HARVEST.
Come to me, Jesus said. Come to me all you that are weary, and carrying heavy burdens, come to me, and I will give you rest.
Come to me, Jesus said. But come to be like a little child, for truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
Come to me, Jesus. But come as a child: open, openminded, openhearted, trusting, loving and kind.
Often, we approach Jesus as who and what we are: grownups, who have seen the world and knows real life. Often, we approach Jesus and matters of faith, like grownups changed by time and marked by cynicism, realism, and pessimism. Often, we approach life and its abundance of blessings, with indifference, entitlement or simple lack of gratitude. Often, too often, we do not listen to the simple and profound call by Jesus: Come to me but come to me as a child.
I remember when Kristian’s was a little boy, still being carried in my arms and still with wide open blue eyes to the world. Al the small and great wonders of the life, that he was just about to jump into.
We had a small mobile hanging in one of the windows of the parsonage. A mobile with small yellow chickens, dancing around in a circle whenever a draft caused them to dance. Soren and I had been pointing a the mobile for a while, with surprise and childlike awe every time we passed it…. asking “Where are the chickens???” So, question and reaction. Question and pure joy when Kristian pointed with surprise and awe. Again, and again. In the middle of this little game that I am sure many many parents have played with the kids, there was an extra layer of awe and experience.
Because what became more and more exiting in this adventitious odyssey, was if the chickens were there when he could see them. From the kitchen he looked through the door, stretched his little neck, and screamed with much higher joy: “Mom, they are there. The chickens are still there… even if I could not see them,”
This great childish joy and exploration of life is always wonderful to witness and should always be a reminder to us, the grownup, the adults, the educated, the sceptic, on how to approach life.
Maybe not with a daily shout of joy when we see our husband in the morning, or a clap in our hands when we look at the orange tree, - but then again: why not? Because we tend to forget, we tend to forget to remember hos awesome creation is, how precious life is and how wonderful love is even if you have been married for 30 years.
As we grow older the contentment, the routines and everyday life seems to remove the simple joy and awe that we witness with our children.
When Kristian got older and found his first words, he could repeat and repeat those words whenever he saw a dog or a tractor. The first couple of times, we thought it was fun ad cute, but then we lost patience and thought: Yeah, yeah, it is a dog, so what? Show me something new and exciting.
This kind of childish excitement and joy transforms into a more subtle approach, and we become less exited, less amazed and less appreciative.
Come to me, Jesus said.
And so, we come to church today, to harvest service, and we sing all these beautiful harvest hymns about fields of gold, filled barns, gratitude and thankfulness.
We listen to the praise from the old Psalm:
O Lord, how majestic is hour name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens.
When I look at your heavens, the word of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have establish: what are human beings that you are mindful of them?
Our annual Harvest Service should be our annual Gratitude Reminder. It should be our annual gratitude of not only the daily bread on our tables and for all that summer and nature provided, but also for everything we did not get. This Harvest Service reminds us that life is not built on rights or entitlements, but life is sustained by the gifts. By everything we have received.
Our church reformer Martin Luther wrote in his Small Catechisms:
Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
All that I have. All that we have, we owe to God. And we owe each other to share what has been given: the love we received; the home we made; the garden, we tended; the children we were blessed with, the sunrise and the view we never got tired of.
Sometimes we need to be reminded of how much we were given and how much we can give.
Sometimes we need to be reminded that we are still a little child in the eyes of God: a child who he calls upon, cares about and blesses to live an abundant life in an amazing creation where the heartbeat is gratitude, humility, love and forgiveness.
Sometimes we need to be reminded or to find out way again, into the simplicity of being a child: open, caring, trusting, loving and amazed.
I read an interview last week about a Danish author Jens Christian Grondahl, whose faith as a child was nourished by loving grandparents, but with time and adolescence and adulthood was maltreated, forgotten and even ridiculed. But then he became a father in a second marriage, and his wife did not back know when she wanted their son baptized. So, he reluctantly went along, - and this was to be the way into a seeking faith and attitude, that led him to become the chair of his local church council.
This sentence stood out to me:
“Faith is a question about to be the one, that receives, the one who kneels, and the one who is forgiven.”
”Tro er et spørgsmål om at være den, der tager imod, den, der knæler og den, der bliver tilgivet,” siger forfatter Jens Christian Grøndahl
Gratitude for what has been given: daily bread, sunrises, family, friends, home, dinners, neighbors, freedom and crisp apples: a gratitude that can only make us kneel in humility and awe. But also, a gratitude for the forgiveness, the second chances, the new beginnings, the fresh starts and the healing touch.
That is what we give thanks for.
And when we do, we come to Jesus as a little child for it is to such as us that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly whoever does not receive the kingdom of life, the blessings of life, the abundance of creation, the forgiveness of sins, the promise of yet another sunrise, as a little child will never enter it.
Simple Gifts
The smell of the bush after some rain,
the desert in flower on a red plain,
the coming of sleep after much pain.
For gifts simple and profound,
we thank you, Lord of Harvest.
The sound of waves along the shore,
the children’s laugher as they explore,
the promise of love for evermore:
For gifts simple and profound,
we thank you, Lord of Love.
The sight of majestic swans on a calm lake,
the taste of summer in a fruit cake,
travelling by faith after a mistake:
For gifts simple and profound,
we thank you, Lord of Mercy.
The scent of green grass from the cut lawn,
the pure-white blossom on a rough thorn,
the return of hope with a new dawn:
For gifts simple and profound,
we thank you, Lord of the Day.
The yellow chicken dancing in the sun
The seeds that are sown one by one
The children’s amazement when they run
For gifts simple and profound
We thank you, Lord of Life
The fragrance of bread just freshly made,
the brimming cup sipped in the shade,
the pardon of debts never repaid:
For gifts simple and profound,
we thank you, Lord of Harvest.