Harvest! It’s here again! It comes around so soon I’m sure it’s come sooner than last year and you can see it’s now definitely Autumn. In a few weeks we will be changing the clocks yet again. I always think it’s amazing how things grow. Anne and me always have just put the seeds in and left the rest to Nature and God’s care. This year has been a really odd one. We have had a bumper crop of Strawberries but the Raspberries have not been so good but we have a bumper crop of blackberries but the undisturbed Blackcurrants have done ok . The Beetroots, which haven’t been a great success before have been a great success but the usually abundant Courgettes have been a disaster and the tomatoes took ages to get off the ground.

It doesn’t seem to matter what we do, one year is never the same as the last.

The reading we have just heard talks about a farmer and his labourers. It would seem that labour relations have not improved since those times

The sense of unfairness is still there.

We have the workers hired at the beginning being paid the same as those who come later and presumably have done less of the work which ,of course , leads to grievance  – the old  ‘ why should they get the same when they’ve done less work’.

It seems that in all these years since, we have not learned the lesson that if what we get is enough then why can’t we be satisfied?

We are seeing it all too much at the moment with all the strikes for this or that. What was once described as ‘The winter of discontent’ has moved to the year of discontent and the strikers choose the days they want off unlike before when on strike went on until a solution was found.

You might say what has this got to do with firstly us and secondly the reading?

The reading is meant as I see it, to be about working for God in the work of spreading the Gospel. God is the Farmer and we are the workers.

Let’s ask ourselves what are we prepared to do for God and what do we expect in return?

 We need to remember that we were once the crop to be harvested and thankfully we were brought into the Barn of God’s People.

Can you remember who worked to tell you the wonderful news of God’s saviour? For me it was my parents – not by force but by example and this was strengthened by my time in The Boys’ Brigade.

So to return to my original question; what will we do for God and what reward do we expect?

In this congregation there are those who have been here for many years and who have worked hard to proclaim God’s message , those who came along a little later and those like myself who haven’t been here that long ( a mere 15 years) , still others who have been here a shorter time.

Do we really think that God thinks in terms of seniority of service? We are all called to serve God in this place to share the wonderful message that Jesus

Stepson of a carpenter (Son of God) has redeemed us all and continues to do so every day.

We are all valued both by Jesus and by God in the same way. There is no way we can earn more prestige in his sight – we may do so in Human eyes.

It is important to remember that the task in hand is what saved us and will save many more.

We are promised often more than we deserve – to be in God’s presence when the work on earth is done.

So let’s put aside our sense of seniority in service and truly live the strap line we say of ‘walking together in Jesus’ and for Jesus so that the kingdom of heaven can be seen here and we can bring more souls into the barn of God’s presence.