In-gathering of commitment cards is time for a harvest celebration
by Angela Emerson
Mountain Echo, September 2008

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves;
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
George A. Minor, 1880

In rural farming communities the harvest remains the highpoint of the year. The hard labor of tilling and preparing the soil, sowing the seeds, tending and nurturing the crops is over—the time for celebration has arrived! A cycle has come to an end, the harvest is what it is, and it is time to reap what has been sown. The grains are cut and bundled into sheaves and carried in from the field. It is a time for rejoicing!

Most of us do not live according to the rhythms of farm life anymore. Instead, in our individual lives, “harvest-time” tends to revolve around pay day. In the church, “harvest time” is in the fall when members of the congregation have an opportunity to make a financial commitment to the work of the church.

The in-gathering of commitment cards is a harvest celebration—or at least it might be helpful to think of it in that way. During the course of the year, people have prepared themselves to greet the Risen Christ when he comes again and have celebrated his birth and his manifestation to the Gentiles. The realities of lives have been examined, the call to the Christian life and the barriers that stand in the way acknowledged. In the joy of Easter new life in the Risen Christ has been proclaimed. The gift of the Holy Spirit has come once more, and then through the power of the Holy Spirit people have sought to use these gifts of the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and the Ascension to grow in the image of God. During these liturgical seasons new seeds have been planted. The growing season has come to an end with a liturgical celebration of the harvest from this year’s work—an intentional and purposeful commitment to God’s on-going work in the world. That is, after all, why the Church gathers: to be sustained as God’s workers in the world.

So bringing in the sheaves—the commitment cards—is a grand celebration, a culmination of the year’s hard work, both in our individual lives and as the church. Liturgically, it is a special celebration with joyful music, a lively spirit, an abundance of thanksgivings, and renewed commitment to enter the cycle more mature, more committed, and filled with the urgency of brining to fullness the kingdom of God. Does this sound like the Sunday of the in-gathering in your congregation? If not, consider some of the following ideas:

• Announce the date now. Encourage everyone to be present and participate.
• Have commitment cards everywhere the day of the in-gathering.
• Have a special anthem and procession to the altar for presentation of the commitment cards. Bless the offerings. Design a special way for the children of the parish to participate—including having their own commitment cards.
• Write special prayers of the people for this day that connect the prayers to mission and ministry of the church and the commitment of the people to carry out that mission.
• Have a special fellowship time before and/or after the service to celebrate the many ways that the congregation carries out God’s work.
• Do a special commissioning service in which everyone is commissioned to be a steward of the mysteries and abundance of God.
• Help people look forward to the coming year and the many opportunities to serve.
• Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice

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