A Reflection on Ploughing for Plough Sunday 2016

Plough Sunday is celebrated in a number of Parish Churches across the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales and although it was resurrected during Victorian times its roots are much older.

Traditionally the community or village plough was kept in the Church and the service was designed to bless the plough and the farming community before the re-commencement of work on Plough Monday i.e. the first Monday after the holiday break and the Christmas festivities.

In some churches ploughs are brought into church and dance teams perform sword dances in the church or church grounds.

Plough services are also special in that we are welcoming members of the farming community to church and asking for God’s blessing on them, their work and their families.

I am not a farmer; however I was brought up in a small rural village in Worcestershire and used to observe the ploughing of fields close to our home
One of the things that I observed was that the farmers when ploughing made sure all the stubble and trash from the previous crops was ploughed in, buried and hidden from sight.

I guess a ploughman must get a feeling of satisfaction when he looks back across a field and sees the perfect rows of furrows with not a stalk of stubble showing.
One of the people I remember speaking to about ploughing was Charlie Knight who was a retired farm worker who had seen service in the Great War.

Charlie told me about the time a pair of steam tractors had been used to plough some fields in the village and how he remembers the ploughs creating great clods of earth like tombstones.

Since those days ploughing techniques have changed and instead of the small tractors, like the little Grey Fergies or David Browns I remember as a boy, we have, what in comparison are giants, green John Dears and blue New International Tractors on our farms. We also have reversible ploughs and Global positioning systems to help keep the furrows perfectly straight.

It’s vital that famers’ embrace these new technologies as several combining factors are driving up the demand and price of food across the world and creating what some see as a perfect storm of demand.

• A growing demand for food and meat, especially in the emerging economies of China   and India

• A growing demand for energy across the world; which means agricultural land is being used to grow energy crops. Even in Yorkshire wheat is being grown to produce bio ethanol and oil seed rape is being grown to produce bio diesel.

• On top of this is the threat of climate change and pressure on water supplies.

We live on a beautiful yet fragile planet, where our very existence is dependent on a few inches of top soil, rain, sunshine and skilled farmers.

We must all be thankful for the skilled work of the farming community and not take them for granted.
The bible has a number of passages which feature ploughing and I wonder how these passages can speak to us about our lives in 21^st century Britain?
In the Old Testament Isaiah 2:1-5 speaks of turning from war and old ways to a new life of peace and turning swords into plough shares and spears into pruning implements.

In the New Testament Paul’s Epistle to the Romans 6:1-11 speaks of burial and death of the old, and a new life in Christ.

The burying is a bit like the stubble and trash of last year’s crops being buried through the action of ploughing. This being necessary so a new crop can be grown. i.e. a new crop cannot be grown until the remains of the old crop are buried.
To quote St Paul’s Letter

Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Now I find it interesting when I was reading up about the sword dancers that perform at some Plough Sunday services that in some dances one of the characters is killed and then brought back to life again. This, I am told is symbolic of killing off the old year before a new year can be born. There is perhaps also an analogy to the death and resurrection of Christ.

The music and rhythm of the dance perhaps also being symbolic of our Christian experience, as we seek to follow the rhythm of the dance of the Trinity in our lives.
Sometimes in life things don’t go the way we or others would like.

Perhaps as a result of:

• Our own limited means

• Through poor decisions made by ourselves or others

• Or through the basic reality that we live in a world which is often less than perfect

• Life’s experiences and memories can get us down and hold us back from experiencing the newness of life that is promised in God.

The bible speaks about being dead to the things that pull us down and it also speaks about being made alive in Christ, You see we are also promised the gift of the Holy Spirit.
One way of describing the relationship in the Trinity between the father, the son and the spirit is of a dance with the three person of the Trinity dancing together in relationship.
This is a dance we are all invited to join in, leaving the past behind and being energised by and immersed in, the Dance of the Trinity.
This is the really good news of the gospel that we don’t have to allow the past to burden us. The past can be buried or ploughed in with Christ and left there and by his spirit we can be given a newness of life with Jesus:            

• Dancing with the Trinity,
• Dancing to a new tune and  a new beginning of a resurrection life
• Dancing to the steps of faith, hope and love
• Dancing with all our short comings forgiven, ploughed in and forgotten.

Okay life may still be a struggle but the pain of these things can be left with Christ.
MINISTRY

Now consider those things that perhaps you hold in secret that you want to be ploughed in or buried with Christ.
Perhaps
·         The fear and worry regarding a situation in your families
·         The fear and worry about your finances or your job or lack of one
·         The pain or hurt of a broken relationship now or in the past
·         Or maybe you feel far away from God and are regretting something you have done and want to bring that something to Jesus and want to leave it with him in the waters of baptism knowing that he has dealt with it.
·         Or perhaps last year was rotten for you and you want to leave it behind and start afresh at the start of this New Year.
·         Or maybe you want to say to God that you feel far away from him and want to embrace him as he moves towards you.
·         Or simply that you somehow feel deep within yourself that God has been speaking to you today or in recent weeks and you want to reach out and to respond to him.
 Now imagine these things that bring you down being like the stubble in a field on a winter’s day all brown and decaying.

Now imagine that Jesus is coming. He is driving a tractor with a plough and is ploughing your field for you and all those bits of stubble and trash are being ploughed in.

Now Jesus has ploughed the whole field and not a single stalk of stubble is showing. He drives over to you, he stops the tractor, turns off the engine, gets out of the cab, climbs down and greets you with his arms outstretched and says:

“It’s finished, be at Peace”

PRAYER

Lord Jesus we thank you for your word which speaks about being buried with you; so that just as you were raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might be given a new life to walk or a new dance with you leading the way.

Lord Jesus we thank you for your death which enables all the trash and stubble in our lives to be ploughed in and buried with you at the Cross.And most of all Lord Jesus we thank you for your resurrection victory over all that seeks to bring us down. 

Holy Spirit we thank you that you come to us to make us whole and to give us the energy to dance the dance of a resurrection life with You and the Father and the Son.

In Jesus name we pray

AMEN

Plough Sunday Service in Diocese of West Yorkshire and Dales January 2016

January 10th

Sharrow St John's 10:00

Knaresborough St John the Baptist's 10:30 (With Claro Sword Dancers)

Kirkby Malzeard  St Andrew’s 10:30 (With Highside Longsword)

Ripon Cathedral 14:30 for refreshments (hot pork rolls) service at 15:30.

January 17^th

Bellerby St John the Evangelist 09:15

Pateley Bridge St Cuthbert's 10:30 (New for 2016)

Leyburn St Mathew's 10:45

Winksley  St Cuthbert and St Oswald’s, 11:00 

Masham  St Mary’s 18.30  (With Highside Longsword)