The Harvest Festival, where we traditionally celebrate the crops of the season. So what do we do with Harvest Festival in 2022? The local farmers will have been amongst the fields, picking the vegetables and fruits, harvesting the arable fields. Here, the area was predominately woods with about half of the open ground waterlogged. The early roads were said to be full of pot holes. Pollokshaws – the wood of Pollok (‘schawis’ = woods)- was in the 18th C a small village running alongside the River Cart which contained salmon and trout. The main sustenance of the people was porridge, oatcakes and a barley broth. I have read that there were no pigs in Pollokshaws due to prejudice against pork.
Anyone know why?
Very short history of the Harvest in Pollokshaws
The fields for the villagers were often boggy and they needed assistance from the Laird to drain their fields, otherwise famine would occur. The grinding of meal was probably the earliest form of industry in Pollokshaws. Every tenant who worked the Pollok Estate was obliged to have their grain ground at the Shaw Mill, which stood on the left bank of the River Cart close to the Shaw Bridge.
According to local scholars, the Millers house forms the main part of the Pollokshaws Orange Lodge, which relocated here from Pollokshaws Road in 1966, a year before this church was built.
The triangle of ground opposite the Lodge (above) is known as the shilling ground and was provided by the laird for the tenant farmers to winnow the husks from the grain, a practice known as shilling. You might recognise this area if you join us for the monthly litter collections.
Today the harvest is very different. It is heavily industrial and takes place many miles from here. Is the Harvest Festival in 2022 so different? We can obtain a diverse variety of crops practically 24/7 throughout the year.
What might Harvest mean to us these days?
In Luke 14: 25-33 we have a tale of a builder who doesn’t count the cost of building a tower. This lack of forward planning is heard in the media when politicians cite pledges which rarely come to fruition as they have yet to be costed but make good soundbites. They promise more money but less societal support. So who might be paying for that support for the poorest in our society? The local Cineworld has filed for bankruptcy due to a lack of contingency with Covid. How would they have known? Where was their reserves? Smaller business are also folding as this cost of living crisis doesn’t only hit the householder but all who utilise electricity and gas. Many will consider the Harvest Festival in 2022 as very different to their predecessors.
Their cost is mainly financial, whereas the cost of discipleship that Jesus is speaking of can mean so much more. It was Maximilian Kolbe who, in WW2, faced a stark choice – to allow a fellow prisoner to die or to take the bullet themselves.
In our Covenant Prayer includes the lines: put me to suffering; brought low for you; let me be empty, let me have nothing.. I have been a bit naughty be only offering particular lines but the cost is potentially immense. It isn’t suggesting that we should actually die but it does suggest that following Jesus comes at a cost, a significant one. Jesus did die, but that death was a consequence of the Roman oppression. Jesus’ death was a clear statement that that oppression of God’s people wasn’t going to last – Jesus’ resurrection made sure of that.
What are we willing to give up to acquire something that we treasure? What breaks our heart so that we can be in the kin_dom of God?
Who will hear their voice?
The Kin_dom offers a new perspective of a community where all are loved, where all are equal. In today’s community, here in Pollokshaws and wherever we live, there are people crying out for help – although their cries are seemingly not being heard. “Help is coming” I hear but not to those who desperately need it. With the rise in the energy cap in October we will see what may have been a household annual bill for energy from £800 rising to £3000 and then further still. Many people might be on fixed rate tariffs so the pain is not being felt, but those on meters aren’t able to say this. It might well be that those here today are facing that stark choice as well. Our family doesn’t stop at the Church walls – as Jesus redefined family earlier, we can do likewise.
Food bank, Places of warmth?
At the Harvest Festival in 2022 we bring in this wonderful array of food, which we can deliver to the Food Bank – but that is a travesty that we have Food Banks. The Harvest of the past enabled the poor to have a semblance of a crop whilst the Laird could continue to live well. We know talk of ‘Places of Warmth’. How do we respond?
Our LADLE, the Lunch Club starting on Tuesday 20th September, is something ongoing that might offer that opportunity to eat as well as heat – not only are we offering a place of sustenance but a place of heating. We will be offering signposts to help with their mental health in terms of games, crafts, specialised support and discussion. It isn’t much in the big scheme of things but it could be a lifeline to many.
The cost of discipleship is a choice. So when we come to helping our community, when homes are getting larger, cars are getting larger, clothing is getting larger, and you can always ‘go large’ at certain cafes: are we prepared this year to follow the lead of Jesus or hold onto our surplus this year, for that rainy day? The Harvest Festival of 2022 can still bring ongoing hope.
I found the dialogue interesting and I enjoyed it