‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.’ Matthew 6:25-6
As we celebrate both Harvest and Creation Sunday this weekend, I find myself musing about what they have in common.
Thankfulness is certainly a shared theme. We come to church with gratitude for another harvest, ensuring - we trust - enough food for the coming year. Equally, we are grateful for God’s good creation, for the soil and the seasons which bring the ‘mellow fruitfulness’ of Autumn’s harvest.
Such provision from God is the subject of Jesus’ words here in Matthew’s Gospel, but there is much more to it than food. He says to us ‘do not worry about your life… or about your body.’ And he points to his creation, to birds and lilies, to illustrate his meaning.
Curiously, it is the creation that gets a bigger billing here than the harvest. In fact, Jesus positively discourages us from relying on our work, our ’sowing and reaping’, and our supermarket barns. Why? Because they can become substitutes for relying on God, which the birds and lilies do quite naturally of course.
So another common thread in our celebration of Harvest and Creation might be ‘dependence’. It is hard these days, when most of us do not till the soil for our food, to really depend on God for his daily and lifelong provision. Even as we celebrate Harvest, I wonder if we haven’t largely lost touch with what it means, God’s trustworthy care for us in the whole of life.
And what about Creation? Have we lost touch with that too? We are fortunate to live in a beautiful place, with access to the glories of nature such as Jesus describes, but how connected are we really? Do we pay attention to what is really going on in the natural world around us?
Jesus here in Matthew asks us specifically to notice Creation, all that he has made. What might we see and where might God lead us when we do?
Carolyn Scriven
September 17th 2024
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