Harvest

 Have you ever noticed that sometimes at church we get so absorbed

            in all sorts of good things, like different ministries,

                        all sorts of caring service, of interesting study,

                        or church music, 

                        and all sorts of special experiences in liturgy,

so that Jesus just kind of fades into the background.

We may not intend to be so forgetful,

                                                but it happens all too easily,

            and then we lose our spiritual rudder, our integrity of purpose,

                        and awareness of the immensity of our liberation

and the immensity of the love that Jesus expressed and lived and is.

all our “church-i-ness” can distract us away from this central truth

            of Jesus and our relationship to that.

 

So in the Gospel for today we hear that

“… Jesus went about all the cities and villages, 

            teaching in their synagogues, 

            and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, 

            and curing every disease and every sickness. 

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, 

because they were harassed and helpless, 

                                    like sheep without a shepherd.” 

 

Jesus looks at all with love and compassion,

                        every single person wherever he went.

He sees the condition of suffering for each one;

he sees the helplessness they experience in the face of their suffering.

He knows it all.

Nothing escapes from his loving gaze – 

            your pain and mine, known and hidden, 

            the suffering we admit to 

            and the suffering we hide 

                        out of the shame, we think, of not being self-sufficient, 

                        not having it all together.

And then there is the suffering we are not even aware of,

            the ways in which we are bound by 

                        the limitations of our perceptions

                        and the timidity of our faith.

 

Jesus saw the crowds and he had compassion for them

            because they there harassed and helpless and leaderless.

 

In his compassion he sends out his disciples to minister to them

                        just as he would minister to them.

“The harvest is plentiful,

            but the laborers are few.”

 

So here in this Gospel passage we have a few laborers, namely 12, 

                                                            but what exactly is the harvest?

            Is it a harvest of saved souls?

            Is it a harvest of testimonies and stories of healings 

                        and liberations that have come to people?

 

Or – and here’s a new thought – 

perhaps one could think of the harvest in terms of 

what the disciples harvest from Jesus:

            what the disciples harvest from Jesus

            is the authority he has to give them to carry out their mission

of healing and setting free and proclaiming the Kingdom come near.

 

They harvested from Jesus

             the authority to cure every disease and sickness.

This was not their own capability, 

or even what they learned in “seminary” classes with Jesus,

            but pure gift through the Holy Spirit.

 

And when sent out, these disciples didn’t have to go far – 

            those needing to hear the good news

                        were those even of their own household of faith.

            Can’t make an assumption that there is no need 

                                    for release from unclean spirits or disease

            among themselves and their own people.

 

This proclaiming of the Good News of the Kingdom of God drawn near

            was not for the purpose of making the Samaritans, 

                        or other neighboring peoples, 

                                    into Jews, into right believers.

Rather even within the “right believing” ones of their own people, 

                                    their own community, 

            were many who were lost,

            who were silently suffering in their own private situations

                        of pain, grief, bondage, alienation, loneliness, anger,

                        and all other forms of human wretchedness.

 

So Jesus begins with his closest disciples and sends them out.

            Is this message just for the original 12?  or just for clergy?

            Or for all who identify with a Christian faith community, 

                                                the church?             

We say no, not just the 12, but for all disciples, including ourselves.

 

First Jesus sends the 12.

            And they are only to go to Judean and Galilean towns.

Later he will send 72, 

            and the text says he sent them to all the places 

                        where he was going to go.

Then he sent 120, 

            those who had gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, 

            and they went out into all the known world at that time.

Starting close to home, the circle then ever widening.

 

Next he sends who? us?

If we look at this passage and the instructions Jesus gives,

            then this is quite a lot to ask of the average pew-sitter.

 

We are not just to proclaim in word some spiritual good news,

            but also to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, 

                        cast out unclean spirits

            and make no provisions for ourselves.

 

“You received without payment; give without payment.”

Hey!  We don’t even ask this of the clergy!

 

But what Jesus is telling the 12 here

            is that they are to go out and do exactly what he had been doing,                                                 right?

And to do it in the same way Jesus did,

            that is, with utter trust that your basic needs will be met.

Jesus had no home, no paycheck, no pension plan, no credit cards, 

                                                not even carry on luggage.

 

And Jesus knew this was way beyond the capabilities of the disciples,

                                                                                                and all the rest of us too.

 

In actuality the disciples would be doing these things 

            not out of their own capabilities

            but Jesus was going to be working through them.

It is the Spirit of Jesus who does the work, not us.

 

When acting as evangelists for the Gospel, remember:

            we are not the ones who are doing the saving.                        It is Jesus.

 

The healing and casting out or liberation, 

                        which are signs of the Kingdom of Heaven drawing near, 

            are done by Jesus.

And they are done by him through the open and willing bodies of his disciples.

We would like to think that these disciples were ordinary folks;

            there were fishermen and a tax collector among the 12,

                                                            we know for sure.

But they were extraordinary

            in that they were responsive 

            to Christ’s call for them to follow him.

They got it about the huge compassion Jesus expressed 

            through his words, his actions and his very being.

They may not have understood it all,

            but they were magnetized by it,

                        and so when Jesus drew them, they responded.

And they came with openness – 

            openness of mind, openness of heart and openness of hand.

                                    even if they were often described as slow learners!

 

So the implications for ourselves                         here                         today               …

 

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

 

We can look at harvest in terms of those just outside the doors 

            for whom the good news of God’s liberating love expressed through Jesus 

                                    would be very welcome,

and we can look at harvest in terms of what Jesus is offering us of himself,

            his love for others that we can be channels of,

            his capacity for compassion and compassionate service,

            and his power and authority to actually bring healing and liberation. 

Can we all be disciples in whom discipleship is progressing in faith

            and knowing that it is his life in us that we now live?

That is the question of the day.

 

What draws you to Jesus?

What captures the mind, will and imagination

                                                so that we are irresistibly drawn to him?

For me, Jesus is the unconditional potency of love and forgiveness.

Through his own life, obedience, suffering and death

            he absorbs all the energies of suffering and sanctifies all creation, all beings, 

            that the knowledge of God may prevail as the waters cover the sea.

 

We have a sacred responsibility in how we use  our blessedness, our gifts.

All this is not just for our own use;

            all is so we can be disciples and servants for others, as Jesus is.

This is our mission, our purpose.

For forging a vision of what is happening next for St. Andrew’s

            you need to be a part of it,

                        responding to Jesus, 

                        being willing to be something of a disciple,

                        harvesting the love and potency of Jesus.

 

Harvest the Love that Jesus offers us.

Seek to serve God in the Name of Jesus 

                        in such a way, with such openness 

            that healing, compassion, liberation and love flow through you.

 

Or, we could say, let that Love harvest us.