13th September 2026 

Lord of the Harvest

We had a lovely time last week celebrating... us! And celebrating God's faithfulness and work among us over five years. As the Bishop said last Sunday, it's been an opportunity to take stock, to look back at all that God has done, to look around at all that God is doing now, and to look ahead to all that God wants to do in, through and among us.

There are two great movements of the life of faith. One is to remain - as Jesus says in John 15 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing." (John 15:5). We need to remain in Jesus, to rest in his love, to bring ourselves to him in worship, in prayer, in study of the Bible, to be filled up with his love. But the second is to be sent. At the end of John's gospel, the risen Jesus appears to his disciples in the upper room and says "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.'" (John 20:21-22) Filled with the Spirit, having received the love of Jesus, we are to go out and share that love.

So it is appropriate, having spent last week enjoying the joyful love and presence of Jesus in our celebrations, that this coming Sunday, we should be celebrating harvest.When I think of harvest, I always find myself challenged by Jesus' words to his disciples "The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38) - then, in Matthew 10:1-5 - "Jesus called his disciples to him... and sent them out". Again, though, I notice those two movements: the disciples come to Jesus, and he sends them out. As we spend time with Jesus, we are both inspired and equipped to participate in his mission in the world. We will be focusing in this service on our mission partners, on those who find themselves sent in very specific ways, locally, nationally and internationally, to serve Jesus. We will be hearing from CAP, from Living Well, from Esuubi and from CMS about the fruits they are thankful for, and about the needs we can support them with through our prayer and participation. After the service, there will be the opportunity to talk further with our speakers over coffee, and to find out more about how we can get involved.

As always, you are invited to bring a harvest gift: of non-perishable food or toiletries for our food banks, or of money - all cash gifts and all online gifts received via the Giving Machine on Sunday will be shared between our partners unless you direct us otherwise.