What are Harvest Festivals all about?

Deuteronomy 26:1–11, Matthew 6:25–33

Harvests are fragile times. Will there be enough to eat and still to plant for next year? OK – yes be thankful when everything comes right, but what about when the harvest fails? What about droughts and floods? And how does our celebration of harvest work in with the new UN sustainable development goals? The passage from Deuteronomy is about giving thanks for harvest, but more than that, it’s about recognising the God who has led the people out of captivity, a life of death and hopelessness, into freedom in the promised land. Does that sound familiar at all? And when Matthew speaks about not being anxious about food and clothing, it’s in the context of placing our trust, our priority on God, who cares for all of creation. The world has enough for us all. It can be a safe space for us all, despite its fragility. But we need to believe that all of creation matters and every person within that. And if we believe it, then live it. Maybe that’s what the Harvest Festivals we celebrate in our churches are really all about.