Sermon preached at the Harvest Festival at the Kokotos Winery – 22nd October 2023: DEUTERONOMY 8: 7-18, LUKE 12: 16-30.

Deacon Christine Saccali

 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts always be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord our redeemer Amen

Well, we’ve already sung the all-essential harvest hymn We Plough the Fields and Scatter, we remember from harvest festivals of years gone by, with gusto but actually how connected are we all to the land and the food it produces to sustain us? How do we connect to God our Creator through Rogation and planting and harvesting process?

Have a look at the beautiful poster below by Hannah Dunnet, an artist and writer of reflections, this picture is inspired by fields in Yorkshire. A picture paints a thousand words. She incorporates scripture verses into her pictures. I can look at them for ages. I particularly love the contrast of the planted and fallow areas here and the lie and curve of the land. Do come up and study it for yourselves later.

 

I was preparing this sermon during the storm Elias a few weeks after the destructive storm Daniel which wiped out the crops in Magnesia and the Thessaly plain for the foreseeable future. How do we as individuals, communities and the wider country and world react to the climate emergency surrounding us and now affecting us. We cannot turn a blind eye – after all we are the first generations who cannot say we don’t know. Are we just alarmed at rising prices of fruit, vegetables and the knock-on effect on goods in the supermarket? Do we stop to really think about the producers and farmers or have we come to expect to see and obtain all produce available all year round? Do we think of the common good or our own wants before that of feeding the world?

Speaking earlier this month at the Catholic Synod in Venice on St Francis of Assissi day,  Pope Francis appealed to climate change deniers and foot dragging politicians to have a change of heart and for the Church to be an influencer.’ He blamed the western lifestyle in the document that was published ahead of COP 23 conference in Dubai.

 

I live in Kapandriti a village about 15km from here to the other side of Lake Marathon. I am surrounded by fields, olive groves and vineyards. We do not have a laiki, a street market, because most people grow their own fruit and veg. or buy local produce from roadside stalls . We live seasonally as far as we can. We are fortunate but we all have choices still and we need to choose, think, eat, shop and campaign wisely. Last week I was on Archdeaconry Synod in Bucharest and I was reminded  how lucky we are here to have olives, oil, tomatoes and a rich selection of fruit and vegetables in their season.

Not so fortunate are all the people who were displaced, lost homes and livelihoods in the floods last month after the fires that devastated Evros in Northern Greece. And yet we know there was far less loss of life and buildings than in, say, Libya. Yet every loss in war or disaster is precious to us and to God numbers cannot be compared every loss of life is single every person made in the image of God.

So what we can do is campaign for better use of funding and an end to building on flood plains and river estuaries and we can use our right to vote well. In 1962 Lake Carla was drained on the Thessaly plain to make room for more fields and crops to be grown. In Storm Daniel the water came rushing back in to claim the natural state of affairs.

 

One of the phrases I kept hearing during the flooding from people who were affected or lived in the affected areas was “den ta vaseis me ton theo” or “den ta vaseis me tin fisi”. You can’t blame God or nature. How much though are they one and the same if we believe in the Creator and Creation. And what of us this Harvest time? Can a dramatic thirst in us for the planet to be restored to the glory of God motivate us to change our behaviour and return to God and the wholeness he intended for all Creation? All of us know that the harvest we are celebrating here is precariously in the balance. This year more than ever we are feeling the effects of war, over- farming and fishing, plus global warming on food production and the well-being of the Earth.

How do our scripture readings tie into all this?  In Deuteronomy we learn that God always intended His people to inherit a land of milk and honey/ meli gala and one filled with abundance for all. It is humankind that has messed up the environment big time and keep on doing so with the poor getting poorer and the rich richer and desperate to preserve their lifestyle at the expense of others.

What does a land of milk and honey look like today? A peaceful land with no violence or threat of natural disaster.  A reflection of God’s provision and abundance for everyone where there is no need to fear or hoard. In other words, a safe place, a refuge.

In the parable of the barns, one of my favourites which I once wrote a modern version of for an assignment, we see that hoarding is futile and not intended by God, we brought nothing into this world and can take nothing out.

 

All in the end is Harvest.  A great part of my ministry has become funerals whether burials or cremation and what I see again and again is that no one knows the time and place but the important thing is to live for oneself and the environment to one’s God filled potential respecting and loving ourselves and others within the created world.

Why is caring for Creation so important? Because we are not separated from the created world but a part of it. Because it is the way cared designed the world to work and us to live in with respect and responsibility: as part of a healthy, integrated natural system working with it not against it. The bible draws our attention to it again and again, inviting us to learn from God’s good intentions and abundance for all. Our own well-being collectively and individually hinges on this recognition and cooperation. We need to learn from the fires, floods and wars and play our part not just once a year at Harvest to bring along a few dried and tinned goods but to campaign for lasting change for the well-being of the planet, ourselves and future generations.   AMEN