Vincent Van Gogh, "Harvest in Provence"
Today, I want to talk with you about how we, as Christians, can get out of the pew and into the world.
I know, that may seem surprising to you—a pastor talking about emptying the church rather than trying to fill it. But it happens every Sunday doesn’t it? We come to church. We sit here. We sing some songs, pray some prayers, listen to a sermon, then we go on our way again. It is that last step which, perhaps, is the most important—going on our way again. The question is: how do we go on our way again?
I met with a counselor once who had a plaque over the doorway in his counseling room. The door was the one way in and one way out of the room. And the words I read over the doorway every time I left his office were these: “The magic starts here.” Perhaps those would be good words to hang over the exit from our sanctuary.
I want to talk with you more about that point in a moment. But first, let’s look at what Jesus has to say in Luke 10:1-3. Listen for God’s word to you…
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way.
See the need.
In this passage we see Jesus sending out seventy of his disciples to prepare the way for him in every town and place where he intended to go.
I did some work like this for evangelist Luis Palau many years ago. I did the prep work for a preaching series Luis planned to conduct in the South Bay area of the Los Angeles metroplex. At that time, there were 16 million people in the greater Los Angeles area. 35% claimed to be Christian. 6% claimed some sort of regular church attendance. The funny thing was, I knew that last statistic was wrong. How did I know? I knew because I had preached in many of the churches in the area and saw their seating capacity. If, at that time, 6% of the people in the L.A. area showed up for church on one Sunday, the church buildings would not have enough room for them.
Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Jesus wasn’t talking about a harvest of potatoes or a harvest of corn. It is evident from the context of this verse that Jesus was talking about a harvest of people.
Basically, Jesus was telling his disciples that there was a great spiritual hunger all around them, but that there weren’t enough laborers to meet the need of that hunger.
When Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” that was an invitation to his first century disciples to open their eyes and see the need, the spiritual need, all around them.
On another occasion, Jesus was even more pointed in his invitation: “Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.” (John 4:35)
I wonder: do we ever open our eyes and see the spiritual need around us?
Before I came to Stowe in 2015, I did some research on our county. I found that a little less than 20% of the residents of Lamoille County claim any kind of affiliation with a religious institution.
Now, there are at least two ways of reacting to that kind of statistic…
I am reminded of the story of the shoe salesman who was sent to Africa by his company. After a short time, he quit. When his company asked him why, he said, “Do you realize these people don’t wear shoes?”
The company sent another salesman to replace the first one. His supervisor checked in on him after a short time in the field and asked, “How’s it going?” The salesman responded, “It’s going great! Do you realize these people don’t have shoes at all? What an opportunity!”
As church-going people we can look at the low church attendance in New England as a problem or an opportunity. It all depends upon our perspective.
Now, I would not assume for a moment that the 80% of people in Lamoille County who claim no religious affiliation are somehow all spiritually lost. In a similar manner, I would not assume that all those 20% who do claim a religious affiliation are spiritually found. But I do think the statistic is probably indicative of a spiritual need in our county, and a spiritual opportunity for those of us who are involved in church.
I think we can learn from our passage for today, as well as from the whole New Testament, that the most important thing, spiritually speaking, is not whether someone belongs to a religious institution or not. The most important thing, to my mind, is whether people belong to Jesus or not. And those of us who know Jesus in a personal way have the opportunity and privilege of introducing others to him, just as his first century disciples did.
But if we are going to do that, first we have to see the need for it. We have to see that there is a ripe spiritual harvest all around us, and that the laborers to reap this harvest are few.
Ask the Lord.
Jesus’ second point immediately follows from the first. He says, “therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” So, Jesus makes it quite clear that our second step, after becoming aware of the spiritual need around us, should be to pray.
There are two words in this sentence that I find quite interesting. The first is the Greek word that is translated as “ask”. That word can also be translated as “beg”. There is something passionate about begging that goes beyond mere asking. I think that when you come to know Jesus in a personal way, you naturally want to share the joy of that relationship with others.
I have quoted many times these words from U.S. Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson because I think they are so true…
For the New Testament Christians, witness was not a sales pitch.
They simply shared, each in his own way, what they had received. Theirs was not a formally prepared, carefully worked-out presentation with a gimmick to manipulate conversation, and a “closer” for an on-the-spot decision…but the spontaneous, irrepressible, effervescent enthusiasm of those who had met the most fascinating Person who ever lived.
The gospel is not theology. It’s a Person. Theology doesn’t save. Jesus Christ saves. The first-century disciples were totally involved with a Person. They were followers of Jesus. They were learners of Jesus. They were committed to Jesus. They were filled with Jesus.
They had encountered Jesus Christ and it simply could not be concealed. They witnessed not because they had to, but because they could not help it.
Their school of witnessing was the school of the Spirit where they learned continuously. Authentic Christian witness is born of the Spirit.
Madison Avenue, with all its sophisticated know-how, can’t improve on the strategy. Nothing is more convincing than the simple, unembellished word of a satisfied customer. American business spends millions of advertising dollars annually in an attempt to achieve it.
The simplest Christian does it effortlessly when he tells a friend what Christ means to him.[1]
In short, the first disciples of Jesus were like every person I have ever met who was in love. A person who is in love just bubbles over to tell you about their beloved. The person who is in love wants everyone to know their beloved and see how wonderful they are.
When we have that kind of passionate, in-love, relationship with Jesus, then we will naturally want to beg our heavenly Father that he would send out laborers into the spiritual harvest so that others will come to know Jesus just as we have.
The person who has a relationship with Jesus does not have an “us vs. them” mentality. They simply have the desire to share the good news about the most wonderful person they have ever met.
The other interesting word in Luke 10:2 is the word “send”. That word can also be translated more literally as “thrust out” or “throw out”. There is an urgency about the spiritual harvest all around us. The spiritual need is so urgent that we should be asking our heavenly Father to thrust out workers into the harvest field, to throw them out willy-nilly.
The need for people to come to Jesus, at the moment when he sent out the seventy, was indeed urgent. Jesus knew that many of his countrymen and women were on a collision course with Rome. In fact, Jesus predicted, 40 years before it happened, the destruction of Jerusalem that would happen as a result of Jewish rebellion against Rome. And Jesus was urgently inviting everyone he spoke to, and everyone his disciples spoke to, to change course, to take a different approach. The watch-word of this different, “Jesus approach”, was peace.
In a different, yet similar way, there are many people of whom Jesus might say today that they are on the wrong track. And their need to follow Jesus’ way of peace is great. The spiritual needs all around us are urgent.
Go on your way.
So, Jesus gives us three phrases of instruction regarding the spiritual harvest all around us. The first is to see the need. The second is to beg the Lord. And the third is to go on our way.
Jesus sent the 70 on their way to all the towns and villages he was about to visit. In a different, yet similar way, Jesus sends us out today. I think Jesus is visiting people all around us spiritually all the time. Our opportunity is simply to invite others to wake up to this spiritual reality as we go our way through our everyday lives.
It doesn’t matter which way we go on any given day, whether to Burlington, or Montpelier, or Waitsfield, or Morrisville, or Stowe. Wherever we go, every day, there are spiritual opportunities around us. And when we pray for the Lord to send out workers into his harvest field, we become open to becoming those workers ourselves.
What are we to say as we go on our way for Jesus? The message is simple: Peace. And of course, we need, as Jesus’ followers, not only to speak words of peace to others, we also need to embody his peace wherever we go. Therefore, as we prepare ourselves for this kind of ministry, let us pray the words of St. Francis…
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master,
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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