Farming Community Network www.fcn.org.uk
Harvest Service Flecknoe 27th September 2020
First Reading: Deuteronomy 8 v 7-18. Second Reading: Luke 12 v 13-31.
As we approached my retirement last year my wife, Jane, and I had some bit decisions to make about a whole raft of issues.
The Church of England have a good pension scheme, especially if you can get in all the required years for full benefits. Therefore, I worked on until I was 68 because I was able to negotiate an extension on my contract with the Lichfield Diocese.
One of the issues was how to take the benefits. Lump sum, monthly allowance, or an admixture. One of the things we kept bumping into is simply not knowing how long I might live so we could forward plan accordingly. I have x number of years and so we will require x amount of income.
The farmer we meet in the parable Jesus told is not thinking about mortality. He has a cash crop which he hopes to realise so that he can takes his ease, maybe early retirement.
But having made his plans everything comes crashing down around his ears and another harvester appears on the scene, the grim reaper.
I often end my emails if I am making plans to meet someone or be somewhere with Deo Volente or DV for short. This is Latin for ‘God willing’ and we find the idea in Proverbs 27.1 ‘Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.’
It is particularly fleshed out in James 4:13-17
‘You should know better than to say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!” What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. You should say, “If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things.” Yet you are stupid enough to brag, and it is wrong to be so proud. If you don’t do what you know is right, you have sinned.
Now I do not think for one moment this, or Jesus’ parable, or the encouragement to learn lessons from birds and lilies is saying we should not plan.
At the moment the farming industry is facing massive changes and there are many challenges ahead. The variable weather we have had over the past year has meant that for many it will be an extremely poor harvest. Added to the challenges of Covid-19 which has closed many of the outlets in the service industry. Just imagine the milk that Costa alone uses across the country every day. Most of that gone in a stroke. Ahead, there is the massive uncertainty of Brexit, a new Agricultural Bill, new technology and a real push from the green lobby. This is to be welcomed and indeed it is by most farmers. But as I heard recently you can’t turn green if you are in the red.
The FCN is a little like the Emergency Services. We hope we are not needed but need to be ready to respond should the case arise. We have linked up with several other farming charities and have a raft of measure being rolled out over a five-year period. We have a strategy.
One of these initiatives is called ‘Time to Plan’ where we hope to help farmers plan for all the changes. Particularly those running small farms or who are elderly. For them quite often the technology and everything being on-line is often baffling.
Simply put, a failure to plan is a plan to fail. Most of my ministry was spent as an itinerant evangelist helping churches draw up Mission Action Plans.
So, no I don’t think planning is in itself a bad thing and as I said, I don’t think that is the point Jesus is making.
It is when, like a big barn builder, we take God out of the equation. When we think this is all down to me. When we think look at what I have achieved. Now it is time to reward myself as I have got an abundance all laid up and waiting. Now I can take it easy; eat drink and be merry.
Perhaps what our friend had failed to do recently was to read something like the story we heard from Deuteronomy…
‘When you become successful, don’t say, “I’m rich, and I’ve earned it all myself.” Instead, remember that the Lord your God gives you the strength to make a living. That’s how he keeps the promise he made to your ancestors.’
And aware of the danger of trying to milk too much out of this parable (bad pun I know, but it is a harvest service) might we ask should this big barn builder have lived, would he have been able to relax? What about a volatile grain market, what about theft, what about natural disasters?
If he is reliant on himself to make money, he then has the anxiety of keeping it. St Francis who embraced Lady Poverty said, if you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. That was a challenge to his 13th century and remains a challenge for us in the 21st century.
Have we really got our priorities right?
Are we following to much the patterns and precepts of the society around us?
One of the largest number of cases the FCN handle is health and in particular mental health issues. We know, sadly, that on average one farmer a week takes their own life.
Those who are farmers here today don’t need me to tell you about the enormous stress involved in farming. Yet, despite that I have met no end of farmers for whom farming is not about making money and building bigger barns. They want to make a living, yes, but it is as much a vocation as anything else.
However, however, however,
if we heed Jesus words carefully. And if we read our Scriptures aright, all of
our Scriptures that is, we learn that always and forever and, in all
circumstances, underneath, undergirding and upholding are the everlasting arms
of God.
Today we come specially to give thanks for all the good gifts around us, and to be reminded that all good gifts are sent from heaven above, or better put from God.
Don’t keep worrying about having something to eat or drink. Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father knows what you need.
Bear in mind that Jesus is speaking here to people who lived at, or even below, subsistence level. Many of whom would have only the clothes they stood up in and eked out a precarious living.
The big question for those first hearing Jesus saying this and for us also, is, do we trust that our heavenly Father will provide for all our needs?
As I have said, I do not think we are to simply pull up a chair and have a few beers outside a brand-new big barn for our friends last night and leave God to provide.
You may have heard the story of the vicar walking his patch and stopping to admire someone’s garden. The vicar said to the person whose garden it was, isn’t God’s work wonderful. To which came the reply, ‘well I’m not so sure about that. You should have seen this garden when God had it all to himself.’
We are called to participate and to partnership with God. That story is outlined in the opening passages of Genesis and the vocation of the first human couple to partner with God. To tend the garden and make it fruitful and multiply.
That God given vocation to humanity remains the same.
However, we must remain faithful and learn to trust in God’s goodness. Not to say, look at what I have achieved and what my hands has brought about.
We make our plans carefully and prayerfully. We learn to trust in the goodness of God. We learn to be thankful for all of God’s good gifts and to say thank you. Especially can I make a plea we get back into the habit of saying grace before meals, even if we are out in a social distanced pub setting. We learn that today, each moment, each breath, is a gift, a precious gift, so let’s not squander it but embrace it for what it is.
Above all and most importantly of all…
Let’s seek God’s kingdom first - and then, these things will be ours as well.
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