Mom, look!!
I was wandering the aisles of a big box store with my 9 year old and she enthusiastically directed my gaze to a sprawling display….of Christmas decorations. It’s almost as if consumerism lines up with the liturgical calendar and has sensed that our profession has begun the work of Advent worship planning. Haul out the trees and santas, put up the lights and brightly colored boxes with bows. It’s almost Christmas.
Not yet, friends! Not yet. We have several fruitful and bountiful months ahead before the waiting and mystery of Advent begin. How might you use these next weeks to speak to the beauty of creation and the predictability of God’s faithfulness that we see all around us in the changing of the season? As we enjoy the final bounty of earth’s goodness before everything lies dormant, how can we celebrate this to the fullest, rejoicing in the hands that cultivate and feed us in body and soul?
Below are some “harvest” resources – perfect for Thanksgiving services or just for use in weekly worship this fall. Advent will come in time. Until then, help your congregation savor and delight in the work of the Creator’s hands.
Two Litanies with Psalm 103 (Highly adaptable for your congregation)
Litany of Offering (by Meg Jenista Kuykendall)
When our harvest looks more like a legal brief, a slide deck, or a carefully worded email,
Bless the Lord, O my soul
Give Him thanks, O my soul
When the fruit of our labor is a child finally asleep, the hum of the dishwasher, clean countertops and a moment of blessed peace,
Bless the Lord, O my soul
Give Him thanks, O my soul
When the treasure we offer is an annual budget recommendation, an employee review or final grades submitted,
Bless the Lord, O my soul
Give Him thanks, O my soul
We bring our tightly scheduled lives, our simple successes and vague dissatisfactions, our hopeful reaching for the next rung of the corporate ladder – we lay it all on the altar asking You to do with it (and with us) what you will, knowing that, in any case, we will say:
Bless the Lord, O my soul
Give Him thanks, O my soul
*****
Call to Worship (by Katie Roelofs)
Children of God, we are gathered at the gracious invitation of God who is our Creator, our Sustainer, and the Giver of all good gifts. God welcomes us and receives our prayers and praises, our worship and work. God delights in what we have created with our hands, engineered in our minds, and offered up in our hearts. God delights in our voices, so let us raise them up in gratitude and praise.
Bless the Lord, my soul.
All my inmost being bless God’s holy name.
God of bounty, God of goodness.
We praise you for your abundant gifts.
God of plenty, God of grace.
We offer you the works of our hands.
Bless the Lord, my soul
Forget not all God’s benefits
From fields and farms, cubicles and courtrooms
God delights in our offering of work
So bring your treasures, the fruits of your labor
Receive them, O God as our thankful offering of praise.
Bless the Lord, my soul
Bless God’s holy name
A Prayer of Dedication and Blessing from Psalm 90 (by Katy Kroondyk)
Leader: In all the work that we do,
People of God: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us!
Leader: In making breakfast, brushing children’s teeth, gathering backpacks,
People of God: Prosper the work of our hands!
Leader: In replying to emails, running errands, reconciling siblings,
People of God: Prosper the work of our hands!
Leader: In listening to the woes and wins of the day, washing laundry, helping with algebra,
People of God: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us!
Leader: Lord of our harvest, whatever our harvest may be, send your blessing upon it that it may be beautiful in your eyes. And since we have received the good news of Jesus, may all of our work -from sowing to reaping- be rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. In the name of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray to you, the Triune God. Amen.
Benediction based on Philippians 1:9-11 (by Jenn Cavanaugh)
May your love overflow more and more
with knowledge and the Spirit’s full insight
to help you determine what is best,
so that you may produce the harvest of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.
As you return
to God’s work through you,
remember
that the seed planted in you,
the hope of future harvest,
requires both darkness and light to grow
fallow, rested fields and tilled earth
Root yourself
in the Source of living water
and grow tall by growing deep
Go in peace to love
and serve the Lord
A Gift (by Hunter Lynch)
As my hand rests on the plow,
Sweat collecting on my brow,
Grace within this work abounds,
This labor is a gift
Though I heave against the day
Legs beneath me, giving way
Strengthen me to stand and say
This labor is a gift
When there swells a sea of grain
Ripe for harvest, mine to claim
Curb my greed with one refrain:
This labor is a gift
With my striving hands at ease,
Work before me, now complete
God of Glory come receive
This labor as a gift
A Prayer for Harvest (by Haley Montgomery)
Lord of all creation and every good thing under heaven,
We remember Your love.
Love that sends rain to water the empty and dry ground.
Love that sustains the growth of every living thing.
Love that makes the sun shine and makes wonderful, colorful things spring up.
Love that gives according to our innermost needs and even extends to care for our wants.
Love that compels us to worship and desire that for which you made us – joy and pleasure in your presence forever.
Love that delights in our work and in our efforts.
Love that gives us vision and dreams of harvest.
Love that carries us through every season while we wait for the promise.
Love that shares the heavy load of toil, blood, and sweat.
Love that celebrates with us when we dance in the abundance of Your provision.
Love that draws us to the altar, where we lay all the good gifts You have freely given.
Lord, without Your love, poured out on the earth for us to enjoy, we would not know the beauty of bringing you anything. All that we bring back to you, we return to the Master and Author of Creation.
We thank you
We bless you
We give you praise
We remember that every good and perfect gift comes from You and belongs to You.
What a God of Love, who has shared such glory with us.
Amen.
Worship Service on the Farm
See the blog post for the full resource
Poem and Prayer: In the Deep (by Grace Assad)
every tree starts as seed
and beneath the soil grows
a hidden work, not any eye can see
yet roots reach down, deep in the ground
and grasp from waters deep
the hum of life without making a sound
who would notice quiet, deep, dark work…
in the mundane, ordinary things?
folding clothes
crafting sentences
drawing up meds
giving baths
and waking up to do it all again
the glory of a seed
lies in its quiet growing
according to its Maker’s call
may we revel in the doing
far beyond another’s noticing
and honor our Maker most of all
who am I to know?
maybe this life’s work was all underground
and eternity begins when shoots ascend
our flourishing only then to be found
Prayer
Father, strengthen the work of our hands. When the light seems dim around us, help us trust the work You’re doing in and through us.
Give us endurance when the work is arduous.
Give us patience when the work is monotonous.
Give us grace when the work is challenging.
Give us peace when the work is heavy.
Give us healing when the work is damaging.
Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love. Give us rest in the evening from work well done. Remind us that we are not defined by the work we do, but by our trust in You. Strengthen the work of our hands. Amen!
Cultivating (by Michael Stalcup)
“Culture is not a territory to be won or lost, but… a garden to be cultivated.”
—Makoto Fujimura
The hugs we give our kids, the prayers we pray;
the ways we serve our parents, spouses, friends;
the sins forgiven, wealth we give away;
the strangers whom we welcome, ways we bend;
the paintings, poems, stories, songs we play;
the time spent listening, the words unsaid—
the mundane faithful acts of each new day,
though sown unseen, produce a garden bed.
You said this world would hate us, wage a war
against your love—and yet you send us forth
as farmers against fortresses: to tend
this fallen garden that you seek to mend.
We know not how your kingdom comes—but sow
in hope that roots and leaves and fruit will grow.
