Dear Friends,
It seems hardly possible, but already summer is ebbing into autumn – one of my favourite seasons. Autumn is a season of abundance. Not only have the crops been harvested, but the hedgerows and woods are bursting with fruits of all kinds. Creation is resplendent with colours, smells, and tastes – enough to fill all our senses with delight.
As Christians, autumn is the time to give thanks to God for the beauty and generosity of His creation – for all that makes life possible and enjoyable. We have such a generous God, or as Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians, ’He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God…‘’
As the above passage implies, God gives us so much not simply to keep for ourselves, but also to share with others so that they might see something of him in our generous giving.
I will always remember being at a Harvest Thanksgiving Service in a Church in West Africa. I will never forget how enthusiastically and generously the people there thanked God for his generosity and provision. Even though these people were poor they brought to the altar of that Church the best that they had – water, fruit, vegetables, livestock, money, themselves (their skills and talents) – these gifts were blessed and taken and used for the benefit of God’s Church and others in need in the wider community.
We celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving on 5th October. What gifts will we give to God to be used in the building of his kingdom and in recognition of the fact that all that we have comes from him? It might be your company at the Harvest Supper and Quiz at St Saviour’s on 4th October; it might be your money earned using your God given talents (harvest is a good time to review our regular giving to the Church); it might be ourselves – making our time and talents available to God for use in the church and/or the wider community in recognition and thanksgiving that He first gave them to us.
Whatever you choose to give, please give generously in praise of the God who gives generously to you, and so that others more in need may be helped and come to see something of our generous God.
Yours in Christ,
Simon