Can declining churches revive? Answer is YES!

 

What is the true gift of Harvest?

So what is the value of harvest in our lives? What harvest are we celebrating? Are we celebrating just the physical harvest which is wonderful but perishes or the eternal harvest inside us all

 Life is like going to university. We go to university to learn. University is not the goal – it is a means to the goal – it is to build muscles

 We have physical, mental, spiritual muscles.

·        The more physical exercise we do the physically stronger we become.

·        The more intellectual exercise we do the stronger our intellectual muscles become.

·        The more we read, the more we reflect, the more we pray, the more we love the greater our spiritual muscles become.

What is the HARVEST - it makes life easier – more joyful – more peaceful. If we practice the Beatitudes, we do indeed improve our lives. We do indeed become fortunate or blessed.

This is the harvest that lasts for ever

Attending the university of life is a wonderful privilege but we do need to live within the teaching of the Bible if we are to make the most of it. It is like going to university and not attending lectures.  We might brush up against geologists, physicists, economists, or mathematicians all of who might express a little of their enthusiasm and wisdom for their subject but if we are going to be geologist, a physicist, an economist, or a mathematician we will need to go to the lectures

 If we are going to harvest the richness of life we must be guided by St Paul.

 Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

So what must we be grateful for? What is the purpose of all this abundant beauty around us. Surely it is the power to raise our spirit – to build our love muscle is

My favourite saint St Francis Assisi with his love of animals, of all creation and his love of people and love of all life forms. St Francis had an enormous love muscle.

Mother Terisa had an enormous love muscle developed by the saving of the street children in Calcutta.   Jacky Pullenger enormous love muscle developed by saving and rehabilitating drug addicts, prostitutes, and gang members in the terrifying walled city ghetto of Kowloon in Hong Kong

What about us?  Recently I found myself unable to get out of my car in Tavi. I was prevented from doing so by the heart stopping beauty of Vivaldi’s guitar concerto.  I wondered what his HARVEST was from his immortal concerto.  Antonio Vivaldi was priest, a profoundly spiritual man but died a pauper. Surely, he himself never benefited from the joy millions of people listening to his music ever since.  However, I would suggest the Vivaldi’s harvest was the sweetness and love which he expressed by composing that music. His HARVEST was building his Love muscle.

If we don’t want to just create an amazing physical body, or an amazing intellect we need to develop that sacred love muscle

We need to surround ourselves with things we can love. Our families, our children, our dogs or gardens but crucially or amazon

as our Lord commanded. We should love our neighbours as ourselves and of course our Father in heaven who provides everything we ever had and will have

We need to be like St Francis who loved every living thing. He preached to the birds and wolves and of course t transformed the entire Roman church

You may remember that he even went to the Holy Land at the very height of the crusades

At that time the Sultan of Egypt Malek al-Kamil (nephew of Saladin) declared that anyone who delivered him the head of a Christian would be rewarded with a Byzantine gold piece. However, when the sultan saw Francis’s love, enthusiasm and courage, he listened to him willingly and ultimately pressed him to stay with him.” Before they left al-Kamil wanted to give Francis lavish gifts, but Francis refused only accepting the single gift of an ivory horn. It is said that the sultan ultimately converted to Christianity on his death bed

However, St Francis did end up with a free pass not only for him but any of his friars to travel anywhere in the holy land. Even today they have a dominant and respected presence there.

St Francis’s HARVEST was the fruit of the Spirit his love, his joy, his peace, his forbearance, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness and his self-control.

St Paul again - Surely the love of all those around us our friends, family, neighbours and our dogs is also a HARVEST that we should all seek and celebrate  Galatians 5:22-23

Amen