Is it really nearly time for Harvest Festival again? Where has the year gone? Mind you, we have had a decent summer this year; bad luck all you who fled to the continent to catch some rays! We basked (sweltered) for weeks.

So the barley, the wheat, the oilseed rape, the lovage and the linseed are all cut and carried. The fields are brown now rather than gold, with a shimmer of bright green as seeds germinate and leaves appear. The cycle of the agricultural year which we witness first hand reminds us of the passage of time.

Children are starting school, or new classes, or new schools; some are panicking about College and University. We’re all a year older – and some a little wiser too. One of my sons has got married, whilst the other has bought a house in Aylesbury- they have both flown the nest for good and Darby and Joan have taken on 2 Cocker Spaniel boy puppies instead.

Nothing stays the same does it? I went back to Warwick where I had Iived in the 1970s and 80s and found they had rolled up the past like a carpet and had changed things! Shops had gone. Roads were pedestrianised. The Race Course charged for the parking! It’s all very unsettling.

As we look at the world around us via the tv news or the newspapers we see so many situations of flux and change, where what had been certainties are now unreliable. Nothing can be taken for granted as old friends for centuries find themselves at war, and those who preach the Gospel of Peace are at risk of being slaughtered by angry men who actually worship the same God.

Some people look at the Revelation of St John the Divine, the final book in the Bible, and wonder if the wars and plagues it prophesies are coming to pass; is the end nigh? Others of us look for what is reliable, what we can trust in, what will never let us down. We don’t find that in any work of mankind. But we do find it in God.

Whatever happens we can be sure that God loves us.

Whatever comes to pass we know that Jesus died on the cross to give every single human being the chance of salvation and eternal life.

Whatever disasters befall us or others around the world the certainty is that we are known and treasured as individuals by the God who created us, knows us by name, and values us.

Whatever turmoil we find ourselves or the world in we can be sure of this –

Jesus Christ, yesterday, today, the same for ever!