“Give Thanks Always”

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: . . . a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2).

For the past few years my family has participated in a weekly community supported agriculture (CSA) share. Each week we get a box of locally grown and organic produce from a nearby farmer. So, while we live in the city, we have this wonderful awareness of the cycle of crops and the seasons of produce. The weekly produce begins in the spring with asparagus, and will soon end with squash. Squash reminds me of fall, and is one of those flavors unique to the fall harvest season.

Some of you may have grown up on a farm, or perhaps even now keep a food garden, so you recognize that fall is quickly approaching, and what that means for food plants in the Midwest. The nights are getting cooler, and the days are getting shorter. The time of harvest has come. In the field around us, the beans and the corn are beginning to be harvested, and apples and pumpkins are readily available.

Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves (Psalm 126: 6).

Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God (Psalm 50:23).

Autumn and harvest time have also traditionally been a time of thanksgiving. In the past, people recognized more easily that God’s creativity produced the fruits that would see us through the winter. While these days we get our food all year around from warmer climates, it is not inappropriate for us to remember God’s power of creativity on our behalf and give the due sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Yes, this is about worship and prayer. It is about connecting, reconnecting, or acknowledging our connection with the Father who continues to create and sustain us, who gives us life, and through the cross of Jesus Christ gives us eternal life. Remembering that God sustains us with daily bread is never out-of-date. Thanks be to God, always!

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me, says the Lord. (Psalm 50:14-15)

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Bond