Proper 6 Year A RCL

June 15, 2008

Matthew 9:35-10:8

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. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, `The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment."

"The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

I was feeling kind of bad last night that I hadn’t already written this morning’s sermon. While Fr. Gene was admonishing me yesterday during his sermon to be prepared at all times, I was squirming a bit because I knew that I wasn’t ready yet for today. Several people asked me yesterday evening what I was going to preach about today. I said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. However, I’m not sure what I’m going to say about that."

Early this morning I realized that I couldn’t preach today outside of the context of yesterday. So I was able to give myself some slack. But then I had to get out of bed and start writing in the context of the new perspective of this morning. Here is what I came up with:

First, I had the great realization that the harvest wants to be harvested. That takes a lot of the pressure off. The harvest wants to be harvested. Paige and I have apple trees at home. One of things that I have noticed is that when the apples are ready, you don’t have to twist the stem to get the apple free of the limb. The apple comes off easily when it is ready to be harvested.

Second, the harvest is plentiful. In our community of Brookings-Harbor there are 14 thousand people. Maybe 3 thousand are in church this morning. That leaves 11 thousand. Many of those aren’t ready yet to be harvested. But even 10 percent of the 11 thousand makes for 10 times more than could be easily added to St. Timothy’s.

Third, what is it that makes the harvest ripe? People who are ripe for harvest want to hear the Good News. And the Good News is this: God loves you. God is accessible right here right now. God’s love is not contingent on your correct understanding of doctrine. God does not discriminate according to social status, race, gender, or sexual orientation. God loves us all and God wants to fill us with that love until it overflows and enables us to love others with recklessness. I think that there are plenty of people that want to hear this message that God loves them and want to experience the spiritual healing that comes from being assured of that love.

Fourth, who are the laborers? My thought earlier this week was that we are all the laborers, because it falls on us here present to share that overflowing love of God with others so that they can know the healing power of God’s love even as we are being healed by God’s love ourselves. But, this morning, in the context of being ordained to the priesthood yesterday, I noticed the next part of the Gospel passage that names the 12 apostles. Yesterday I was added to that list. So, this morning, when I asked myself the question, "Who are the laborers?" I thought to myself, "I am the laborer." And, yesterday, as an assembled Christian community, we asked the Lord of the harvest to send me out into the harvest in a new way—as a leader in Christ’s Church that has been set aside in a unique and special way to gather in the ripe harvest by bringing the love of God to people where they are. The harvest doesn’t harvest itself. Someone needs to go into the harvest and gather it in. Yesterday I said, "Here I am Lord. Send me." And so it begins even though it has already started.

My next thought this morning is about something that Fr. Gene told me a couple of years ago. I told him that I had been inviting people to church and that every Sunday I would stand at the top of the steps eagerly awaiting their arrival so that I could greet them. Fr. Gene said simply, "Instead of standing at the top of the steps to wait for them, go down to the bottom of the steps." As we found out yesterday in his sermon, Fr. Gene’s wisdom can sometimes be cryptic. And I’m half tempted to decipher for you today the stuff he said about "after you pass through an open gate leave it open" and the stuff about "make sure your shoes are polished." And I thought about making him stand while I did the deciphering so that I could get even for him making me stand during his sermon yesterday. However, when Gene said to go down to the bottom of the steps, what he meant was go out into the people and, at the very least, meet them half way. Look to see if they are ready for harvest. Tell them that God loves them and see if they are ripe to hear it and respond to that love. But, remember that the whole countryside isn’t ready for harvest all at the same time. If they don’t come I should not take that as rejection. It just means that they aren’t ready yet.  But eventually they will be. I just need to be ready for when they are ready. 

AMEN