Harvest

            

Autumn Chillis

Dear fellow occasional ramblers,

Summer has come and almost gone. I hope you managed to enjoy a change of scene either in the form of a staycation or just a little break from regular routine, as a friend said to me recently just a couple of days spent not too far from home can actually be more refreshing than all the hassle of airports or busy motorways.

Looking out of my study window the trees are not yet quite ready to change colour but in the morning there is mist, lovely tiny sparkling dewy cobwebs on the lawn and blackberries in the hedges, a sure sign that autumn is on the way.

In our little community, there is much excitement about our village photographic exhibition. Everyone has been invited to send in 3 photos taken in our local area they can be landscapes or pictures of people or animals and then 12 will be chosen by popular vote to feature in our very own ‘Countryfile’ style calendar, with profits shared between our local church and village hall. I have been amazed at the number of entries and the interest in this project. Those who might have said I can’t take a photo or mine won’t be good enough because I’m not a professional photographer have send in their contributions and all of them are wonderful.

For me this season of harvest always seems special. A time of thanksgiving and celebration that all is safely gathered in. A time to show appreciation for the much-valued efforts of our farmers and producers, especially during this challenging year, and also a time to give thanks to God for the richness and beauty of creation.

This year our Harvest falls the day before the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. In recent years Francis has been championed by some as the patron saint of animal welfare, ecology and environmentalists. There are many pictures in story books and stained-glass windows of Francis preaching the gospel with a cute menagerie of furry, feathered and fishy creatures listening at his feet. He’s even credited with staging the first outdoor nativity play in a barn with real straw, real baby and real animals, people came from miles to see it. So, it’s tempting to take a rather sentimental view of him….

However, in truth Francis was a strange and rather intense young man, who rejected the demands and responsibilities of his wealthy family, much to the anger of his father, and went off to live very simply attracting a small group of followers around him. He was what we might call a prophet. He saw things that other people didn’t see, heard voices that other people couldn’t hear. If he walked into any of our churches right now, I think he’d set our alarm-bells ringing. Like Jesus, he saw the world with uncomplicated clarity and humility. He believed that we should pay attention to everything God has made, not just to people who need help but to every single thing around us.

Although I feel it would be wrong to read Francis as a modern day eco warrior, especially as many of the issues we currently face would have been completely unknown to him, there is still a great deal in his sense of reverence and thanksgiving which found its out-working in a care and respect for all living things which speaks to us across the centuries.

For Francis the beauty, colour and variety of creation was a source of constant wonder and led him to praise a creator who was greater than all these things.  It has been well said that the natural world was Francis’ cathedral, witnessing to God’s glorious abundance. 

Around 300 years earlier the Celtic philosopher, theologian and poet John Scotus Eriugena taught that Christ walks among us in 2 sandals The one sandal is Scripture the written word of God, the other sandal is creation. Eriugena was aware that some people who have never discovered God in the one have found him in the other.

In our modern day for some it can be tempting just to concentrate on creation and forget about the Scriptures and yet the great French microbiologist Louis Pasteur declared: “The more I study nature the more I stand amazed at the work of the creator.  Science brings men nearer to God.

So, maybe we need to re-discover the art of reading the 2 side by side so the one can inform the other and offer a different perspective. If you had suggested to Francis, he had to choose between the two ‘sandals’ I think he would have been very puzzled. Yet perhaps it has become more difficult for us to speak of God’s presence finding expression through the natural world in an age where some dismiss the idea of God completely.  Maybe we need to re-discover the creativity, imagination and simplicity to do so, the ability to stand back in wonder and awe without having to figure everything out. The psalmists wrote often of God’s glory perceived in creation and praised by celestial beings. In their timelessness the Scriptures remind us that the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth, all things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is a merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the earth he does to himself.¹

As we enjoy the beauty of autumn and creation in general, whether through getting out and about to explore or though fantastic natural life films like the Blue Planet series, this piece of wisdom is something we need to constantly keep at the forefront of our actions and our minds, so that future generations may enjoy it as well.

So, to conclude this harvest ramble a moment of reflection with a few local scenes celebrating the beauty of creation and then the words of a hymn by Shirley Erena Murray which we might chose to use as a prayer.

Touch the earth lightly,
use the earth gently,
nourish the life of the world in our care:
gift of great wonder,
ours to surrender,
trust for the children tomorrow will bear.

We who endanger,
who create hunger,
agents of death for all creatures that live,
we who would foster
clouds of disaster,
God of our planet, forestall and forgive!

Let there be greening,
birth from the burning,
water that blesses and air that is sweet,
health in God’s garden,
hope in God’s children,
regeneration that peace will complete.

God of all living,
God of all loving,
God of the seedling, the snow, and the sun,
teach us, deflect us,
Christ reconnect us,
using us gently and making us one.

© 1992 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188.
All rights reserved.

 ^{1. Chief Seattle}