‘Responsibility’ - Harvest - Rev Christine Fox

Welcome and call to worship
Harvest festival is a time to thank God for all we are provided with and a time to think of our response to such generosity. When we think of harvest we realise that it takes cooperation between people and God to feed the world –and that responsibility was given to people by their creator from the beginning. So we come in thankfulness and praise to God and a readiness to think on our responsibility. ​

StF 124 For the fruits of all creation -
Hymn by Fred Pratt Green, Sung and played by Ruth & Joy Everingham

Prayer of thanks and praise
Loving God - You have fashioned the universe and all that is in it.
You have created the earth with all its abundance.
You have made your people in all our variety and placed us here to act justly and to seek peace.
Around us the sights and sounds of nature echo the song of praise your people offer to you.
For the variety and splendour of the universe
God of time and eternity, receive our songs of praise. Amen.
​
Creator God, maker of heaven and earth, We acknowledge our failure to live responsibly as part of your creation. We have taken what we want, without considering the consequences; we have wasted and discarded, without thought for the future. Open our hearts and minds to the signs of our times, to the groaning of creation, so that we may turn from our greed and lack of vision and see a world being made anew in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Our Father God is more forgiving than we know – welcoming us as we turn back to him and giving us each new day to start afresh. Amen

Activity 1
​Psalm 8 
Get a plain sheet of paper and coloured pens or a pencil draw/write something symbolising a verse or two from Psalm 8 below.
1  O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
​    You have set your glory above the heavens.

2  Out of the mouths of babes and infants
    you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
    to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars that you have established;

4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
    mortals that you care for them?
​5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
    and crowned them with glory and honour.

6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
​
​8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
(New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

Activity 2​
Genesis 2:18-24
Link to BibleGateway
Time to think
1 Look at Psalm 8 verses 3-6 and think about the place of human beings in the context of creation
2 In Genesis 2 what links can you find between God’s request of man to name things and his creation of woman so that man is not alone?
3 What have you learned that informs our responsibility for Creation - personal responsibility, responsibility as a church and at the world level?

What personal actions do you already do to reduce our negative impact on the earth and then pledge to take on something new perhaps inspired by what others are doing. Please share your thoughts in the comments box below. ​

​StF 727 God in his love for us lent us this planet -
Hymn by Fred Pratt Green played and sung by Gareth Moore.

​Prayers of intercession 
Creator God, giver of life, You sustain the earth and direct the nations. In this time of climate crisis help us to hear the groaning of creation and the cries of the poor;
challenge us to change our lifestyles;
enable your church to be a beacon of hope;
guide our leaders to take courageous action;
and foster within us a renewed vision of your purposes for your world;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, by and for whom all things were made. Amen

​The Lords Prayer: 
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.

Stf 130 We plough the fields and scatter ​

​Blessing
The seed is sown, the kingdom is growing. God is at work among us. Offer him your love your faith and your life and in bearing fruit in this service may the time of harvest draw nearer. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen