Lord of all creation, you give us the fruits of the earth in their season and crown the year with your goodness:  help us so to receive your gifts with thankful hearts that we may use them to your glory, for the relief of those in want and to meet our daily needs, through Jesus Christ the Bread of life, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

A reading from Deuteronomy   (8.7-18)

 

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper.  You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.

    Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today.  When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good.

    Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth."  But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 

 

This is the word of the Lord.

    Thanks be to God.

 

Psalm 65. 8-13

 

8    You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it;

9    the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it.

10      You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.

11      You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness.

12      The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy,

13      the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck them-selves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it is, and was, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen

 

 

 

 

A reading from 2 Corinthians   (9.6-15)

 

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.  As it is written, "He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever."

    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 through us;  for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.

    Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you.  Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

 

This is the word of the Lord.

    Thanks be to God.

 

Reflection - AE

 

Michaelmas daisies, purple in the border, Big fat leeks all standing up in order.

 

I love that song, and it was always the idea of jars of chutney standing in the larder that I remember, and although I remember the tune I would be pushed to remember many more of the words.

 

Harvest is certainly a time to celebrate, and give thanks, and this year, when everyone, farmers and gardeners, have had a hard growing season, we have to give even more thanks than ever that in the end the rain did come, and some things did grow, even though plenty did not.

 

September brings nuts falling from the trees, apples coming in to store, and, if you’re energetic, jam and chutney.  Everything seems a bit like the first bible reading, a land with flowing streams once again, and where you may eat without scarcity.

 

October sees fruit and vegetables going into the freezer, sheep coming down off the hill, and everyone making sure there’s enough firewood in the shed to last the winter.

 

Time to give thanks, like the one leper.

 

Also, though, September brings back to school. 

 

October brings the leaves beginning to fall, slowing down of tomatoes ripening, roses fading in the garden, evenings getting shorter.

 

Autumn brings some joy, but also some sadness, the end of summer, almost another year gone, time to get out the winter jumpers.

 

Harvest, too, brings images that are joyful, and some that are less so.

 

All those rosy apples and barns full of grain.

 

Also, plants cut down by the frost, gardens cleared for the winter, bonfires to get rid of all the rubbish.

 

It’s a time for checking what we have, where we have enough, where we need to do better.

 

Almost like an end of year assessment, and in Patricio, with the reaper himself, the Doom figure, painted on the wall, we might remember that in the end the one carrying out that assessment is God.

 

All through the summer, we can think about the good things we’re all doing, looking after the garden, watering, weeding, making sure there’s water available for the birds, growing pollen rich flowers for the bees.

 

Hoping the dazzling sun in everyone’s eyes will mean they don’t see the stuff we should be doing but we’re not bothering with, or the things we’re doing badly, or even not doing at all.

 

Those old papers we were meant to take down to the bin, but in fact just hid under a cushion instead, or that shelf we were meant to dust, but didn’t.

 

The trouble with Autumn sunlight is that it comes in at a different angle, and shines on all sorts of things that were hidden before, especially dusty shelves.

 

And God, as the final assessor, if particularly able to see what we stuffed under cushions, to try to hide.

 

After all, he was there, and watched us do it.

 

God’s final assessment is a time when all of us will have to face up to all the things we might have hoped to keep secret.  Like not saying thank you when we should have, like the lepers, or not saying sorry to someone we know we have hurt.

 

There are no secrets from God.

 

The good news, though, is that God also knows every good thing we do as well, even the things we might think don’t amount to much.

 

Usually, anything significant that we do, we do for half a dozen different reasons, and we might worry that most of them are bad reasons.

 

Nevermind, if one of the reasons is good, God knows about that one too.

 

And the very good news indeed is that while we all have things we’re ashamed of, we also all have things we can be proud of, even if they’re very small, even maybe secret.

 

If we admit our mistakes, are properly sorry, and say so, God will always forgive us.

 

The abundance of the harvest may vary from year to year, but the abundance of God’s generosity, his grace, his willingness to forgive, are limitless, and that is something to truly give thanks for, and praise the Lord.

 

Amen

​

Listen to the Gospel of Christ according to St Luke   (17.11-19)

    Glory to you, O Lord.

 

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.  As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

    When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean.

    Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.  He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

    Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?  Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"

    Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." 

 

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

    Praise to you, O Christ.

 

Lord of the harvest, with joy we have offered thanksgiving for your love in creation and have shared in the bread and the wine of the kingdom:  by your grace plant within us such reverence for all that you give us that will make us wise stewards of the good things we enjoy, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

    Amen.