Harvest of Hope

Today we celebrated our harvest festival at St Martin's. Harvest has always been on of my favourite festivals right back to the time when I was a child. For many years my family lived in a small village in West Cumbria called Gosforth, where my dad was the local minister. One of his churches was the tiny church of St Olaf's, nestled at the foot of Scafell Pike and Great Gable in Wasdale Valley. In Wasdale Head there are only a few farms, a hotel and a shop (which caters for the many walkers who visit this remote and stunningly beautiful valley). Harvest Festival in St Olaf's was always special, the church was always simply decorated, and the produce wasn't prepacked stuff, but potatoes, turnips and carrots taken straight from the fields, with the soil still clinging on to them. Because farmers made up a significant part of the congregation, as a service it always had such a special feel.

I still love Harvest, although living as I do in a large urban conurbation, very few if any of the people in the church earn their living from the land, and this year rather than collecting food stuffs, we collected toiletries, which we are going to send to Bulgaria.

Harvest, as well as an opportunity to give thanks to God for all the good things we enjoy, is an opportunity to reflect upon those people around the world who do not have the things we take for granted. This year we focused on the work of Tearfund who are supporting the Yanapanakuna project which is helping the Quechua people of Bolivia build better lives for themselves. Living high up in the beautiful but inhospitable Andes the Quechua people have struggled for generations to survive on this hard terrain. With a diet consisting mostly of potatoes and wheat, malnutrition is rife, and 20% of children die before the age of one. Now with the help of Tearfund, the Quechua people are being taught how to build greenhouses and grow vegetables to improve their diet, as well as receiving spiritual support. This simple project, is transforming lives (for further information go to http://www.teafund.org)

Our reading from Isaiah this morning reminded us that we all have a responsibility to care for the poor and needy, where ever they may be. "I'll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused! Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share your home with the poor and homeless. Give clothes to those in need; don't turn away your relatives." (Isaiah 58:6-7)

In Britain we face problems of obesity, and over consumption, and so it is good for us to remember our obligation to those less fortunate than ourselves, and to be wise stewards of the resources God has given to us. For far too long, the developed world has been guilty of squandering and misusing the world's resources, and exploiting the developing world. This can no longer continue. I for one am delighted to see the growth in fairly traded goods filling our shops, and rising consumer awareness about how the choices we make every time we go shopping can affect others on the other side of the world. God in his wisdom created a world with enough resources for everyone, it is about time we started sharing these resources more fairly and making a better world for all people. For us in the developed world, this means being prepared to take hard choices, about what our priorities are and how we spend our money, but it is worth it, if we are to build a world based on justice and equality for all.