Reflections on the harvest

The Revd Canon Sue Binks reflects on this busy time of year in the farming community.

Hoorah!! It is harvest time again!! There you are, hurtling through the lanes in your car on some mission of huge national importance, muttering venomously at cyclists in helmets shaped like wasps’ bottoms, inconsiderate enough to want a bit of your road (and hoping they can’t lip-read), rounding a bend and coming up behind the ponderous majesty of a tractor and trailer.

On closer inspection over the next ten minutes, you conclude that it is a convoy of three tractors and two trailers, and the glory of the aforementioned ponderous majesty begins to wear thin! Hoorah. It is harvest time again.

And I would wager a considerable sum that most of us do not, at this point, start singing songs of everlasting thanks and praise to our great God for his generous provision or blessing the farmers for the work they do to put food on our plates!

The harvest challenge

So here is your challenge for harvest and beyond. I’ve learned to do it; anyone can do it if I can manage it. If you get stuck on your travels behind a tractor or a combine or a plough or any other mysteriously shaped implement of the sod (by which I mean, of course, the soil!), take it as an opportunity for reflection, for thanksgiving and praise.

Why should you bother? Firstly, praising God for what he gives us should become a matter of habit in all of us. Secondly, as a nation, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the farmers who are taken totally for granted by most of us who have become emotionally and practically detached from the source of our food.

Don’t curse – reflect and say a prayer.

We cannot and must not take national food security for granted. Climate change and population growth make producing enough grain for the world’s needs more challenging. Global markets will sell to the highest bidder regardless of need. Political mismanagement and the power of global enterprise in the inherently local food production business are putting countless family farms out of business.

So, when you get stuck behind that tractor, take a deep breath, smile, and wave at the farmer, asking for God’s blessing on his or her family and work. Reflect on our corporate relationship to food and the land as the God-given source of all our well-being, and praise God from whom all blessings flow.

The Family Harvest Thanksgiving Service and Supper

The Coffee Shop and Nunnington Church are combining forces once more to host the Village Harvest Thanksgiving Gathering and Bring and Share Supper at The Courtyard at 5 pm on Sunday 20th, October.

The Gathering is the opportunity to give Thanksgiving to the Harvest Gathered Home and to thank our farming community for their hard work, expertise, and faithfulness. We will build an Altar out of bales and decorate the Courtyard with seasonal produce and flowers.

We will sing lustily the traditional and new Harvest Hymns and then eat together as the sun goes down – a time for the whole village to come together, whatever your age. We are thankful for all that the farmers provide. There will be a collection for the work of the Farming Community Network – and its work to support the Farming Community in these challenging times.

We look forward to welcoming you all.

Rev’d Canon Sue Binks, Vicar.

Nunnington Harvest Thanksgiving Festival 2024

Click on the links below for details of the Thanksgiving Service and Bring & Share supper

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