Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish as we celebrate Harvest. Today we have a Parish Eucharist at 11 am at St Thomas' Church, and there will be no service at St Agnes'.
If you are unable to be with us in person, you can find a Gospel reading, reflection and prayers below.
Our first hymn this morning is "We Plough the Fields and Scatter"
Today's Gospel
Luke 12: 16-30
Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith! And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that seek all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
Reflection
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.”
I wonder how many of us have ever worried about money or financial matters? It is, we are told, a sign of our times that things are so hard for many; high inflation pushing up the cost of basic necessities and energy prices still at eye-wateringly high levels, forcing people to choose between ‘heating or eating’. On top of that there is the increasing cost of borrowing and levels of debt.
For some of the older people, I’m sure many of you will have seen this all before, for example the austerity after World War 2 and the seventies when there was record unemployment, and even higher rates of inflation and interest rates.
I guess against that background, it is only human instinct to worry about things. It is also in our nature to look ahead and plan for success. Is that inherently wrong? For those facing retirement, we are told it is even more important to make financial plans to ensure that we have enough to live on for our foreseeable future.
Having read the parable, we may ask our ourselves a couple of questions:
1)Is it wrong to earn lot of money and have success?
2)Is it wrong to plan ahead?
I do not believe that Jesus is saying it is wrong to earn money or be a very productive farmer in this case. However, when people say, it’s my money, I have earned it and have the right to do with it as I wish, how true us that?
The farmer in the parable was very successful and it is inferred that he has been so for many years. Perhaps some of the reason for his success would be his skills and knowledge as a farmer, knowing what to plant where and when, and how to look after his crops during the seasons, and applying the best methods of farming known at the time.
Yet there is a feeling that in his self-satisfaction, he has failed to see the hand of God at work. God the great creator who is still at work each and every day. The rich man does not seem to acknowledge and give thanks or even appreciation to God.
The same could be said for others in today’s world. Some people are very successful, go to university and hopefully get good jobs. Some of us without the benefit of a degree, are also very successful and have promotions as we work out way ‘up the ladder’ to more senior roles with bigger salaries. For the self-employed, some small firms may become large corporations.
Jesus is not saying any of this is wrong. But when we fail to recognise the hand of God in our lives and show Him appreciation, we too are guilty of self-satisfaction. How often do we stop to think about how lucky we are to have been born into a relatively comfortable part of the world, with all the infrastructure and educational support available to us? To give thanks for what we have, compared to millions in the world who have virtually nothing?
Whatever we have, it is right to recognise the hand of God, and the mercies He has given us throughout our lives and continues to do. Moreover, it is our duty to give Him thanks and praise Him.
When we recognise that what we have is not all of our own doing, it prompts the question, what should we do with what we have?
That brings me to my second question, is it wrong to plan ahead? Again, Jesus wasn’t intrinsically condemning planning for the future as a bad thing. Indeed, a key message of this Gospel is that we all need to think carefully about eternity, and you can’t get much further ahead in planning than that!
So why did Jesus refer to the rich man as a fool? If you look at the passage carefully you will see that the rich man refers to ‘I’ 5 times and to ‘my’ 4 times: “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, etc... Not only is the rich man self-satisfied, but he is also self-centred. Not once does he think about how he can use some of what God has given him for the benefit of others. Moreover, because he has stored up all his grain, it is highly likely that he has pushed up the price of grain for the poorer people because of a scarcity of supply. Think again about cost of energy due to supply being restricted from Russia and the price of wheat due to supplies being restricted from Ukraine.
If we are to be more God-centred we need to be rich towards God. That is to appreciate Him and give Him thanks and credit for His mercy towards us. We also need to be thoughtful towards God’s people in our actions and how we share what we have. Because by being rich towards God, we are planning for eternity. If you look at the rich man and think it is a tragedy that he died when he had so much wealth, then you have missed the point. The tragedy is that he lived an earthly life oblivious to God and he would, therefore, live an eternity without God. He thought his soul belonged to him and did not realise it belongs to God. Paul
Our Prayers
Most Merciful God of all creation,
At this harvest time, we give you thanks for all your gifts
and the abundant mercies you provide for us throughout our lives.
We pray for those less fortunate than ourselves both at home and across the world.
Guide us as to how we may best help those who are struggling,
and save us from the foolishness of being self-centred and self-satisfied.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "Harvest Samba (Cabbages and Greens)"
