October is the month for harvest Thanksgiving in Herefordshire. You may be surprised to know that harvest Thanksgiving is a more modern addition to the churches calendar than you might think. It’s origins are usually traced to the adaptation in 1843 of Lammas day service by the reverent RS Hawker a parish priest in Cornwall he chose the first Sunday in October to celebrate harvest, as a Christian response to a largely secular harvest home celebration.  Since then many local traditions for the celebration of harvest have developed in different parts of the country. Harvest suppers are still popular in Herefordshire and it is a good time for the community to come together.

Harvest is a time when we thank God for his enormous generosity in providing us with the food that we need and to thank God for those who provide it. It is also a good time to think about our own Christian stewardship and giving. The average weekly giving in Hereford is £12 per week. Many people in our villages are unaware that the local churches depend on the local community for their upkeep and maintenance. Today, churches have three main sources of income;  These are investments and endowments, revenue raised from fundraising and retail, but the vast majority comes from donations from Parishioners.

Jesus challenged his followers to look radically at their attitude to wealth. He expected them to examine critically their Patterns of saving, spending and giving. He  did not challenge them to give any precise amount. Rather he asked For a much more radical discipleship- one in  which people treated all they possessed as having been given to them by God.  I heard a lovely story recently about the nature of that kind of discipleship which expresses itself and giving. During the collection at the service in the diocese of Mount Kenya East, in  a very poor area an egg was placed in the collection bag. It was then auctioned by the local bishop and raised ten pounds this was not the real worth of the egg, but it was the real worth of the love and generosity that had inspired the giving from someone who could possibly not afford to give even an egg.  Such is  the nature of sacrificial giving and from that example comes again the question: “ Are we going to serve God or money?”

I have often noticed that if people learn to be generous financially, then they become generous in other ways as well. I suspect that it is inevitable for a spirit of generosity to reflect the very nature of God himself. When we talk about our economic problems as a church, I hope we never lose sight of that spiritual challenge to be generous.

Harvest, is about bringing the first fruits to God. When an Israelite offered to God the first lamb of his flock or the first sheaf of barley from his fields he was not saying ‘ this is yours the rest is mine’ Rather it was ‘ So much you have given me, and here I offer you the ‘first fruits of all that you have given me, in token of all that is yours’.  Harvest Thanksgiving is about saying, thank you to God for his love and generosity. Stewardship starts with God, and His claim on the whole of our lives.