Common Ground Song 102 ‘Praise God for the Harvest’
Words: Brian Wren © Stainer & Bell Ltd / Music: traditional
YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNukvd9er2Q
Featured image: Barley harvest near Harby, Nottinghamshire. © Richard Croft cc-by-sa-2.0

The third of four harvest-related posts this week. Like the previous one, I’m considering a contemporary harvest hymn. But whereas ‘For the fruits of all creation’ focused on the Christian congregation and task of providing food for all, today’s five-verse hymn to the tune formerly used for the children’s hymn ‘When a knight won his spurs’ is more about the different forms of ‘harvest’, taking the term very widely to cover all kinds of work that benefit humanity.

The first verse covers the traditional food harvest, but with a reminder that it is a team effort. That was always true, but the team now comprises scientists, engineers and drivers of the sort of machines shown in the illustration, rather than men with sickles, pitchforks and horses.

The second verse notes that our food is rarely direct from farm to fork. It is a global market, involving traders, ship’s crews, factory and warehouse workers, and many more. Yet ultimately these are ‘God-given neighbours, unseen and unknown’. The annual Fairtrade Fortnight that has just finished for this year (transferred since the Covid pandemic from March to September to better match harvest time in the Northern hemisphere) reminds us that ensuring good working conditions and fair pay for these unseen neighbours is part of what it means to be thankful for our food.

The third talks of the ‘harvest that’s quarried and mined’, mentioning among other commodities the now controversial ones of oil and coal. Without fossil fuels and steel, we would not have those global markets, but again we need to use these resources sparingly and wisely. Not only because of the climate change that burning fuel causes, but because eventually the accessible stocks will run out, so we must eke them out for our descendants’ sake. I’m not sure when this hymn was written, exactly, but perhaps it should be updated to include a harvest of sunshine and wind!

Verse four refers to the work of intellectuals: the ‘harvest of science and skill’, ‘dreams and inventions’, and the desire to make ‘a future more hopeful, a world more humane’. If you work with your mind rather than your hands, then ask God to help you use it for these noble purposes.

Lastly we praise God for the ‘harvest of mercy and hope’, for those who work for freedom, peace and justice. The campaigners and charity workers whose lives are spent (and sometimes laid down) to challenge injustice, just as the ancient prophets did.

Sufficient food for all, fair wages for all, sustainable energy for all, justice for all. We are called to recognise that we can all contribute to this complex harvest, by the work of our hands, the use of our minds and the way we engage with other people.