring home the turning of the seasons, how the weather affects the farming year, even how vital the natural world is for our daily lives. Something that can be lost in an urban context, where food often comes from a shelf. The former is no longer the context in which I live, but I will never forget what living among farmer’s fields taught me. Among other things, I will always be grateful to farmers for their production of the food we eat, and for their care of the countryside in which they live and work.

Harvest Festival in the Community took place after the retreat, once the harvest around us was over, and even much of the Community’s own harvest had finished, which changed over the years. There were always apples, which often kept us going until the following Lent; plums (depending on how much of the blossom had been eaten early by the pigeons, if I remember rightly) and blackberries, although admittedly we went off-site for those. The harvest display in the Chapel was usually made up of our own produce, bringing the sense of harvest closer to home. We gave thanks for the harvest in that year when it had been so late, but I remember wondering how much the farmers had to be thankful for that year. Is it always appropriate to give thanks for the harvest? What if it has been a bad year?  

I must say that I think it right to begin with thanksgiving, an offering and thank you to God for the food he gives us to eat, for the harvest and those who produce it for us. It is why it is important to continue with a harvest festival, even in the city where we are divorced from much of what harvest means for those in the country. I no longer know whether the harvest is early or late, but that does not mean I cannot thank God, who does, and who is the ultimate giver of all we eat, as the Israelites found in the wilderness, when they were dependent on God for food (see Exodus 16, for example).

There is plenty to pray for at harvest as well: not only for farmers, but also food banks and those who use them. The tradition of giving harvest produce to those in need is a good one, although giving natural produce can be more complicated nowadays. There are other reasons for celebrating harvest, whatever the weather has been. It reminds us of the land, of where our food comes from; it reminds us to be thankful to the God who provides more than just our daily bread; it reminds us of how inter-connected we are. It could also be an opportunity to learn more about the ways our food is produced, or to support local networks.

Giving thanks at a harvest festival may seem inappropriate in the face of so many of today’s needs, yet I still think it is central, and reminds us in a wider context of the importance of giving thanks. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. It does not say give thanks for good things; give thanks when you are feeling joyful; give thanks when life is good. It says to give thanks in all circumstances, a discipline that can be hard at times. It is not always easy to remember to thank God when life is going well; to give thanks in times of disappointment or difficulty can be tough. Maybe that is something that our Harvest Festival can remind us of: to give thanks always, whatever the context of our daily life. To give thanks daily to the God who created us, sustains us and will bring us home at the end. But also to say thank you to those around us, those who help us, those who prepare our worship, those who keep the ‘back stage’ going. Thank you not only to those who produce our food, but to those who work in the shops we buy it from. Thank you for reading this.