Hello my brothers and sisters in Christ. As we look forward to celebrate Harvest festival in a few weeks’ time let us reflect on the generosity and the abundance grace of God over His people. Let us start with this passage from Deuteronomy 8:7-18:
“7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.
11 Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous[a] snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.”
Harvest Festival is a great opportunity for us to recall and celebrate together the origins of all the good gifts from God, to express our gratitude for the land and people who produce them, and to thank God for His generosity.
It is a time to give thanks not only for the harvest, but for all the blessings that we experience in life. The call to be Christian, is the call to be thankful people whose lives are shaped by a sense of gratitude.
Harvest can also be a festival of place, connecting us with where we live and the people who live and work in our place. It can also connect us with the generous God whose spirit is with us always.
This passage of Deuteronomy invites us to remember that God is the true source of all our wealth and our ability to produce it. Moreover, in celebrating the source of all our material blessings, we are encouraged to give thanks for the ultimate gift they foretell, the undeserved, unearned and extravagant grace offered freely to us all through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am grateful for the generosity of many of you in this church, whose gifts of food, time and prayer are a wonderful expression of God’s care for those experiencing hard times in our community. During this month as you donate to food banks and other Organisations, let us pray that we will all grow in our ability to see the people we encounter through God’s eyes. With our basic gifts of various food stuff, that the people who visit the foodbank will take away a sense of their identity as individuals created in God’s image, known by Him and loved by Him. Let us also gives thanks for the place God has called us to be and the people God has called us to serve.
Rev Olasupo Ogunyinka.