Come you thankful people come, raise the song of harvest home.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
Somehow these phrases roll off the tongue at this time of the year. And why not! It is absolutely right and proper to give thanks to God for the blessings of the Harvest – of both land and sea - and for the food we have to eat day by day.
Our thanksgiving, as Christians, must not only be in word, but in deed as well – it is no use saying “Thank you” to someone but then ignoring them – if we say “Thank you” we must also express our thanks in real and concrete ways.
There are many things we can do – for instance we can ensure that we support our farmers by buying local produce whenever this is a possibility and by encouraging local shopkeepers to stock local produce whenever they can. We can write letters to politicians and others letting them know how we feel and how their policies, - on general issues such as education, transport, health care and affordable housing - or their lack of them, affect the quality of life in the countryside - for there is, indeed, a very close connection between the state of agriculture in our land today and the general state of life in rural Britain.
You will know that the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is a Fair Trade Diocese, which strives for a better deal for all producers in the developing world.
And of course this is something that each one of us can support by the way we select our food in the local shops and supermarkets.
We may not see the harvest of such apparently quite small gestures, we may only be sowing seeds that future generations will reap the benefit of – but is this not also part of our vocation as Christians – we are called to “work for the good of all” not just for our own benefit – we could say “not even for our own benefit”.
To quote TS Eliot from his Choruses from the Rock:
All men are ready to invest their money
But most expect dividends.
I say to you: Make perfect your will.
I say: take no thought of the harvest
But only of proper sowing.
Graham Owen