Harvest Festival
Service Date:
11 October, 2009
Mark 10:17-31
We've just heard about a man who had everything, but didn't want to let go of it and share with other people. That's not a good example for our harvest festival, where we're remembering that God has given seeds to grow all the food we need, and we're saying thank you. But here's a better example - here's a seed that can grow into a new home. Would anyone like to help me find out what's in this seed that's called a starter pack? And while we're exploring, Derek and Judith will tell us more...
In the early nineties churches in Sheffield were very concerned over the homeless, not just rough sleepers but those in temporary and inadequate accommodation. Several churches across the denominations came together to set up the Sheffield Churches Homelessness Forum with the aims of giving the homeless a voice, lobbying on their behalf, promoting schemes to help them and making people aware of homelessness issues. St. Andrew's and Central URC's were founder members and with the support of the URC South Yorkshire District Church and Society Committee decided to set up a starter pack scheme along the lines of one we discovered was being run by Herringthorpe URC, the organiser of which, Helen Morrison, met with us and gave us valuable advice. . We decided we would raise money to buy new bedding, kitchen equipment and cleaning materials to make up into starter packs to give to people, especially young people, who had been homeless, had now obtained accommodation but did not have the wherewith all to fit it out.
We followed Herringthorpe in deciding that we would give out the packs through organisations working with the homeless, more able to assess needs than we were. One organisation working with the homeless was and is Nomad, so-called because one of its founders said she felt like a nomad as she moved from temporary accommodation to temporary accommodation. Nomad had a strong organisation including a furniture store in Pitsmoor, where packs could be stored, and were, we felt, an excellent body to distribute packs. We had very helpful discussions with them as to what should go in packs. We found a wholesale firm willing to supply us with all we needed at a discount and deliver them to St. Andrew's, the base for the scheme.
We were soon able to raise enough money from churches to make up some two dozen packs, some for single and some for two people. Volunteers from the two churches made piles of goods for the packs round the hall one evening and then bagged them, ready for Nomad's van to collect the next morning. We held a few packs back as other organisations, in particular, the YMCA and St. Wilfred's Day Centre, told us they could also distribute them, collecting a pack from the church when they had a need.
This all worked well and we were able to obtain money not only from churches but also especially from the University Student's Rag Committee, which gave us an initial grant of £1000 and followed this with other generous grants .The Broomhill Festival made us one of its charities one year, whilst volunteers from other churches joined in make-ups.
The scheme met a real need and continues to do so. One of the things most appreciated about it is that the contents of the packs are all new. As one recipient at St. Wilfred's said, he felt he had been given a clean fresh start.
Some fifteen years later, homelessness is still a social problem and the scheme continues to meet a real need. Nomad, which Derek mentioned, lost its furniture store and could not take packs so we started to distribute the majority of the packs through St. Vincent de Paul and two organisations working with young people - New Leaf and Roundabout. We respond to emergency requests from organisations such as the Northern Refugee Centre, women's refuges and individuals known to churches including the soup run.
The project continues to depend on donations and grants. Recent and current supporters include the University Student Charity Appeal, Sheffield Rotary, St. Mark's Church, St. Columba's Church Crosspool, St. Andrew's URC and individual members of St. Andrew's. We currently have very little money in our account so we are very grateful that Network is supporting the scheme this Harvest Sunday.
What happens at a make-up? First of all Jean Dickson orders the goods from our supplier. I contact St. Vincent de Paul, New Leaf and Roundabout to let them know that packs will be available .On the agreed date the ‘Team' meets at the church hall at around 8.15 am and sets up tables on which to stack the goods and make up the packs.
When the van arrives it is all hands on deck to unload it. Just how many duvets can you carry at once! Our neighbour, Mr. Appleby, has kindly agreed to the van parking in his firm's car park to allow us to bring goods through the side gate and straight into the hall.
About 45 minutes later, the long tables are stacked high with pots and pans, crockery, cutlery, cleaning goods, towels and tea towels, kitchen utensils, light bulbs and loo rolls. A mountain of bedding takes up the far end of the hall. We're now ready for the first tea or coffee and cake of the morning.
The team then sets to work in pairs, bagging the goods and marking the packs according to whether they are for one person or a couple. Our system of packing has been refined over the years so that items are packed as efficiently as possible and resulting in packs which are reasonably liftable.
By about midday the packs for immediate collection are ready and we are more than ready for the second cup of coffee or tea. Operation clear up then begins, taking cartons for recycling, disposing of other rubbish and putting the hall back to rights. Packs kept back for emergencies are stored in the cupboard in the garden room. One person stays behind to wait for the packs to be collected and the job is done.
There are always appreciative comments from the organisations and sometimes from the eventual recipients of the packs. One lady who had moved into her own flat from a hostel said what a wonderful help it had been as she made a new start - she simply couldn't have afforded all these new things. One gentleman who we helped through the soup run simply couldn't believe that the new bedding was his and for the first few nights in his new home he actually slept on the floor alongside his freshly made-up bed.
After lunch you will hear about the work of Roundabout from Kat Dronfield,and how Starter Packs help her help young people in need of a home.
So what have we found in our starter pack? The seeds of a new home, and others will thank God, who gives everything that's good, for their harvest of shelter and support.
We've just heard about a man who had everything, but didn't want to let go of it and share with other people. That's not a good example for our harvest festival, where we're remembering that God has given seeds to grow all the food we need, and we're saying thank you. But here's a better example - here's a seed that can grow into a new home. Would anyone like to help me find out what's in this seed that's called a starter pack? And while we're exploring, Derek and Judith will tell us more...
In the early nineties churches in Sheffield were very concerned over the homeless, not just rough sleepers but those in temporary and inadequate accommodation. Several churches across the denominations came together to set up the Sheffield Churches Homelessness Forum with the aims of giving the homeless a voice, lobbying on their behalf, promoting schemes to help them and making people aware of homelessness issues. St. Andrew's and Central URC's were founder members and with the support of the URC South Yorkshire District Church and Society Committee decided to set up a starter pack scheme along the lines of one we discovered was being run by Herringthorpe URC, the organiser of which, Helen Morrison, met with us and gave us valuable advice. . We decided we would raise money to buy new bedding, kitchen equipment and cleaning materials to make up into starter packs to give to people, especially young people, who had been homeless, had now obtained accommodation but did not have the wherewith all to fit it out.
We followed Herringthorpe in deciding that we would give out the packs through organisations working with the homeless, more able to assess needs than we were. One organisation working with the homeless was and is Nomad, so-called because one of its founders said she felt like a nomad as she moved from temporary accommodation to temporary accommodation. Nomad had a strong organisation including a furniture store in Pitsmoor, where packs could be stored, and were, we felt, an excellent body to distribute packs. We had very helpful discussions with them as to what should go in packs. We found a wholesale firm willing to supply us with all we needed at a discount and deliver them to St. Andrew's, the base for the scheme.
We were soon able to raise enough money from churches to make up some two dozen packs, some for single and some for two people. Volunteers from the two churches made piles of goods for the packs round the hall one evening and then bagged them, ready for Nomad's van to collect the next morning. We held a few packs back as other organisations, in particular, the YMCA and St. Wilfred's Day Centre, told us they could also distribute them, collecting a pack from the church when they had a need.
This all worked well and we were able to obtain money not only from churches but also especially from the University Student's Rag Committee, which gave us an initial grant of £1000 and followed this with other generous grants .The Broomhill Festival made us one of its charities one year, whilst volunteers from other churches joined in make-ups.
The scheme met a real need and continues to do so. One of the things most appreciated about it is that the contents of the packs are all new. As one recipient at St. Wilfred's said, he felt he had been given a clean fresh start.
Some fifteen years later, homelessness is still a social problem and the scheme continues to meet a real need. Nomad, which Derek mentioned, lost its furniture store and could not take packs so we started to distribute the majority of the packs through St. Vincent de Paul and two organisations working with young people - New Leaf and Roundabout. We respond to emergency requests from organisations such as the Northern Refugee Centre, women's refuges and individuals known to churches including the soup run.
The project continues to depend on donations and grants. Recent and current supporters include the University Student Charity Appeal, Sheffield Rotary, St. Mark's Church, St. Columba's Church Crosspool, St. Andrew's URC and individual members of St. Andrew's. We currently have very little money in our account so we are very grateful that Network is supporting the scheme this Harvest Sunday.
What happens at a make-up? First of all Jean Dickson orders the goods from our supplier. I contact St. Vincent de Paul, New Leaf and Roundabout to let them know that packs will be available .On the agreed date the ‘Team' meets at the church hall at around 8.15 am and sets up tables on which to stack the goods and make up the packs.
When the van arrives it is all hands on deck to unload it. Just how many duvets can you carry at once! Our neighbour, Mr. Appleby, has kindly agreed to the van parking in his firm's car park to allow us to bring goods through the side gate and straight into the hall.
About 45 minutes later, the long tables are stacked high with pots and pans, crockery, cutlery, cleaning goods, towels and tea towels, kitchen utensils, light bulbs and loo rolls. A mountain of bedding takes up the far end of the hall. We're now ready for the first tea or coffee and cake of the morning.
The team then sets to work in pairs, bagging the goods and marking the packs according to whether they are for one person or a couple. Our system of packing has been refined over the years so that items are packed as efficiently as possible and resulting in packs which are reasonably liftable.
By about midday the packs for immediate collection are ready and we are more than ready for the second cup of coffee or tea. Operation clear up then begins, taking cartons for recycling, disposing of other rubbish and putting the hall back to rights. Packs kept back for emergencies are stored in the cupboard in the garden room. One person stays behind to wait for the packs to be collected and the job is done.
There are always appreciative comments from the organisations and sometimes from the eventual recipients of the packs. One lady who had moved into her own flat from a hostel said what a wonderful help it had been as she made a new start - she simply couldn't have afforded all these new things. One gentleman who we helped through the soup run simply couldn't believe that the new bedding was his and for the first few nights in his new home he actually slept on the floor alongside his freshly made-up bed.
After lunch you will hear about the work of Roundabout from Kat Dronfield,and how Starter Packs help her help young people in need of a home.
So what have we found in our starter pack? The seeds of a new home, and others will thank God, who gives everything that's good, for their harvest of shelter and support.
Hymns:
R&S 40: Come, ye thankful people, comeR&S 124: We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land
A rich young man came seeking - God's kingdom was his aim.
R&S 48: Praise and thanksgiving
Sermon:
Amos 5:7-15; Psalm 67; Mark 10:17-31; 1 Timothy 6:6-10 What's all this stuff about money got to do with harvest? you may be wondering. But though money doesn't grow on trees, in a way we do seem to think of it like a crop. Just think of good investments that give a rich yield: thirtyfold, sixtyfold or a hundredfold - no, wait a moment, that's the parable of the sower, where Jesus tells us how planting just one seed in good soil may give a bumper harvest. Some recent TV ads for financial investment seem to go along similar lines - have you seen the one where putting a financial glasshouse over golden coins makes them grow huge?
In the past few years, financiers who made a lot of money out of buying and selling companies, or speculating riskily with buying and selling intangible products like mortgages or future crop prices, have had a bad press; and when their risk has resulted in the ruin of others, deservedly so. The prophet Amos, in our second reading this morning, condemns people who ride roughshod over the poor, and take the bread out of their mouths - and there's been enough misery for people losing jobs or homes. Now the commentators are beginning to speak, cautiously, of things maybe going back to normal. If you're Gordon Brown, things are going to get much better quite soon. If you're David Cameron, they'll get a lot worse first. But of course, the financial system getting back to normal wouldn't mean an immediate happy ending, for unemployment and therefore potential home loss lags behind. What's more, we cannot point the finger exclusively at fat cats who will stop at nothing to be rich. For it was our investments, our pension funds, that benefitted from the bubble until it burst.
As Timothy says, it's not money, but the lust for money that brings nothing but trouble, as everyone involved in deals like Bernard Madoff's pyramid scheme is now all too well aware. I suspect that a congregation like this is less vulnerable to such flashy schemes than some other churches, where it is mistakenly taught from the pulpit that being rich is a sign of God's blessing, when in fact God is on the side of people with nothing. But maybe our very prudence can become a trap, if our saving for a rainy tomorrow were to stand in the way of our doing good today. The rich young man in Mark's story was a good young man. He claimed to have kept all God's commandments, and Jesus didn't challenge him on it. But that good young man didn't want to let go of the good things God had given him. And so he lost out on God.
Many of Jesus' followers were nearer the other end of the social spectrum; maybe it was easier for fishermen, even well-to-do fishermen who could employ workers, to walk away from financial security with him. But they still assumed that having lots of money was a better thing than not having it, that rich people were better off spiritually as well as financially. Jesus disagreed. The focus rich people have on their possessions, he argued, makes it harder for them to find God's kingdom. They may think they've already made it in life, as they have by this world's rules; but without God's help, no power, even money, can force the kingdom's lock.
Then what about us? Peter asks. We've given up everything for you. What's the return on our investment? More of everything! Jesus retorts. More family, sharing with each other; more trouble, when money-focussed people don't understand the primacy of love; more life, life that God gives and no one can take away. When we sow the seeds of new homes by paying for starter packs, when we give food for the Breakfast, when we buy fairly traded products, we are also helping ourselves. For we are not only making our money work for God - and as Timothy says, you can't take it with you - but also harvesting that ultimate trust in God which money can't buy.
