Amos 5:6-7,10-15; Mark 10:17-31
Harvest Sunday
St Barbara’s 13.10.2024
Rev Jeremy Bevan
According to the internet, you can make 166 words from the letters of the word ‘harvest’ – quite a few of which I’ve never heard of. If anyone can tell me afterwards the meaning of ‘thraves’ the only 7-letter words you can make from ‘harvest’, I’ll be very impressed. And underpinning the ideas and images in that reading from the Old Testament prophet Amos, as he calls people to turn back to God and really live, are six words you can make from the word ‘harvest. I’ve put them into three pairs. The first pair is ‘earth’ and ‘share’.
Earth Amos tells us the earth isn’t just the place our food comes from, or where we live: it’s created by God, belongs to God. God creates the stars, too. Their changing positions in the night sky during the year marked planting and harvesting seasons for people in Amos’s time. The earth works according to laws or rules God’s designed into it. And Amos declares that human society is meant to work according to God’s design, too, rules of truth, justice and fairness.
I’m sure we all have a strong sense of what’s fair, don’t we? Some people in Amos’s time didn’t. They’re trampling on justice, he says, twisting the truth to suit themselves. When that happens, huge gaps start to open up between rich and poor. Outwardly, those people trampling justice and twisting truth must have looked very respectable: they went to the equivalent in their day of Coventry Cathedral or Westminster Abbey – but somehow that didn’t help them change for the better as it was supposed to. Perhaps that openness to change depends on how serious we are about following God’s design for things?
Share The words of protest that Amos speaks should encourage us to keep looking out for what’s unfair or unjust on our shared earth, and keep following God’s better blueprint for how to live together. When we share the earth’s resources with those who are struggling in poverty because of injustice – well, says Amos, that’s really living: we flourish as God intended us to – and so does everyone else.
So how do we avoid becoming those people Amos complains about, people who don’t take God or the need for godly justice seriously? That brings us to our next pair of words: ‘ears’ and ‘heart’. Ears Listening, really using our ears, can be hard, can’t it? The people in Amos’s day, it seems, hated being told they were on the wrong track, and rubbished those ‘honest witnesses’ who made them squirm, who told the truth about the rampant injustice going on all around. We can be like that sometimes, can’t we? Hands up anyone who enjoys hearing someone say, “you’re wrong”?
And when we do listen to God and hear that things need to change, it can be hard to speak out or act for justice, can’t it? In Amos’s day, some people said, in effect, “You know what? Best to keep your head down, keep quiet, if you don’t want to be labelled a troublemaker.” How do we deal with that very real pressure to conform, to not to rock the boat?
Part of the answer is letting what you hear change your heart. If you really want to live, says Amos, to go wholeheartedly in God’s direction, then seek, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength to value what God values. Don’t obsess about the next exotic holiday, house move or new car: after all, God knows what you need to live. Choose wisely: stop and think: what will help everyone flourish on the earth, not just me; help everyone live their best life, as God desires? A heartfelt prayer is another possible response. Like this one: “God, give me more of your passion for justice, your strength and courage to act for what is right and fair.”
Where might that lead? Time to consider our final pair of words you can make from the word ‘harvest’: Eat/starve A passion for justice works out through people who are willing to rock the boat, to help others eat. Generous St. Barbara’s people will be rocking the boat today by supporting charities like Coventry Foodbank and its partner Mission Bolivia. Both here and in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, people are hungry, and don’t have the money for essentials. Children in Santa Cruz sleep in shop doorways, under canal bridges. Without Mission Bolivia’s shelters and the meals they provide, those children have little hope. By supporting Foodbank and Mission Bolivia, we’re tipping the scales of justice back towards a fair balance, doing what Amos says we should. We’re doing justice as partners with God, in really simple ways. [Can+coin. Giving generously to the produce auction after the service – proceeds from both to Mission Bolivia.]
Let’s hear Amos’ appeal to the – very religious – people of his time one last time, then: turn back to the Lord. The Lord who’s designed the earth with justice built in, and who longs for fairer shares for all; turn back to the Lord, listen and respond with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; turn back to the Lord so that all may eat, and none may starve. And you will live. Amen.
