And so we are back to green. Green paraments, green stoles. The Season of Pentecost, or what we call the “regular time” of the church. The Festival half of the church year is concluded, after we followed the life of Christ from Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week and Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. Now we enter the long stretch of Sundays after Pentecost – the time of the church.
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Today we have the first of a two-part reading from Matthew’s
Gospel. The over-arching topic is
something like, “Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles”. Now, next week we will hear about the
suffering they can expect when they go.
But here, for starters, we have some preliminary matters.
First, Jesus comments about the harvest and the workers.
Second, He gives the Twelve authority. And Matthew gives us their names.
Third, He sends them out with their message and marching
orders.
Let’s consider each of these in turn, as we apply the
reading also to our common life in the church today.
“The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” Jesus speaks here in a word picture about the
kingdom. He had been going about his
business, preaching in various places throughout the cities and villages. And it became clear that more preachers would
be needed for the task. The ‘harvest’,
as it were, being the hearers and recipients of the Gospel of the kingdom – and
the ‘laborers’, those who tended to the harvest.
We should understand this aphoristic saying of Jesus with
broad application. The harvest is, now,
as it was then, as it always is – plentiful.
There are always people who need to hear the message of Jesus. There are always people who will receive the
message of Jesus. Keying in on the grand
scriptural metaphor of agriculture – the seed of the Gospel is planted and
preached – bringing forth a harvest of faith by God’s grace. Some plant, some water, some harvest. God always gives the growth. We preachers are just blessed to work our own
little corner of the field, and pray we do it faithfully.
That the harvest is plentiful is good news for the church,
isn’t it? We may look out and think we
see otherwise. It’s easy to be doom and
gloom in today’s world, as churches shrink and orthodox Christianity is
marginalized in the public square. It
looks, to us, less like a harvest and more like a blight. Stubbly fields that have been picked clean by
crows and bleached by the heat of the day.
We may think the church is doomed.
We may predict disaster. We may
feel like Elijah, “I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me
too.”
But don’t dismiss these words of Jesus. The harvest IS plentiful. Things just aren’t always as they seem. The spiritual reality isn’t always what we
perceive it to be. Jesus’ words stand
true, even when it appears otherwise.
So repent of any discouragement and trust that the God who
establishes his church and builds his church will also grow and keep his church
as he sees fit, and that according to his promise, the harvest is
plentiful. People need to hear the
Gospel, and when it is preached, the word doesn’t return void. Some falls on good soil, and produces that
harvest of a hundred-fold.
And remember, that you are a part of that harvest! Though you were dead in your sins, the Spirit
has made you alive in Christ. So now
where there was no life, now there is a harvest. As you have come to faith by the word. As you have been baptized and discipled.
The problem is not the lack of harvest but the lack of
workers, laborers, and preachers. But
even for that problem Jesus has a solution:
pray. Pray to the Lord of the
Harvest to send workers into the fields.
And we know he answers.
If you listen closely to the prayer of the church each week,
we do a pretty good job of following this command of Jesus. We pray for laborers. We pray that God would provide the church
with faithful pastors and church workers.
We also act in accord with this prayer, as we support church workers and
seminary students. Mark Peters, the man
we are now supporting at seminary, and his family will be here again this
summer – and I know you will be generous with him as you always are. This won’t benefit us directly, but it is
part of our support for the church at large, and our response to Jesus’
teaching here. In the same way we
support missionaries, like Phillip Magness, who teaches Lutheran church music
and worship in Africa. He’ll be here in
less than a month.
Second, Jesus gives the twelve authority. Matthew specifically mentions the authority
Jesus gives over unclean spirits, and also to heal. These were important confimations of the
message they would preach, signs that they were sent by the true Messiah, and
an outward expression of the breaking of the devil’s kingdom that the Gospel
brings. It amazed the disciples,
themselves, that even the demons submitted to them in Jesus’ name! But Jesus answers with a sort of “you aint
seen nothin’ yet”. Don’t rejoice in
this, that is, the outward miracles – but that your names are written in
heaven. Rejoice, rather, in salvation
itself.
It’s true that at this point Jesus was sending his disciples
only to the lost sheep of Israel. But
soon he would expand that commission and send them to make disciples of all
nations. So does he establish the Church
and also the office of the Holy Ministry.
Those apostles would plant churches and appoint pastors far and
wide. The kingdom would expand and
grow. The harvest would grow and the
gospel would spread, throughout years, decades, and centuries.
Today, the preachers of the Gospel are not promised the same
kind of apostolic power to exorcise demons and miraculously heal. But we have inherited from the apostles and
those that came after them - the message of the Gospel, and the salvation of
Christ crucified. And that is
enough. It is enough to amaze us, and
give us cause for rejoicing. That the
Son of God became man for you, fulfilled the law for you, and offered himself on
the cross for you – to save you from sin and death and devil. This is the great good news that Christ has
given to the church to hear, and proclaim, and by it, to be saved.
Now, you might say, well, is this all about pastors? Is this all about preaching? Where’s my place in the field? What’s my
labor toward the harvest?
For all of us, it is first of all to believe. To receive the message of Jesus preached to
us. To repent of our sins and believe in
the Gospel. To be the harvest, to grow,
and bear fruit.
Second, to labor in the harvest is to support the preaching
of this gospel. Not all are to be
preachers, just as not all are apostles.
But all have received the message with joy and desire others to receive
the same blessing. And so we pray for preachers,
that they would be sent, that they would be faithful, and for the success of
the proclamation. We earnestly ask that
the Lord would move sinners to repentance and faith in Christ as he has so done
for us. And we do what we can to bring
other sinners to hear this good news, like one beggar telling another where to
find the free bread.
Third, we love our neighbor.
We can say all the right things but if we have no love it won’t amount
to much. Jesus says they will know where
are his disciples by our love. And so
inasmuch as each Christian loves his neighbor, he gives a powerful witness
silent that supports any words of witness he may have occasion to offer. Why are you being so kind to me? How is it, that you can you forgive me? Well, friend, let me tell you… Well, friend, let me invite you to my church…
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. The harvest is plentiful. Thanks be to God. What a joy to be a part of that harvest, by
the blood of Christ. But the workers are
few. So let us heed Jesus’ words, and
pray for more laborers to be sent into that harvest. And let our actions match our words, let our
love and support for the Gospel rise to the occasions he sets before us. For in Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God is at
hand, with blessings as only he can provide.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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