Assembly Harvest 2010

UPDATE: Video Here

• Mickey Mouse Cartoon: Musical Farmer (1932)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xWAr3oKz9c

• All this food… collected for the Salvation Army Crossways Project, providing food for people in this area in need
• Harvest Festival is a time of year when we pause and give thanks to God for what we have, what He has given us and to recognise our responsibility to help those who are less fortunate.
• It used to coincide with the harvest of food from our fields, a time hundreds of years ago when we were totally dependant upon the seasons and what we could grow, whereas now we can get strawberries throughout the year from the other side of the world. So, I think it’s better to focus now on what God has given us and the needs of others, like those who are helped by the Crossways Project
• So, for them, I thought I’d make up a nice wholesome soup… (produce big pot)
• A good soup needs… er… what don’t I need at the moment… carrots (chop & add)
• …and some left over red cabbage (chop). I don’t like that much so they can have that…
• …a discarded pepper perhaps (chop)… err… maybe an orange… (add whole)
• …and a can on mushy peas… (open and add)
• No, hold on. That’s not right. I seem just be adding my leftovers, the stuff I don’t want, the stuff that is second best. I’ve been thinking about this soup all wrong.
• It shouldn’t be a second best soup, it should be of the best God has shared with me, and I should share it with others…
• Some of you might recall that lovely story “Grandma’s Saturday Soup” which wasn’t really made up on left-overs but was actually made up of the best of Mimi’s memories: her love was in that soup, and just has God has blessed me with his bounteous gifts, so I should put some of that into my soup to share…
• So what should I put in? I know: (produce packets)
• CARE – care of those less fortunate than ourselves

Matthew 25:35-40

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’  ³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘When?’  ⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.’”

• JUSTICE – seeking to make the world a better, fairer place – buying produce that is fairly traded, standing up for what is right. YOU can make a difference.
• LOVE – which makes the world a better place (in the words of Bert Bacharach), not picking upon others because they are different, but reaching out to help those having a tough time. Loving those near you is easy, loving those whom no-one loves is a challenge.

This is my commandment: that you love one another (John 15:12)

• This is what will make my soup special. This will make it the tastiest soup in the world: a soup of Care, Justice and Love.
• Visual Intercessions – Harvest for the World

https://www.vimeo.com/6672436

• Lord’s Prayer
• Blessing