The Harvest is Plentiful

Matthew 9:35-10:8

June 18, 2023

 

We have been away from Matthew for quite a while

spending our Easter mostly in the book of John.

We come back here in Chapter 9

and lots has happened before this:

 

To summarize:

Jesus was born, his life was threatened by Herod,

innocents were slaughtered,

Jesus was baptized,

he was tempted in the desert,

He calls a few disciples.

Starting in chapter 5,

Jesus gives the sermon on the mountain

which lasts for three chapters in Matthew,

He comes down from that mountain,

and he heals some, and he calms the storm,

then he casts demons out of a man,

and sends them into a bunch of

swine who throw themselves off a cliff.

 

Then in the middle of chapter 9,

Jesus finally calls Matthew the Tax collector

Which we heard last week,

and now his 12 disciples are complete.

And we come to today’s gospel reading

which says, Jesus went to lots of

cities and villages and did amazing things:

casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead.

Then he sends the disciples out to do the same.

 

So the gospel isn’t just a story about the son of God

who does impressive and miraculous things

and tells people the good news.

This is a story about the son of God who does

impressive and miraculous things and shares the Good News

and then sends his followers out to do the same things.

 

He tells the disciples that “the harvest is 

plentiful, 

Wheatfields With A Reaper
Vincent Van Gogh

but the laborers are few.”

Meaning there is a lot of produce 

to pick, but no one to go pick it.

Meaning that there are a lot of people who

could hear about and experience 

the good news of Jesus,

but there’s no one to show them and tell them about it.

 

Is that the same for us now?

I don’t know if most people would say that.

We’re told that the harvest is sparse.

That no one is interested in the church any more

Christianity is in decline

the youngest generation of adults is leaving the church

in droves, or they’ve never stepped foot

into a church or heard much about Jesus in the first place.

If you are a young person in a church, you are an anomaly,

and it’s only going to decline more as time goes on.

The word on the street is “there is no harvest anymore”

 

So some churches have given up.

Some pastors have given up.

The feeling is that less and less people

want to hear about Jesus and the gospel and be part of a congregation

then there’s no need for us to keep trying any more.

The feeling is that the workers are plenty,

but the harvest just isn’t there.

But is that true?

 

I think the problem might be how we’re defining the harvest.

Lots of church people today define “the harvest” in terms

of church membership and church attendance.

It’s all about how many people are coming to worship on Sunday,

how many are becoming members,

and unfortunately, I think, because we live in a market economy,

how many people give money to the church.

  

We look with longing back to the 40’s or 50’s, or even the 90’s

when it seems like all you had to do was

be open on Sunday and people would come and find you.

And yes, there are still some congregations

that are able to reap that kind of harvest, and that’s wonderful.

 

But is that the harvest that Jesus was talking about?

Is that the harvest that Jesus led his disciples work towards?

When Jesus led his disciples, he didn’t tell them to

“get a congregation of people to come to a church and worship

for an hour and give money to us.”

Jesus doesn’t tell them, “Tell them how sinful they are so that they will think 

they’re going to hell unless they come to our church every Sunday”

Jesus doesn’t say, “tell them they’ll be rich and healthy

if they come to our church and give us enough money”

No one in the bible ever tells anyone, “tell them to come to our church . . .”

 

Jesus never told his disciples to bring people in.

Jesus sent his disciples out, out to the world.

Now some people have interpreted that to mean

that we should out and knock on doors to invite people in,

but that’s not what Jesus sent his disciples to do either.

He sent them out, basically to help people and to share

the good news of God’s love for this world.

 

I think the church has done a lot of harm to itself and to people’s 

relationship to God because we’ve been so hung up on numbers.

I think people have felt like they’re just a number in a pew

or like they’re an offering in a plate. We’ve been so focused on

our institutional survival that we’ve forgotten about Jesus mission.

The gospel reading starts out saying that Jesus had compassion

for the crowds because they were harassed and helpless.

A lot of that harassment came from the religious people.

They needed to hear that God loved them. They need a help up.

They even sometimes needed a hand out of food or money and of healing,

they needed to have their demons expelled,

they needed to hear that there is hope.

That is the harvest that Jesus is talking about.

And I think that harvest is still plentiful in our world.

I was watching the news a while ago and there was

a protest in front of the capitol about something.

They interviewed one of the protestors, he was about 20 or 25,

And he said: “We are looking forward to a world

that I’ve never seen, but I know is true.”

 

I wrote it down because, hey,

that’s the kind of stuff we say as Christians!

We are looking forward to a world we’ve never seen,

but we know is true.

 

Statistics would say that this young man was probably not part of a church

and if he ever was, he probably wasn’t attending it regularly.

But he and so many other like him are looking for

the same kind of hope we share in our communities.

People may not be looking for a church,

or they may not be looking for a church like ours,

Or they may have been turned off by our numbers game,

or they may have been so hurt by churches and church people

and can’t see themselves coming into one.

 

But people still want hope.

They still want forgiveness.

They still want healing.

They still want good news.

They still want prayer.

That’s what we’re called to bring.

The harvest is plentiful.

 

Now what does that mean for us?

How do we work in the fields like the disciples did?

A lot of us answer that call by giving food and diapers and school supplies

to people who need it.

A lot of us help to care for people’s health.

We care for people who are grieving and sad.

We give support to children at risk, we care for the poor and homeless.

There are many ways that we can help people.

Like Oliver and others helped Zachary.

And that we can be healing and good news for people.

 

And there are other ways too.

I think that we have to find the opportunities that God puts in front of us.

Forgiving people in your life that you need to forgive is one way.

And, maybe it’s because I’m a pastor, but I find that so many people

don’t think that they are forgiven, by God or whatever 

they call the force in the universe, or by themselves, or others, for one thing or another.

Telling people who don’t feel forgiven that you believe

that God forgives them and loves them.

That can be an amazing testament.

 

Laboring in the field can just plain being kind

to people we meet through our day, who we talk to.

Grocery store check-out people, restaurant staff,

people waiting at the doctor’s office, your neighbors,

 

Sometimes the biggest testament is just to

be identified as a Christian and then not being a big jerk about it.

 

One of the best ways I’ve feel like I’ve done my labor

is by being at Pride Events.

When we went last year to the Pride Event in Bluffton,

we were the only church with a table there.

People stopped by just to talk to us and, I think, see if we were real.

Some people were nearly moved to tears knowing that we thought

that God loved them the way they were. 

You could tell it was healing and hopeful for them. 

And at the Pride Parade in Columbus, that I’ve been to

a number of times, the biggest cheers from the crowds

have been for the churches, because it gives people

hope and healing to know that there are disciples of Jesus

who care and love and accept them.

 

The justice work we do for people like the residents of Chimney Cove

gives them hope and healing and it also is a testament to others

that God cares about everyone and God has sent people to help.

 

And, even if they’re not going to church or ever going to church,

people want prayer, I always have to remind myself of this.

If we are sensitive to other people and to their sensitivites,

it can be very healing to pray with and for them.

 

The harvest is there.

It’s not about how many people we get into our church,

it’s not about our attendance on a Sunday.

It’s not about being the biggest, or the richest church

or even the most stable church.

It’s not about preserving our institution.

It’s about sharing the good news of God’s unconditional love with others.

If we’re in here, we already know it.

Our job is to share it with others out there.

The laborers are few.

But The harvest is plentiful.

Go out and tell everyone the good news:

The kingdom of heaven has come near.