|
Sermon for Harvest
- Scarecrows - Michaelmas - Morning
Proper 21 - Trinity 18
Genesis 28. 10-17
John 1. 47-51
Wow, what a lot to celebrate today! Harvest and Scarecrows and
Michaelmas (or the feast of St Michael and all Angels - when
I was a little girl I used to think that had something to do
with Marks and Spencer!) Most importantly, we have seen again
this weekend what a community, a village, can be like at its
best. When it is pulling together and enjoying being together
and is made aware - when we are all made aware - just how very
blessed we are, living in this largely peaceful corner of South
Staffs.
And I know that several people are probably feeling just a bit
weary this morning after all the very hard work that has gone
in to making the church and the village look so spectacular.
But I am also aware how much enjoyment has gone into the manufacture
of our floral displays and wonderful scarecrows - from the highly
professional to the somewhat strange and misshapen! It really
does not matter, because it has been wonderful to see and hear
how people's creative talents have been allowed to let rip! The
sheer ingenuity of your imaginations that surfaces when we do
this scarecrow thing fascinates me.
And today, flying above me is an angel .... although I think
she owes more to Michelle than to St Michael! ... But Michael
was, or is of course, the angel in charge of God's heavenly host
- the armies of heaven. So he maybe owes rather more to a Sergeant
Major type than the ethereal being that floats above me here!
Who can tell me what an angel looks like?
Well, I am afraid that if you
try to find a description in the Bible, you will struggle.
Because for Jewish people ( and our Bible is for the most part
written by Jewish people) Angels had no physical body or appearance
at all - they were merely spiritual beings. And I know that you
will tell me that in Isaiah or Ezekiel there are descriptions
of 6-winged beings standing around the throne of God, these are
not your straight forward Angel. Those were the Seraphim and
Cherubim ... the guardians of the Ark.
If pushed, I suspect that Jesus might have said that Angels have
no wings. That most angels look much like you or like me. Because
the word angel simply means a messenger - but in this case a
messenger of God. And who carries messages from God? Well, often
it is ordinary people, going about their daily affairs and completely
oblivious to the effect that their actions or words might be
having on someone else that day. But in doing so they are indeed
ascending and descending to and from God's presence. So who wants
to be an Angel?
I would hope we all do. That we would all like to think that
somewhere, somehow we can show other people a little bit of God's
love and care for his world ... that we can be his messengers,
his angels. So whether or not you happen to be wearing any article
of clothing with 'St Michael' written on it (!) - I think that
might just be too much information for a Sunday morning! You
can all think of yourself as part of God's Army. Placed here
to give messages for God to those around you.
I think all our children who brought such lovely harvest gifts
here on Friday [and this morning] were angels acting for God.
And I am absolutely sure that the people at the Food Bank run
by the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd will think so too!
One final thought about fig trees. Now I happen to know that
one or two people here have fig trees growing in your gardens...
I know this because last week I was lucky enough to taste a fresh
fig for the first time - so much nicer than the dried variety
we always had to have at Christmas time when I was little! And
we were told this morning, that Jesus first saw Nathaniel sitting
under a fig tree. Why a fig tree? Well, there was an ancient
saying in Israel that when God's kingdom was truly established,
when the Messiah had come, every man would sit under his own
fig tree and enjoy the fruit of his own vine - in other words,
it would be a time of prosperity, peace and joy and hunger (which
could be a very real condition for people in the ancient world)
would be banished. Today we often have the opposite problem of
course. Too many of us, rather than be hungry, suffer from having
an over-abundance of good things to eat. And the array of cakes
available in the Village Hall this weekend has been a delicious
reminder of this!
But our hunger, where it exists, is often for the more spiritual
things of life. People are still hungry to learn of God's message
and his words and purpose for them - even when they do not realise
it!
So while we give thanks for our rich and abundant Harvest - and
thank God that we have enough to share with those who are much
less fortunate than we are, so too we look for God's messengers,
his angels (very few of whom will ever have wings!) to satisfy
the deeper hunger of our souls and minds.
May you find this day prosperity, peace and joy as you continue
to enjoy our Scarecrow Festival ... if not under your own fig
tree, then because of the encounter you might have in your home
or community with one of God's angel messengers this day.
Amen.
|
