Grateful Hearts That Sing Are Joyful And Generous

by Eric Elkin

“So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God.”

— Deuteronomy 26:10

One of my fondest memories of serving Friedens Lutheran Church was our Harvest Home worship services. Harvest Home was a historical worship service celebrated in Pennsylvania's Lutheran, Reformed, and Mennonite congregations. It was their way of giving thanks for a successful harvest.

A Pennsylvania Dutch group called the Goschenhoppen Historians described Harvest Home celebration this way: "In the old days, the biggest pumpkins and squashes, symbolic sheaves of wheat and shocks of corn, home canning of every sort with baskets of fresh vegetables and fruits such as apples, pears, and peaches adding color were carefully arranged around the chancel." The food collected was prayed over and then shared with those in greatest need.

Friedens was a wounded congregation when I first arrived. The trouble with injured people is the only thing they can see clearly are their injuries. When we obsess about our pains, we eventually become blind to our blessings. So once, when rummaging through old church documents, I found old pictures from past Harvest Home services. Seeing the chancel overflowing with produce gave me an idea.

In my second year at Friedens, I got the congregation to commit to an old-fashioned Harvest Home worship. The service began with a procession of harvest goods - Pumpkins, squash, baked pies, cakes, and apples. Corn shocks lined the pews, and bales of hay were used to prop up large colorful pots full of mums. As people walked the items in, we sang, "Come, Ye Faithful People Come."

“If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch you must first invent the universe.”

— Carl Sagan

Even as I reflect on these memories twenty-five years later, I can hear the people singing, "Come, Ye Faithful people come, raise the song of harvest home; All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin; God our maker doth provide four our wants to be supplied, Come to God's temple, come, Raise the song of harvest home."

When the service was over, we collected the goods and brought them into Fellowship Hall. There we dined together and auctioned off everything shared. Glad and generous hearts purchased pies baked by their spouse for $50. Then they took the purchased pie and gave it to a neighbor. We laughed and joked with each other as our eyes were opened to our blessings.

In the first year, our Harvest Home auction raised $10,000. If my memory serves me right, we raised $15,000 in the second year. The money we raised was donated to World Hunger. In a congregation whose total budget was $90,000, the money raised was quite spectacular.

We, as a nation, are consumed with proclaiming poverty and brokenness. The poverty of spirit is quite costly. It does more than blind us to our blessings; it robs us of joy. Those who take time to celebrate and do specific acts of gratitude discover their souls quickly become renewed. Renewed souls can barely contain their joy.

I pray this Thanksgiving Day that you can see and be thankful. Do something to show gratitude, even if it is a spoken prayer. Then may your heart sing and be generous. Thank you, Friedens, for the gift of life you shared with our family.

Click to read Deuteronomy 26: 1-11