Pastor Seth Hedman, Garwin Valley Community Church.

Sunday, November 17th at our church is Harvest Sunday, our annual giving Sunday, a celebration of God’s generosity over the previous year and an invitation to give generously back to God and His Church. Most churches have some form of a “giving Sunday,” but money can be a difficult topic, so I am thankful that this is a tradition that preceded me here. One of the reasons we changed the name to “Harvest Sunday” was to focus less on just the financials but on the overall theme of harvest and God’s generosity in our lives.

For our farmers, of course, this is harvest season, and our brunch can be a celebration that our grain farmers have (hopefully) finished and that it (hopefully) has been another good year. Harvest Sunday is a recognition that all of the grain and cattle and land are God’s to begin with, that His protection and provision are His generous gift to us, and we are called to respond in gratitude by giving back to Him. We don’t give back to God because He needs it, but as a thank you for His provision, and as a sacrifice of faith and trust that He will provide again.

But this kind of meaning for Harvest Sunday need not only apply to our farmers. No matter what your skills and occupation, they are a gift from God. The money we receive for our work is a representation of our time and labor, our very lives that we give in exchange for pay. So when we put money in the plate and it goes up on the altar, it is our time and labor, our very lives, going in the plate, going on the altar, being given to God. In the same way as the farmers, all of us are called to give back to God, to say “thank you” and “I trust you” to provide again.

Ultimately, therefore, the Harvest in Harvest Sunday is not merely about money, but about the Harvest of righteousness, of greater trust in God, greater gratitude, greater fruit of the Spirit in our lives, and greater fruit in our church. What are we harvesting as a church from the previous year? It is a harvest of evangelism, including 12 baptisms; a harvest of discipleship, including 9 catechumens pursuing adult confirmation; a harvest of worship, including growth in meaningful liturgy and expressive worship; and a harvest of new groups and new volunteers and new leaders and improved facilities.

In gardening, harvest-time also means seed collection, looking ahead to the next planting season with an eye to an even greater harvest. That’s why we give financially on Harvest Sunday, and to the church in general. In light of the God’s harvest in the church over the last year, we re-invest and re-commit, putting seeds back in the ground in faith for an even greater harvest in the future.

Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” Whatever may come in our town or nation this November, Jesus is still the Lord of the Harvest. The Kingdom of God and His Church marches onward. Summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, on earth as it is in heaven. Until that Day, the Great Harvest, when the reaper puts his hand to the scythe, even so come, for thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever and ever, Amen.