Harvest Season

The scripture passages for these Sundays of the fall offer rich imagery of the fruits of the earth and an abundant harvest.   When the crops mature and ripen, its time to gather that abundance to sustain us through the year.  When the goodness that Creation offers overflows, then the overflowing goodness of God is the theological narrative we follow.

Congregations follow this narrative not only because its fall but because its stewardship season. The fruits of the earth lead us to reflect on the fruits of God's goodness in our lives.  The overflowing richness that is more than can feed us for this moment is meant first to be shared and second to be carefully tended to sustain us through the year.  We are invited to view our lives as that abundant harvest and return a portion to benefit all God's people.

Yet, as far as I know there is no one in my congregation who has direct experience with a harvest.  No one grows vast expanses of grape, or apples, or pumpkins, or wheat.  No one works long months to tend the fields then only to have a few weeks and hopes for good weather conditions to gather in the crop.

Instead, we live in a world where there is intense competition for the  produce of our lives.  How, where, and when our money is spent is a  daily if not hourly decision. The choices are abundant but so are the decisions.

So, it is often my experience when the church asks members to be careful tenders of their abundance and share, what members hear is not an invitation but another place of competition.  "The church is always asking for money" is the response.  Well, maybe, if the teaching to be harvesters and stewards is just another place to spend.

The invitation to stewardship is to go deeper.  Not just to share financial resources with God's people and the members of your congregation but as an individual, a household, to be intentional, proactive, thoughtful about how you share.  To think, and reflect, and pray so that money decisions are made not based on competition but on what you value.  To view money decisions as at least a year long plan so that the intense competition is not what makes the decision.

Its a challenge to live intentionally. Its a challenge to ask ourselves what is important enough to sustain over months and years. Its a challenge locate ourselves in the narrative of harvest and God's abundance when we live in a world of moment to moment. Its a challenge that as Christians we are all asked to embrace.