The celebration on the First Sunday after Epiphany has been increasingly revived in modern times as ‘Plough Sunday’ – a tradition that goes back centuries (the earliest record dates back to 1423 in Durham Cathedral). In the agricultural calendar, as the days start to stretch and the coming spring light promises to defeat the darkness of winter, it signals the first ploughing of the year which takes place on the first working day after the Christmas season on ‘Plough Monday’. Essentially, our Plough Service is a way in which we can say ‘Please’ – just as on Harvest Sunday, we say ‘Thank you’. The Plough Sunday liturgy is beautiful and poetic, and as we stand in blessing around the decorated plough in Church, we are reminded of our own responsibilities to care for God’s creation.

I suspect that if asked where the food they are eating comes from, the answer from many would be Aldi, Supervalu or Tesco (ok, Waitrose if you’re posh…). We need to remember that if a farmer doesn’t grow it, we can’t eat it – and unless we in turn care for God’s provision in creation, the land will die. We use chemical fertilisers, toxic weedkillers, antibiotics and hormones to enhance growth; all of these may appear to increase productivity and yield – but in the longer term, they literally will cost the earth.

In recent years, we have seen a welcome increase in the availability of organic and/ or Fairtrade produce, even better when locally grown. Yes, it’s more expensive (and there’s no denying that challenge when people are already struggling) – but much of the cost is markup by large retail chains, which maintain their profit by driving down supplier costs. Then it’s not just small farmers who struggle, but local shops, and they will not be able to last much longer against the competitive power of the multinationals. In the end, rather than enjoying food that has been responsibly produced with care and consideration for the environment and has a known provenance – if at all possible, sourced locally – we will eat the refined product of a heartless industrialised process. We may as well just live on vitamin pills.

Of course, individually we can’t make much of a difference – but giving thanks that we have been given all we need – and concentrating on that, rather than what we want, becoming more aware and behaving more responsibility, every small difference adds up. We are commanded to preserve God’s gift of creation’s rich, healthy soil on behalf of future generations, not to waste that gift on a dying desert choked by thorns. That’s your choice. Choose life.

The following prayer is taken from the Plough Service Liturgy.

Our Unworthiness of God’s Gifts

No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back,

Is fit for the Kingdom of God.

When we are ungrateful for the rain, and the sun, the snow and the frost, in their season,

And forget they are god’s gifts to us:

When we are blind to the mystery of germination,

And forget it is God’s handiwork:

When we are careless with the beasts,

And forget they are God’s creatures:

When we are unkind to men and women,

And forget they are God’s children:

When we scrimp our work,

And forget we are God’s workmen:

When we ill-treat the land

And forget it is the splendour of God:

May the almighty and all-loving Father make you clean from the wrong you have done in the past: May our merciful Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ make you strong to sin no more in the future: May the gracious and life-giving Holy Spirit make you faithful to God again today: To whom be the Glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Heavenly Father, we your people thank you and bless you for our creation, preservation and above all the love you show in giving your Son to be our Saviour, Redeemer and friend. Give us a continual sense of your presence, so that our praise may not be only on our lips but in our lives. May we be a living sacrifice, using our gifts according to your purpose, in the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen

This year’s Scripture card is taken from Micah 6:8.  You will find a .pdf of the card as an accompanying attachment, for you to print as many copies as you would like – for yourself and others.

Click the image to print it and pin it up where you will see it each day, as a remembrance of the task (simple and straightforward, but very difficult to achieve in practice) that our God requires of us.

And here are a few dictionary definitions and quotes to think about:

Justice: fairness in the way people are dealt with.

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.
Benjamin Franklin.

If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected–those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most–and listens to their testimony.
James Baldwin

A Thought: If people think about the word ‘justice’, they would tend to consider their nation’s law or constitution as the fundamental arbiter. This is essentially humanistic, given that such law is based upon the deliberations of government or imposed by ‘dictatorship’; it is also usually extremely complicated, needing legions of learned (and expensive) lawyers to decide on ‘right’ or ‘wrong’; perhaps worse, it is open to political interpretation and corruption. There can only be one basis for legal justice to be defined. You’ll find it in Matthew 22, verses 37-40.

Mercy: the quality of being friendly, generous, considerate, kind, selfless, compassionate, and forgiving; its greatest power revealed in practice to our enemies and amongst the least of these.

“Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
Mark Twain

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
William Shakespeare

Another thought: Some Bible translations use the word ‘kindness’ rather than the word ‘mercy’ in Micah 6:8. This isn’t necessarily wrong – but I don’t think it goes far enough. While kindness is certainly an attribute of mercy, I think ‘forgiveness’ is an even more important facet. It’s easy to be kind to someone you love – but mercy makes demands over the way we deal with those who we do not love.

Humility: the quality or condition of being humble, having a modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance.
True humility Is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.
C.S. Lewis

Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble
When you’re perfect in every way
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
‘Cause I get better lookin’ each day
Willie Nelson

And yet another thought: So essentially, if you think you’re humble, you aren’t. You can only, therefore, be humble if you don’t think you are. If you’re struggling with this apparent paradox, you’re not the only one – join the queue alongside Paul of Tarsus…

And never mind worrying whether you are or aren’t. Just be it.