Sunday Sermon, 28 September 2025
Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity
Harvest Festival
A reading from the prophet Jeremiah
Declare this in the house of Jacob,
proclaim it in Judah:
Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes, but do not see,
who have ears, but do not hear.
Do you not fear me? says the LORD;
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail,
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
they have turned aside and gone away.
They do not say in their hearts,
“Let us fear the LORD our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
the weeks appointed for the harvest.”
Your iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have deprived you of good.
For scoundrels are found among my people;
they take over the goods of others.
Like fowlers they set a trap;
they catch human beings.
Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of treachery;
therefore they have become great and rich,
they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;
they do not judge with justice
the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD,
and shall I not bring retribution
on a nation such as this?
Jeremiah 5:20–29 NRSV
A reading from the Gospel according to John
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
John 6:25–35 NRSV
The Harvest is a sign of God’s abundant generosity. It speaks of his provision, as he sends the rain and the sun, and provides the fertile ground to grow and harvest the crops that sustain us. A natural response to this is to offer thanks and praise, as we do in our Harvest hymns.
But as well as being a sign of God’s goodness to us, it also carries with it an ethical obligation. Just as the harvest is freely given, so it ought to be generously shared with all. The moral vision of the Bible is that those who have much should share with those who have little. After all, everything ultimately comes from God. We do not truly ‘own’ our possessions; we ‘steward’ them in ways that are in tune with the generosity of the God of the Harvest.
This is something that was especially well understood in the agrarian culture of the Ancient Near East. Over 2,500 years ago, the Prophet Jeremiah reminded the people of Judah that the Lord God ‘gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest’ (v24). They depended on the regular rhythm of the seasons for their daily sustenance.
But the people have not treated the Harvest with respect. Instead of sharing the Harvest for the common good, the rich and wealthy have held onto and hoarded it for themselves. In an evocative image, Jeremiah tells us that ‘they have grown fat and sleek’ (v28), at the expense of others. They steal from the poor and the orphan. They fail to ‘defend the rights of the needy’ (v28). Justice is nowhere to be found.
God will not tolerate this injustice amongst his people – if they do not change, he will come against them in judgement, and they will lose all that they have been given.
It reminds me of the old fable ‘The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs’:
A man had a goose that laid a golden egg for him each and every day. The man was not satisfied with this daily profit, and instead he foolishly grasped for more. Expecting to find a treasure inside, the man slaughtered the goose. When he found that the goose did not have a treasure inside her after all, he remarked to himself, 'While chasing after hopes of a treasure, I lost the profit I held in my hands!'
The rich and powerful of Judah have failed to learn the lesson of the Harvest. Instead of distributing their wealth fairly, they’ve hoarded it and kept it for themselves. But this is a tragic mistake. Like the man who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs, by abusing the source of their provision, they’ve cut themselves off from the God who sends the harvest.
* * *
There is a lesson here for our own day, as well as Jeremiah’s. The Harvest is meant to be a sign of God’s generosity, which leads us to seek a fairer and more equal society. But the consumerist culture of our own day has forgotten this principle. It is always encouraging us to spend more on ourselves at the expense of others.
Whether it is home products, clothing, technology devices, cars, beauty products, entertainment, travel… the list goes on and on. Apparently Facebook now shows us about double the amount of adverts than actual posts from friends. And ‘personalised ads’ mean that these fabricated desires are even more effective than ever! It is summed up in the famously misquoted line from the 1987 movie ‘Wall Street’, in which the arch-villain Gordon Gekko declares: ‘Greed is Good’. This applies not only at the level of the individual, but of corporations, which prioritise profits over principles, and seek continual ‘growth’ to satisfy shareholders.
But our culture of overconsumption comes at a heavy price – both for people and for the planet. The human cost is seen as the poorest in society are taken advantage of by employees who fail to treat them with dignity. This is especially true overseas. For example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the cobalt that powers our modern technology devices is mined by the poorest people, including children, for low pay in dangerous conditions.
There is also a massive cost to the environment. Our need for increasing amounts of energy is releasing massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Waste products, including plastics and dangerous chemicals are dumped into landfill and into the oceans. Our planet is groaning as we strip it of its natural resources at an unprecedented rate.
Like the proverbial man who killed the goose who laid the golden eggs, our western society is at risk of destroying the integrity of the earth that gives us life. Like the people of Judah, we have failed to learn the lesson of the Harvest.
* * *
So what should our response be? There are many issues which complicate the matter. First, as many have pointed out, part of this is a systemic issue which requires action at the level of governments on the world stage. Second, living in a culture built on trade and constant consumption can make it hard to know how to respond on a personal level. I hold my own hand up as someone who is just as invested in acquiring new goods as the next person! Clearly this is an area where there are no easy or simplistic answers.
But I believe this is an area where the Christian Gospel can offer a hopeful way forward. We see this in our Gospel reading. The God who sends the Harvest is the same God who has sent us his Son. In giving us his Son, he has held nothing back. This is the very best thing God could give us. ‘I am the bread of life’ says Jesus (John 6:35). And it is as we embrace Christ in all his fulness, that we discover the life of God which enables us to break free from the cycle of greed that imprisons our human nature. Because ultimately, things of this world do not satisfy the deep desires we have for God. We long for something more to life, and only God can satisfy this longing.
If we as Christians can cultivate lives of simplicity, where we are grateful for the things God has given us, but do not seek to hoard more than we need, perhaps we can discover with others in society a sustainable way forward. This is only possible when we rest in the security of knowing that all our deepest needs are met in the one who offers himself freely for all. The generous heart of the Lord of the Harvest shines most brightly in the invitation of his Son: ‘Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’ (John 6:35).
Amen.