The Harvest Now Is Over
This month we continue our Hymn of the Month series in which one or more hymns drawn from
collections published by Wayne Leupold Editions will be posted on the opening page of the website for
consideration by pastors and musicians who may wish to introduce the hymn to their congregations the
following month. The Hymn of the Month will often be thematically appropriate for a particular season of
the church year or it may be related to a more general theme about the church’s mission in contemporary
society. Thus, pastors and/or musicians may wish to have the choir introduce the hymn on the first
Sunday of the month or season and then invite the congregation to join with the choir in singing the hymn
on each of the remaining Sundays. Additional hymns will occasionally be suggested for a particular
Sunday in the church year or for annual commemorations, such as the liturgies of Holy Week; such
hymns may only be appropriate on the designated day, or they might be used as a Hymn of the Month in
anticipation of or in response to the particular day observed on the church calendar.
The Hymn of the Month for November 2022, is The Harvest Now Is Over, with a text by Gracia Grindal (b.
1943) and a tune by James Clemens (b. 1966). A hymn of thanksgiving, the first two stanzas open with
reflections on the time of year (“The harvest now is over . . .” and “The light is weak and fading . . . ”) and
conclude with words of thanksgiving (“With joy we . . . thank our heavenly Father . . .” and “We thank the
Lord of heaven . . .”), while the third and final stanza concludes the hymn with a focus on the gifts of God
that we can share (“He feeds both flesh and spirit enough so we can share it . . . ”) The tune is a delightful
canon that could be taught in unison of the first two Sundays of the month and sung in canon on the third
Sunday and on Thanksgiving Eve/Day.
Grindal is a poet, author, translator, and educator, who studied at Augsburg College in Minneapolis and
the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She taught at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, for sixteen
years before being before joining the faculty of Luther Theological Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in
1984. Upon her retirement in 2013, she was named Professor Emerita of Rhetoric. Clemens is a versatile
musician with a Mennonite background who studied piano, violin, and organ during his school years and
now composes a wide variety of vocal and instrumental music influenced by old-time tunes, rhythms
from West Africa, the music of Native North Americans, jazz, early American folk hymns.
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