HARVEST PRAYER Gracious and Loving God, we praise you for all you have done and for all you have given. For shelves that are laden and cupboards that are full. For food available, varied, and affordable for taste and for flavour, for a healthy appetite and the means to satisfy it. For all that is symbolised in this Harvest Service. Creator and Sustainer of all, We thank and praise you. For Provider and Producer, God and farmer working together in harmony. For all in the food chain from field to factory, retailer to consumer, each one depending on the others. Creator and Sustainer of all, We thank and praise you. For our countryside; Fertile, diverse and beautiful, supplying so much of what we need; Our food, our water, crops for industry, energy and medicine. Source of our leisure, relaxation and renewal. Creator and Sustainer of all, We thank and praise you, In Jesus Name, Amen. |
It was entitled #Coronavirulearning. What the Covid Lockdown Taught us.
The rest of it read as follows:
The covid pandemic has been tough, especially with the lockdown and Working From Home. On this Teachers Day (which Is in fact tomorrow 5th Oct), we recap some of the lessons the virus has taught us.
1. Firstly we learned that in 2015, no-one got the answer right to the question “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
2. It takes a rare skill to work from home and still be late to work
3. The expression ‘avoid it like the plague’ needs to retire because people don't do that.
4. They said if we stop eating out, we’d lose weight. Quarantine showed us that was a lie.
5. We realised that our only hobbies were going out and spending money.
I think it is probably only in recent weeks, as restrictions are beginning to be re-imposed that most of us have begun to realise that Covid is going to be with us for longer than most of us had hoped or thought. When we were in lockdown, and many were watching Netflix, Britbox and baking cakes and buns, the hope was that it would all be over soon, especially if a vaccine could be produced in record time and the economy would bounce back and Christmas would go ahead as normal. A normal Christmas is looking more and more unlikely under current circumstances.
How quickly expectations have had to change as the UK along with many other parts of the world face a long and deep recession. Many people are beginning to pay the price with a loss of jobs and a very uncertain few years ahead.
As I wrote in the Harvest letter last month: What a year 2020 has turned out to be! And as Sir David Attenborough has continued to remind us, there is also a dark ecological and environmental cloud hanging over us, that if we do not make rapid changes, the covid crisis might feel like a light practice run.
But 2020 has not just been devastating for many on an economic level, but also on an emotional level. A year of uncertainty, isolation, changes, challenges, anxiety and anguish, and for many under these difficult circumstances, a year of grief, in which the normal rituals around grief and loss have been taken away and denied.
If I am honest, the uncertainty of 2020 has taken its toll on my own anxiety levels. Still living as a working-guest in the UK with a lot of loose ends left in South Africa and having family, tax and financial responsibilities in both countries with no absolute certainty yet of whether we will be welcome to stay on in the UK has left me and Wendy perhaps a little more anxious than we would normally be. For us the uncertainty at the moment remains theoretical. Daily life has largely continued fairly unchanged. But for others the uncertainty has become a lot more concrete where jobs have been lost and they may not even be sure if they will be able to meet their financial responsibilities at the end of the month.
In the midst of all that 2020 has meant to all of us, today we hear the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV - “...give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus...”
Greg Simas gives some thought provoking thoughts on this verse.
Firstly he says that in the verse we are encouraged to give thanks “in” all circumstances NOT “for” all circumstances. In Scripture, we are never told to give thanks FOR injustice or loss but to give things IN them.
Secondly, Greg Simas writes that “...I can give thanks IN all circumstances because God IS found in each one.”
We give thanks because every circumstance, whether it be victory or tragedy, loss or gain, joy or grief comes with the invitation and the possibility of discovering God, the Divine Presence, who is always with us and in whose presence we live and move and have our being. “Where can I escape from your Spirit. Where can I flee from your presence… If I go up to the heavens you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I say surely the darkness will hide me. Even there your right had will hold me for darkness is as light to you.” (Psalm 139). And in Psalm 23 even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. There are no God forsaken places or times in this world, even when it might feel like that is the case.
Thirdly, when we give thanks, it helps to remind us of the things that are still beautiful and good in this world. From primitive times, our brains have been programmed to alert us to danger. But this can often mean that we become blind to that which is still good and right in the world. We see only the bad and the negative. Giving thanks helps to bring balance to our brains tendency to focus on the negative.
As Greg Simas suggests, giving thanks in all circumstances can help to create hope, keeping our hearts and minds healthy, even in what are potentially very difficult times.
He writes: “The circumstances we face may be grim and our questions may go unanswered but if we give thanks in the middle of these circumstances we will come to know God in ways we could never imagine.”
As I wrote in the harvest letter this year, our annual Harvest Service remains an opportunity for us this year, even amidst the grief, uncertainty, isolation, changes, challenges anxiety and anguish, to give thanks for the goodness of the earth that nourishes us with her bounty; to give thanks for farmers, shopworkers and other key workers without whom, none of us would have food to survive; to give thanks for the mere fact of being alive, and for God’s Spirit of Life that continues to sustain the universe and world in which we live. Even in the moments of great darkness, there is still the invitation to find things we are grateful for.
I would like to close with a few questions for each of us to consider: Over the past 6 months, can you name one or two people that you have been especially grateful for? Can you name two events or memories over the past 6 months that you have been grateful for? Lastly, is there one thing in your current circumstances that you can be grateful for? Amen.