Sermon
10th May 26
We began with the hymn “We plough the fields and scatter”. Although this is normally associated with Harvest Festival, it is equally appropriate today. For today is Rogation Sunday, the day we focus on the fruits of the earth, although you would hardly know it from the readings and propers imposed on us by committees of senior Churchmen and women who have hardly ventured outside the M25, apart from to their villas in Tuscany!
Long, long ago, before concern about the environment and the climate became fashionable: in the days when folk lived closer to nature and most worked on the land, this 5th Sunday after Easter, this Sunday before Ascension Day, was one of the most important in the Church’s year. For this was the time of the year when all the work of preparing the land and sowing the seed had been completed. What happened next was no longer in human hands, for there was nothing they could do to affect the weather that would determine whether all their hard work would lead to a good harvest. For, if it didn’t, that would mean hardship at best, and starvation at worst.
So, they came to Church to pray. They had “scatter(ed) the good seed on the land, but (knew that it was) fed and watered by God’s almighty hand”. They asked for “the warmth to swell the grain, the breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain”.
They asked God to send the seasonable weather that would yield a good harvest. Rogation Sunday, from the latin meaning asking, is about asking God, “the Maker of all things near and far” to bless our work, for “to us, his children, He gives our daily bread”.
For timetabling reasons, we won’t be observing Climate Sunday here this year. But, as our thoughts are focussed today on God’s work in Creation and our need to co-operate with Him, we are aware of the mess that human beings have made, and are still making of this planet. There may be some daft wishful thinking about setting up colonies on the moon or Mars or wherever, but that can’t be the solution. We know what needs to be done. But our greed, our desire to take all the good things now and leave a polluted planet to succeeding generations, soon swamps those good intentions. All that positive talk at the Paris Climate conference about restricting mean temperature increase to 1.5C was forgotten as soon as the price of oil hit $100 a barrel and the cry went up “drill, baby, drill”!
On this Rogation Sunday, we ask God to give us the wisdom to work with Him in caring for this world that He created for our enjoyment. We ask Him to give us the courage to argue for the need to put its long-term future ahead of short-term greed. And, of course, we ask Him to bless the work of all who work on the land, that it may yield a good harvest.
Amen
