Harvest 2022

This sermon was given at our Harvest Festival service on Sunday 9th October 2022. The Gospel was John 6:25-35. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Preaching at our Harvest festival is getting to be a regular thing for me! I think this is my third occasion to speak on this subject in the last six years. My first harvest sermon was on this exact date in 2016, when I told a story about the desert folk and their god who lived up a mountain, and my last time before today was this time last year – the 10th October in fact.

It’s getting to the point where I’m in danger of running out of things to say! We might need to ensure Harvest doesn’t fall on my rota’d week for preaching in 2023, or I might have to get you all to do my sermon for me instead!

But… who am I kidding? You know me, and you can ask my family – I never run out of things to say…

And the first thing I want to say this morning is thank you, from all in the ministry team here at St Michael’s for the offerings you have brought today. This food will go to the foodbank, and I’m sure you’ll appreciate this year that it is sorely needed. There are many, many people in our community who are concerned about what they will eat this winter. Many more people than normal (and that’s a jarring word to use in this context – to think of it being normal that people have not got enough to eat) – many, many more people than ‘normal’ are going hungry, and going thirsty, so thank you.

And so, let’s turn to our Gospel for today:

“I am the bread of life,” says Jesus. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

…I think the Church of England is trolling me.

What sort of Gospel is this for our harvest festival?

Sure – earlier in the Gospel reading we heard Jesus state that the manna provided to the Israelites did not come from Moses, but came from God, and I could – of course – spend this sermon talking about the gifts we have provided today being God’s in the first place. It obviously fits in with all those popular harvest songs – “all good gifts around us are sent from Heaven above”. That’s all fine; that’s standard Harvest fare – bring in the packets and the tins, thank God for them, pat ourselves on the back for remembering; bish bash bosh, job done for this year; that’s me out of the pulpit – see you same time next year for another variation on the same sermon.

Or... I could address the elephant in the room. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Won’t they?

“Ah… but Stuart, Jesus is talking spiritually,” I hear some of you say. And yeah, he is. He’s talking about eternity and spirituality and fulfilment and peace. But Jesus never talks on just one level, and – let’s be brutally honest – if I’m starving to death, I’m going to want something to eat before I start to confront my spiritual emptiness. If you want to talk to me about God whilst I’m dying of hunger, that’s fine – just give me a sandwich first. Jesus is not just talking about the here-after. He’s talking about the here-and-now. Actual hunger.

And he's saying that those who follow him will never be hungry, and never be thirsty. 

And, in the early church, they took that as a literal command.

We read in the book of Acts that, when needed, the members of the early church shared everything together. They sold land and houses and used the proceeds for the good of their community. Those who had more than enough shared what they had so that everyone had enough. No one went hungry. No one went thirsty.

That isn't the case today. When I first preached on Harvest six years ago, the Trussell Trust were distributing 1.2 million emergency food parcels to people in need in the UK. In 2016, that was hailed as a shocking number, having been less than 41,000 only six years before.

In March this year, the Trussell Trust released their statistics for the 2021-2022 financial year. Between April 2021 and this March, they have distributed over 2.1 million emergency food parcels. That's an increase of over 80% in six years. Since 2010, it's a 3000% increase. 

3000% in 12 years. 

I'll stress again that these numbers are only until March. That's right at the beginning of the Ukraine conflict that has so badly impacted fuel costs in the last seven months. It doesn't account for the disastrous way the economy has tanked in the last few weeks either, causing the value of the pound to plummet, and rents and mortgages to soar. Look out for newer figures in the news for the last six months; the Trussell Trust will be announcing them soon, and they will be awful.

Our offering today is not enough.

Now, don't get me wrong, we are grateful, and this offering today will make a real difference to people who are going hungry. But it's not enough.

As a church, we're not doing enough.

I know I'm not. I think that's why God has asked me to preach this sermon - and I do think this if something God wants to tell us. I am culpable, probably more culpable than many, if not most of you.  I've brought my offering of a few items of food to church this morning, and if I do not change, then I will leave here today and forget about any of this until the next big story in the news, or - God forbid - this time next year when Harvest comes around again.

My work actually allows me to take up to five days per year for volunteering. Paid days. And I've not managed to use them. I'm not doing enough.

I know many of you already volunteer, and give your time and money generously, and I want to thank you. Please do not feel guilted into doing more than you can. This sermon is for me, and others like me, who have the time and ability to do more, but are not doing so. As a church, we need to do more. As a church, we can do more.

In my sermon this time last year, I said that our Harvest offering mustn't end after that service, that we must become A Harvest Church. And that is still true. It is even more needed today than this time last year. And we can. We can do more. We can give more, of our time, our abilities, our resources - and yes, our money.

Over in the Croft, there's a sign on the wall that Vaughan has prepared highlighting places we can volunteer which are in need of our help. Please, when you go for coffee after the service today, take a look and find some inspiration. Get involved; if not with one of those charities, then with a different charity.

I would love it if it by the time we come to Harvest 2023, that our offering consisted of more than food, that is consisted of time spent over the next year in volunteering; time spent ensuring, as Jesus promised, that those who turn to him for help will never be hungry, and never be thirsty.

I'm making my promise now to do more. I hope you'll join me in this commitment.

If I fail, well, I guess next year's harvest sermon is going to be an interesting one, to say the least!

Amen.