As Harvest Festival comes, my thoughts turn to the hymns that are traditionally used in churches at various times of the year. Harvest is one example. Christmas is another.
Sometimes these hymns have hardly anything that is Christian about them. A friend of mine takes a carefully chosen song book to Christmas carol events. If anyone requests “The holly and the ivy”, with its partly pagan and partly folk-religion content, he simply replies, “We can’t sing that – it’s not in the book!”
Festival hymns are not all like that. There are some good meaty Christmas hymns. “Hark! The herald angels sing” has sound scripture content. A real gospel hymn to sing at harvest time is “Come, ye thankful people, come”. The second verse takes us from harvest thanksgiving to the fact that the whole human race is meant to be a harvest for God: “All the world is God’s own field/fruit unto His praise to yield”. The rest of the hymn is inspired by Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30). The wheat and the weeds (weeds meaning unbelievers) cannot be separated while they are growing. But the decisive moment of the harvest arrives, and the wheat is stored and the weeds burned.
Some writers have heavily criticised this hymn. Erik Routley writes: “Can one sing so blithely about the fearful implications of the last judgement? Ought one to attempt to do so on a cheerful creaturely festival like Harvest or Thanksgiving?”
Surely we should welcome a hymn that brings this reality home. Harvest is a pivotal time. In olden days a good harvest meant full stomachs over the winter, while a bad one meant that the spectre of starvation haunted the home for months. The run-up to the harvest of the last judgment is equally a time of decision for humankind. Do I belong to Christ or don’t I? Will I see eternal gain or eternal loss? The hymn invites us to make up our minds in good time.
Monday 19 September 2011
Wednesday 7 September 2011
Half way
The walk from my home to church is a bit over a mile and takes me around 25 minutes. It cheers me along my way when I pass by landmarks I have picked out. I can then say that I have reached a certain point on my journey and have only so far to go.
About half way along the route I pass two churches. One, the local parish church, is on the right as I head for work and the other is just beyond it on the left. Once those are behind me, I feel encouraged that I am now on the home straight. However, another, darker thought comes into my mind. Often loyal church members in poorly supported churches will complain along these lines: "So-and-so passes by our church and two others to get to his place of worship further down the road!"
The implication is that you should support your local cause rather than travel long distances to attend one that suits your taste better. To some extent I sympathise with that view; in fact I've used the same argument myself in the past. On the other hand, everybody needs a good spiritual diet. A clearly Bible-based, Christ-centred church is more likely to offer this than one that isn't. Sadly a great many churches of all different types leave those who go to them poorly nourished.
Often the congregations just don't notice that they are not being well fed. They take it for granted that the diet they are offered is all there is. The writer of Hebrews warns his readers, "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:12-14).
I'm making a general point, of course, and not saying anything against the two churches I pass on my journey to work! If you find yourself passing by a church regularly, it may be good to say hello and make yourself known, and even join in some activities from time to time if you can do so with a good conscience. Courtesy costs nothing and does no harm.
About half way along the route I pass two churches. One, the local parish church, is on the right as I head for work and the other is just beyond it on the left. Once those are behind me, I feel encouraged that I am now on the home straight. However, another, darker thought comes into my mind. Often loyal church members in poorly supported churches will complain along these lines: "So-and-so passes by our church and two others to get to his place of worship further down the road!"
The implication is that you should support your local cause rather than travel long distances to attend one that suits your taste better. To some extent I sympathise with that view; in fact I've used the same argument myself in the past. On the other hand, everybody needs a good spiritual diet. A clearly Bible-based, Christ-centred church is more likely to offer this than one that isn't. Sadly a great many churches of all different types leave those who go to them poorly nourished.
Often the congregations just don't notice that they are not being well fed. They take it for granted that the diet they are offered is all there is. The writer of Hebrews warns his readers, "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:12-14).
I'm making a general point, of course, and not saying anything against the two churches I pass on my journey to work! If you find yourself passing by a church regularly, it may be good to say hello and make yourself known, and even join in some activities from time to time if you can do so with a good conscience. Courtesy costs nothing and does no harm.
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