Here is the Creationtide all-age sermon I gave at Truro Cathedral during the Songs for Earth service in November.

I guess many of you have been to some kind of Harvest service in the last couple of months. Maybe you went to something at church. Maybe you went to something at school.

But I want us to carry on thinking about harvest, because it’s not something we can think about just once a year. Every day we rely on the harvest the earth produces so we should never forget it. It matter not just once a year but every day of the year.

So we’re going to be asking today, ‘What do we get from HARVEST?’ And for this I need seven volunteers [distribute cards]

[Make word HAVE] Harvest reminds us that we HAVE lots of good things….and we should thank God for the good things we have.  Verse in the Bible that says, ‘The land has produced its harvest: God, our God, has blessed us.’ We HAVE good things not by accident, but because God has given them to us.

[Make word EAT] Harvest reminds us we good things to EAT but only because they come from the Harvest. They don’t appear magically on our shelves. They come from the Harvest. And ultimately they come from an even more important place.

[Make word EARTH] Harvest reminds us we depend on the earth for the food we eat. So we must protect the earth – and indeed we must protect Planet Earth – if we are going to ensure we all on this earth have enough to eat.

Now there are lots of other words we can get from HARVEST that are relevant when we talk about looking after Planet Earth so it continues to give us our food and enables us to live well. But let’s see if you can spot any of them [ask congregation]

  1. SHARE (equally)
  2. STARVE (risk if we don’t care properly for the planet)
  3. AVERT (climate change)
  4. SAVE (the planet and ourselves, and the abundance of life on this planet

And lastly HARVEST says to us have a HEART: be thankful to God; be generous to other people; and care as we should do for this Planet Earth our God has entrusted to us.