A Harvest sermon (see also Matt 6.25-33, 1 Tim 6.6-10)
Can I start off by saying Happy Birthday to me! I think of Harvest as my Birthday and today is my 4th birthday, and the start of my 5th year.
A little while back, when I was about 20, I got my first car. A Renault 5. And I took it for a drive from Ipswich to Southampton to show it off to my university friends, and on my way back up the M11 towards my sister in Cambridge, the engine so over heated that it blew a hole in the gasket. I pulled over and waited for the AA man to arrive. I reached into my bag to pull out a book to pass the time and my hand found the Book of Common Prayer. It fell open at the funeral page and my eyes read – “We brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out, blessed be the name of the Lord”. Mostly that is a verse taken from our reading in 1st Timothy 6.
This isn’t a sermon about being nostalgic about our first cars, this is a sermon about living a fruitful life – the aim is to live and love generously.
So here’s four points. 1. Seek. 2. First. 3 The Kingdom and 4. God’s Righteousness.
In our Gospel we heard Jesus teaching us not to worry. This is not easy advice to follow. You’re walking across a tightrope and someone says ‘Don’t look down!’ You’re going to look down.
But if actually you spend your time focussing on something else then that’s going to help.
St Peter starts to walk on the water, but when he looks at the wind and the waves and its only then that he starts to sink. Focus on Jesus and you’ll be alright.
Jesus says ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness’.
The Seek bit – that’s point one – there’s a proactive step to be taking here. Instead of waiting for the meaning of life to come to you, instead of waiting for miracles, Jesus is calling us to get out there and be a blessing where we can. Go seek out where Jesus is blessing and be a part of that. Get involved, volunteer, and all that.
Point one is SEEK. Point 2 is FIRST. Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness.
I’m quite busy doing lots of things so would it be okay if, before I seek God’s kingdom, if I did something else on my to do list?
The first letter that St Paul wrote to Timothy picks up on this. Here in Ch 6 St Paul is helping us to see that if our worry is our insecurity, and we interpret that as financial insecurity, then that’s going to exacerbate our worry, because when do you get to say ‘I now have enough money to live the life I’d like to live?’ When do I have enough to say ‘okay now I am ready to help others, be a blessing to others?’
So we have this famous phrase: Money is the root of evil.
Of course that’s not what the bible says. And I hope that as I said it you thought – Hang about! That’s not right.
The bible says it’s the Love of money that’s the root of all kinds of evil. Money isn’t evil.
I used to have a book entitled: You need more money! It was a brilliant book all about money, and God, about how God has given us so much, our skills and talents and passions and opportunities, so that all the money that we have, that’s actually God’s money. So when we look at our money and think about how we use it, spend it, give it away – that’s all God’s money that we’re spending. Its all God’s.
But if you seek first Money and its kingdom and its sense of right – then you’re going to get in a mess. What will it cost your soul? What will you lose in your search for more?
Jesus says ‘Don’t worry about that, but Seek first God’s kingdom’.
Putting God first – yes, that is about how you give money to the Church – over there is a Parish Giving Scheme PGS form – putting our Giving to God first – has an really good effect on your own spiritual and mental health – try it. The only cure to feeling that the fear of money is controlling you – is to give some away.
By putting God first you then shape everything else. If the bible or prayer is the first thing you do when you wake up, as opposed to, say Looking at Facebook, the News and the different Wars in the world, your emails and the different demands people have on your life –
IF your starting point is the reminder of God’s love for you, His call on your life, His blessings that He’s given you – If you can start your day with a little bit of Jesus then that will set you up nicely for the day.
SO
Point one is Seek – be proactive –
Point two is Seek First – don’t put God lower down the to do list because you’ll never get there. Start the day with a little prayer, Good Morning Lord!- start with a little bible – start your shopping list by giving some money to God –
Point three is Seek First the Kingdom of God.
Jesus seems to spend a lot of time telling us not to be worried about what we should wear or eat or drink.
I don’t think that here in this context he’s preaching to the refugees.
I would understand a Refugee, a homeless person, being genuinely worried about what they might wear, where they might get their next meal from. That makes sense.
I don’t think Jesus is telling them not to worry about food. But if Jesus told us not to worry about food and clothes – then perhaps we might have a little to spare for the homeless, and the refugee.
So here we are celebrating Harvest. The Tins and so on we gather here they go off to Family Support Work (is that right?!). And that is helping to build a little of God’s kingdom here by lightening the load, helping to carry the burdens that others carry.
A good harvest sermon should remind you to pause and appreciate all of Creation. Stop and smell the flowers. Consider the lilies of the field, look to the birds of the air.
We have had fox cubs earlier in the year playing in our garden. And its great to just sit and watch them playing with each other.
So a good harvest sermon should encourage you to look to creation and remember our duty to be good stewards of it.
It’s tricky when plenty of, particularly young people, suffer from Climate Anxiety. It’s that feeling that we’re not doing enough. And that’s extra tricky when you see how very busy the rest of the world seems to be with different Wars and causing refugees.
We don’t seem to have time for thinking about how to stop ourselves from melting our planet.
Jesus doesn’t want our anxiety to be paralysing, but by focussing on Him, if we were to actually Seek First God’s Kingdom – then that should energise us to strive for good stewardship of the bit of God’s Kingdom that we are responsible to God for.
So points one two and three are – Seek. First. God’s Kingdom.
And fourthly – His Righteousness. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.
This last bit – this is about how we relate to God, and how we treat each other.
Paul in his letter to Timothy has this odd remark about how ‘Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs’.
In seeking money first, not seeking God first, that’s been their first mistake, but there’s an unintended consequence here of pain and grief.
I’m not quite sure what Paul is particularly getting at.
I was talking to someone a little while back – he’d been offered two jobs – one paid quite a lot more – but with it would come a lot more stress, and a lot less time – and he said ‘That’s not for me’.
The cost of that other job to the rest of his month was too much.
I didn’t tell him but he was, sort of, Seeking First God’s Kingdom and His Righteousness.
We’ve just finished a series on the letter to James, so you know that Righteousness is more than just you and God being Okay. Being Right with God is about how you live your life of faith and showing that in the way that you treat other people.
Paying people on time. Not rushing to anger, but being quick to listen. Not just wishing someone to be warm but doing something about it.
That’s what it means to live the Righteous life.
So Seek – be proactive about it
Seek First – the first thing you do in your day – a quick prayer – Morning Lord, Where are we going today!
Seek First God’s Kingdom – and His Righteousness – and we see that in the way that we live and love generously, blessing God with all that God has given us, and living out His call upon our lives
So I sat by my broken car pondering that verse – We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out – life is short – so lets use it to make a difference, to be a blessing, and living out that life will help you with your worry and anxiety.
So Seek First the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. Amen. //