Sunday 2 October: of herds and harvests

A glorious day to celebrate our Harvest Thanksgiving!  

 Great fun, with some special 4-legged visitors, helping to spread
the word about Send a Cow, a great project set up by UK farmers
to help farmers in seven African countries.

We've been thinking about cows
and Send a Cow in our school assemblies and all five schools have been awesomely creative -
making the cows that came to visit us this morning.
Along with making cows, the children had also gathered together
a good sized mound of dried and tinned goods for us to take to the local food bank.
Well done, our five schools and thanks for all your hard work and generosity.

During worship, I shared a variation on an old story called
'Stone Soup':

Let me tell you an old, old story...
Once upon a time, a long time ago three friends were travelling
through a strange land.
After long days of travelling, they had used up all their resources.
As they walked along a muddy lane, they talked:
‘Ahhh, how I would love a good dinner tonight’ said one.
‘Yes, and a bed to sleep in,’ said the second.
‘Hmmm, but all that is impossible,’ said the third...
‘We must keep moving on.’

Not long after they’d said this, the lane swung round, near the top of a hill.
Before them, a little way on, in plain view, was a small village.
Their eyes brightened at the thought of possible food and rest from kindly villagers.
‘Maybe we’ll find some food here,’ said the first.
‘And a barn to sleep in,’ said the second.
‘No harm in asking,’ said the third.

Now the people of that place were fearful of strangers.
They had seen the travellers as they’d come ‘round the corner by the top of the hill.
When they saw that the strangers were heading for their village
each villager hurried to hide any food.
Sacks of barley were quietly hidden under the hay at the back of barns.
Buckets of milk were lowered down the wells.
Old quilts were spread over the carrot bins.
They hid cabbages and potatoes under their beds,
and hung their meat in their cellars and carefully covered the hatch with a rug.
By the time the travellers had arrived in the village,
every morsel of food had been safely hidden.

Door to door went the three friends, asking each villager for a bit of food,
but everywhere, they found the same answer:
‘I would love to share, I truly would, but I don’t have enough food even for myself.’
Every door they knocked on, they were met with sighs,
and attempts at hungry looks, and
‘No’ after ‘no, after ‘no’.
When they asked if there might be lodgings –
or even a spare corner of a barn to kip in -
they were told that all the beds were full,
and that there was not even space in their barns.

The friends found themselves
with nowhere to stay,
and nothing to eat.
All they had was their wits.
They looked at each other, and quietly smiled.
Then, walking to the middle of the village square,
in full view of the villagers, the first of the friends called out:
‘Good people! We are three hungry travellers,
traveling in a strange land. We have come to your village
and you, too, are hungry –
for we have asked you for food, and you have none.
Well then, let us make food for you: we shall have to make stone soup!’
The villagers looked confused.
The traveller continued:
‘Have you not tried stone soup before? It’s simply delicious?’
The villagers all shook their heads.
‘No’
But they were willing to try some of this strange soup – and, learn how to make it.

Clapping his hands together, the first traveller said:
'Now then, we’ll need a large iron pot,'
The villagers brought the largest pot they could find. How else to cook enough?
'That's none too large,' said the three friends,
'But... it will do. And now, water to fill it and a fire to heat it.'
It took many buckets of water to fill the pot.
A fire was built on the village square and the pot was set to boil.

'And now, we’ll be needing one of these...’ said the first traveller.
and with that, he pulled out from under his coat a round, carefully wrapped bundle.
The villagers watched, as he gently unwrapped it.
A large, smooth grey stone emerged from the cloth.
The villagers’ eyes grew round as they watched
the traveller drop the stone into the pot, and lick his lips.

'Any soup needs salt and pepper,' said the second of the friends, as he began to stir.
Children ran to fetch salt and pepper.
'Stones like these generally make good soup.' said the second traveller,
‘But ahh, if there were carrots, it would be much better.'
'Why, I think I have a carrot or two,' said a villager, and, running off,
she quickly reappeared with her apron fill of carrots from the bin beneath her red quilt.

'A good stone soup should have cabbage,'said the third traveller
as he sliced the carrots into the pot.
'But no use asking for what you don't have.'
'I...  I think I could find a cabbage somewhere,' said another villager,
and she hurried home.
Back she came with three cabbages from the cupboard under the bed.
The first traveller looked up from the simmering soup:
'If we only had a bit of beef and a few potatoes, this soup would be
good enough for a rich man's table'
The villagers thought that over.
They remembered their potatoes and the sides of beef hanging in the cellars.
They ran to fetch them.
A rich man's soup – and all from a stone.
It seemed like magic!

'Ah,' sighed the third friend, as he stirred in the beef and potatoes,
'if we only had a little barley and a cup of milk!
This would be fit for the king himself.
Indeed, he asked for just such a soup when last he dined with us.'
The villagers looked at each other.
The travellers had entertained the king!
Well!
'But – no use asking for what you don’t have,' the third traveller sighed.
The villagers brought their barley from the lofts,
they brought their milk from the wells.
The travellers stirred the barley and milk nto the steaming broth
while the villagers stared.

At last the soup was ready.
'All of you shall taste,' the three friends said.
'But first a table must be set.'
Great tables were placed in the square.
And all around were lighted torches.
Such a soup!
How good it smelled!
Truly, fit for a king.
But then, the villagers asked themselves,
'Would not such a soup require bread – and a roast – and... cider?'
Soon a banquet was spread and everyone sat down to eat.
Never had there been such a feast.
Never had the villagers tasted such soup.
And fancy... made from a stone!

They ate and drank and ate and drank.
And after that, they danced.
They danced and sang far into the night.
At last they were tired.
Then the three friends asked:
'Is there not a barn where we could sleep?'
'Let three such wise and splendid gentlemen sleep in a barn?
Indeed not! They must have the best beds in the village.'
So the first friend slept in the teacher’s house.
The second friend slept in the banker’s house.
And the third friend slept in the mayor’s house.

In the morning, the three friends awoke, gathered their
few possessions, and met in the square.
The once fearful-of-strangers villagers gathered around them.
‘Won’t you stay a little longer?’ they asked.
The first of the travellers smiled at them,
and gently took a familiarly wrapped bundle out from his coat.
The stone.
‘This is for you’ he said,
‘But it will only work if you all cook together
and if everyone brings something to the feast.’

The villagers, now fully understanding what the three friends had done,
nodded, and smiled at them warmly.
'Many thanks for what you have taught us,' said the mayor, shaking their hands:
'We shall never go hungry, nor shall we be lonely, or afraid,
now that we know how to make soup from a stone.'

Having said their goodbyes, the travellers moved on from the village.
About a mile down the road, they stopped as they spotted a smooth, grey stone.
Looking at the others, the first of the friends picked up the stone,
found some cloth, and gently wrapped it, then tucked it under his jacket.
‘Just in case,’ he said, grinning...

From our reading in Second Corinthians:
‘Each should give what they have decided in their heart to give – 
not reluctantly, or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you,
so that in all times, having all that you need, 
you will abound in every good work...
Now God who supplies seed to the sower
and bread for food will also supply and increase
your store of seed and will enlarge your harvest of righteousness.
You will be made rich in every way 
so that you can be generous on every occasion...
your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.’

Amen, and thanks be to God for his generous providing.