There is that annual service where we celebrate the harvest from each year. In the past, we might have had a few weeks off school to go out into the fields and harvest the crop; harvest seems very different these years. Our crop is brought to us via HGV, if there are sufficient drivers, or by train or even by plane, climate change permitting. Our crop has changed over the years: from some root crops, then, in particular with Glasgow, the grain brought in by boat to the nearby docks. It’s also gone from once a season to Harvest : Everyday.
Nowadays, our crop is multicoloured, and has its origins from across the world. I recall going to Morrison’s for a late breakfast on our day off recently and seeing the avocado staring up at me. I’ve never considered this a staple of the breakfast meal, but also wondered where it might be grown?
Have a quick flick through : Deuteronomy 16:10-17
What does this say to us today?
Yes we are celebrating something we have done for so many years, but we might wish to focus our attention to this day. When we have a meal, it might be old fashioned to say a traditional grace: so why not just say thanks to God for what we have on our plates? I recall in the Royal Air Force, where the Chaplain had to take note that many had no faith whatsoever, so their grace became “Rub-A-Dub-Dub, let’s thank God for this grub!” We might also wish to thank those who created and cooked the food. It’s a Harvest : Everyday.
Slaves?
In the days of our passage today, the food was meagre and they recalled that they were slaves at one point. They can taste the difference before another leading supermarket got in on the act. And our plates might not be heaving, but look at the list of those who need the food even then: foreigners – ouch, refugees possibly?; orphans, those who had lost connection with the family, many are in Glasgow; and widows and we could also include today widowers.
Our celebration today doesn’t seem to be a one-day affair not but a 365 day need for so many. But every little helps I’m told. Harvest Festival : Everyday
Supermarkets might offer those food bags which are targeted for specific needs.
The passage speaks of judging people impartially. That’s so difficult with the media pressure where we are encouraged to force people to fit certain stereotypes. When God made every one of us beautifully unique, we are all wonderfully made. Our identity comes from within, not what we wear, how we speak, or from where we came from. This festival of the food of today is for all. Harvest : Everyday
James and John have previously asked if they can be the greatest: be on Jesus left and right handside. They seem to have changed their tune today: they have approached Jesus to ask “We want you to do whatever we ask”: although in Matthew’s Gospel it’s their mother who asks the question.
Who wants power?
Jesus says it is far more difficult than that. Jesus is acutely aware that he is approaching Jerusalem and that the suffering isn’t going to get any better. The other disciples are furious. If James and John are trying to grab a move towards preferential treatment they aren’t happy at all. You see, they seem to desire a power that involves controlling others perhaps even coercion. We might hear on the media of failed business leaders who have been caught out using such tactics – it is the way of the world some might say. Jesus wants them to know that the way forward is about service.
Dikonos – Servant or Slave
The word which can cause us problems here is the Greek word diakonos. This can mean servant, one who executes the commands of another or even a Deacon of a church. It doesn’t mean slave.
Slaves were common place back then: they would have been bought and sold, with little hope of any freedom. Slaves today don’t make the news either. I recently wandered around Glasgow reading the road signs, the name plates on the buildings. How many could we recall speak of the rum, sugar or tobacco trade of the past? Yes that was a different culture, a previous society, but one that has built up fortunes for folk, built upon slavery. The slaves were shipped across to the States; today, they are trafficked across our land and into Glasgow every day of the year. Their lives are heaped with burden, they desire liberation, free so that they can flourish. Woman who come here as sex workers – they didn’t set out as such but are now forced into this work. No Harvest : Everyday for the folk.
If you wish to discuss this more please watch the Circuits weekly YouTube service today if you can – see the link below from 0645 on 17th Oct. Add your comments below or on the video.
Ransom – really?
In our passage there’s a line which reads ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give the life of him as a ransom on behalf of many’ – you may know it off by heart, for it’s been used in hymns and heavily adopted in trying to explain the death of Jesus.
We might like to look at that key word ransom. In the Greek lutron for ransom indicates that Jesus’ death will secure a release, his death is more than just a great example or a protest by a one we will eventually call a martyr. When we hear the word ransom, what do we possibly think of?
It could be a film where the bad guys have taken someone hostage and they demand that ransom for their release. It’s back to the 30 pieces of silver again possibly? If we consider the word ransom as meaning money then the death of Jesus is transactional, a payment to satisfy the penalties by sin, or even to pay back to God something we owe. But that misses out on the rest of the verse.
Liberation
The mission of Jesus was to serve, his life liberates people – there’s no money in it. So even though Jesus would have encountered slaves, Paul the Apostle speaks of freed slaves, the message of the Gospel isn’t about harnessing their power for gain, but liberating all so that lives may flourish.
Our harvest today must not only be with respect to food, but to people. It is not so much about celebrating the Harvest but the Harvest we see everyday – if deliveries arrive. It is Harvest : Everyday.
So we may all be able to access sufficient food, so that those in modern day slavery be liberated so that their lives may flourish: for that our eyes and ears need to be open to what is going on all around us.
The Circuit YouTube service recognising salves and human trafficking today is here, release on 17th Oct
I enjoyed reading the dialogue it was very interesting