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Mount Dennis is not a farming community; the market gardens in the Eglinton Flats disappeared with Hurricane Hazel.  But in both testaments of the Bible the harvest is a powerful religious symbol.  There is an old revivalist hymn that goes:
                                    Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
                                    We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
            So it is most fitting that at this year’s celebration of Harvest Thanksgiving we are baptizing Alyssa Riley-Rose on the same day and in the same month that her father Scott was baptized here in 1977.
            Membership in a church community no longer has the support and encouragement from society that it once enjoyed; nowadays it is strictly an individual choice.  Such membership will only be maintained if it brings enrichment to the life of the individual making that choice.  Here we have something of a “Catch 22,” for the benefits of this membership will only be experienced by those who are in for the long haul.  Otherwise, one will agree with Bill Gates that there are better things to do on a Sunday morning. 
            So I can only express the hope that Scott and Judy and, in time, Alyssa will find that participation in our life and worship does enrich their lives, as their presence here today enriches all of us. 
            Speaking for myself, I can say that when I read about the crisis facing the Anglican Communion today, I thank God that my time here at the Good Shepherd has been crisis-free.  The most lively topics of debate have been whether Harvest Thanksgiving should be observed on the Sunday after or the Sunday before the civic holiday, and whether or not we are receiving enough money in rent from the Day Care. 
            An outsider might say that we enjoy such tranquillity only because we are not “on the cutting edge” and are not “pushing the envelope.”  To this I would reply, Thank God!  In the Book of Isaiah we read: “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” saith the Lord (56:7).
            We do not come together here to solve the problems of society or of the church, although we are not unmindful of these problems.  We come together here to worship God, and whatever differences we may have on the issues of the day, we do not allow them to intrude upon our worship. 
            The gratitude of the Samaritan leper in today’s gospel (Luke 17:16) is also found in the letters of Paul, who urges his people to be thankful (Philippians 4:6), just as he himself is thankful, even when in prison (Philippians 1:3) or suffering persecution (Colossians 1:24).
            Gratitude is closely related to what Norman Vincent Peale called “the power of positive thinking.”  We cannot feel gratitude towards someone against whom we are carrying a grudge.  Together, gratitude and positive thinking are the antidote to the poison which infects communities and the lives of individuals, the poison of negativity.
            This year the former President of Finland was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve world conflicts by peaceful means.  We need to be aware of the insidious attraction of negativity which is in each one of us.  There is a limited amount that we can do about the tensions in our world, but we can all look into our own hearts to see whether we are making a serious effort to “accentuate the positive,” and to “eliminate the negative.”

October 19, 2008

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