A Lazy Harvester

 

 

The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. (Mt. 9: 37-38)

 

The end of chapter 9 is a turning point in the book of Matthew. Up to this point Jesus is the preacher, teacher, and healer, the sole missionary if you will. In chapter 10, the disciples are summoned and sent out to preach and share the gospel. The note in my study Bible suggests that the verses are directed to the Matthean community because they are not engaged in mission or sharing the good news, and they should be. Here they receive a how-to manual.

 

Before the how-to manual we have verse 37-38 of Chapter 9. It teaches us three important things:

 

Abundance – the harvest is plentiful

How often do we go into the world with a perception that the world is out to get us? That there are scammers and thieves lying in wait? We go out suspicious of groups or those who are other? Are we not clouded in fear or anxiety, convinced the world is falling apart – with gangs, narcissism, apathy, drugs, violence?

 

For the non-farmers among us, harvest is the product of much work. Someone cleared the land, prepared the soil, planted seeds, tended the plants, weeded, picked bugs, worried that the plants would bear produce. And now after all that hard work, it is harvest time. And it was a good growing season - the right amount of sun and rain – worries can be set aside as there is an abundance of produce. Plentiful!

Before Jesus, before the disciples, before Matthew’s community the farming was done.

 

There is now a plentiful harvest. How often do we go into the world with a perception that God is already there? That there are people waiting to hear that they are loved and welcomed and belong? That someone cares? That there is freedom from bondage, redemption, and wholeness? Do we go with confidence, passion, and faith that people will gladly follow if asked, if invited, if given a ride.

Living from a perception of abundance, this passage makes me think about the harvesting of strawberries in a bumper crop year. Those are the summers where there are so many berries, you start picking a row and remain in the same row. No matter how many berries you pick, and others pick, there are berries that rot on the vine because the harvest can not be picked fast enough. This kind of harvesting is not onerous. It is a lazy person’s dream come true – sit in one spot and pick.

 

The second, important thing to note, there is an invitation to prayer.  – ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers

 

Pray.

The words of Mother Teresa sum up the reason so well. She wrote: “I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that, but now I pray that he will guide me to do whatever I’m supposed to do, what I can do. I used to pray for answers, but now I’m praying for strength. I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.”

We do that, we regularly ask in the ‘Prayers of the People’ for courage to serve. We pray in the communion liturgy that we may ‘give ourselves away as bread for the hungry.’  I wonder if we approach these prayers with the belief that the prayer will change us. Are we courageous enough to keep praying? And do we dare to pray for God to send labourers into the harvest – when we know that means us?

 

The third point to note is that labourers go into his harvest. – God’s harvest.

Labourers are not working for themselves, not working for their own gain or wealth, not working to fill their church. Labourers are working in God’s abundance in the currency of love, compassion, mercy, gospel-good-news. The magnitude of the work is as big as creation– God’s garden flourishes in the proclaiming of the good news of the kindom and curing every disease and every sickness, along with compassion for the harassed and helpless.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his Advent reflection, “God Is in the Manger,” wrote,

In total reality, he comes in the form of the beggar, of the dissolute human child in ragged clothes, asking for help. He confronts you in every person that you meet. As long as there are people, Christ will walk the earth as your neighbour, as the one through whom God calls you, speaks to you, makes demands on you.

God, in Christ, is already in the abundance of the harvest. The Matthean community – we- are being invited into that harvest.

 

And get this, the harvest is so abundant, labourers are so needed –

You can sign up as a lazy picker and still cause change in your part of the berry patch.

You can pick one spot. You can sit on your butt. And you can participate in the harvest.

 

I don’t know about you, but I really do not like to see fruits or vegetables of any kind go to waste.  I am saddened when berries rot in the field. This passage is talking about God’s harvest. I don’t want to see people rot in the field, - succumbing to hopelessness, loneliness, worry, anger, marginalization, guilt - because I am walking in the world thinking it is out to get me, rather than living by grace through faith and sharing good news.

 

So here is a challenge for this faith community – if we each were ‘lazy pickers,’ this part of God’s harvest would get underway:

So here it is -

Choose a few hours each week – or a day or two- through the summer to be at the church. Open the doors so people can peek in or perhaps stop and pray for a moment or two. Talk with those who come in and welcome them. As they leave share a “Peace be with you.”

Sit on the church steps or at the picnic table - say ‘hello’ to the passersby. Welcome and be open to conversation.  

Have some sidewalk chalk and colour the street with words and pictures of welcome and wholeness. Blow bubbles with those interested. Bring cookies and share.

Whatever you do be present in the harvest.

 

And in this harvest you and the neighbourhood will be abundantly blessed.

 

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

Giving Life to the Dead

 

Paul’s letter to the Romans invites us to ponder who God is and how God is.

 And what that means for who we are and how we are.

Paul asserts that God gives life to the dead and calls things into being that do not exist.

These creed-like statements are, using Abraham’s faith and life as illustration, commended to the Christ-following community receiving the letter. Note that the characteristics of who God is and how God is are in the present tense – active.

 

Let us explore this morning’s gospel from Matthew (9:9-13, 18-26) through the lens of Romans 4: 17, which reads: Also, to those who share the faith of Abraham… in the presence of the God in whom Abraham believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

The Gospel according to Matthew:

 

Jesus walked along.

Jesus saw a man.

            Not just with his eyes, did Jesus see a man. Jesus saw the man – as in “I see you.” The modern phrase of acknowledgment, recognition, understanding, and validation. I see the true you, the one hidden behind the masks you wear. The you, that is under the hate spewed at you by your own people; the you, lost in the conniving and cheating the job requires of you; the you, at a distance from others, alone.

And there was God –

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus called Matthew the tax collector. Follow me.

            An invitation is given to a despised, toll-charging, booth attendant named Matthew. Charging – at his own discretion the amount of coin required to pass by. Paying to walk their traditional lands and unceded territory, this collector was a traitor in the eyes of the people.

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus sat down and had dinner with tax collectors and sinners.

            Matthew having felt seen, invites his friends to meet Jesus over a meal. Against social etiquette and religious rules, Jesus said yes – to eat with a group despised for collecting taxes from their own people to pay an occupying force. The franchised tax system was one where tax collectors often charger far more than what was fair, received bribes from the wealthy, and distributed the burden of the Roman tax quota to the poor. The collectors became rich on the backs of others. And the sinners? Bankers, those lending money, others, whose professions violated the Torah.

Jesus stood up for the tax collectors and sinners and remained sitting with them.

            Sitting with them in a demeanor of forgiveness without expectation of repentance or confessions.

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus told the religious types to go and learn what mercy means.

            The religious leaders were not any better. The religious were judgers of righteousness in others, following a heavy-handed, hard-line interpretation of covenant laws, and extra laws. Religious nit-pickers, who were comfortable and liked to assume power and wield their authority.

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus taught John’s disciples.

            We didn’t read this section of text, but in it is a debate on the practice of fasting, and judgement of those who do not; including Jesus’ disciples who are in a time of celebration for God is near. Jesus alludes to being more than a teacher -

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus was interrupted by a leader kneeling at his feet.

            This leader was a Ruler of the Synagogue in Capernum. He had general oversight of the synagogue with the power to invite visitors to address the congregation or not. The leader was a gatekeeper who turned not to the priests or others in the religious structure of the day. He came to Jesus and was not ignored.

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus went to raise the leader’s daughter.

             The leader came for his daughter, one considered the least of a family – being both child and female.

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus felt power flow through him.

            Unexpected, immediate, uncontrolled.

And there was God-

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus turned and saw a woman suffering with a flow of blood.

            Once again Jesus saw. Jesus saw her. The fear and hope, her despair and shame. Ostracized from society, community gatherings, and religious rituals because of illness. Jesus saw her faith not the simple-mindedness attributed to women of the day.  She was not rebuked but given dignity and respect.

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus spoke to the woman.

             In an open conversation with a stranger in public, one unnamed, considered unclean; a woman - so even when marked clean, relegated to the back of synagogue, and with the responsibility to stay a decent distance from men.  

Jesus called her daughter.

 Validating her worth.

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Jesus healed the woman.

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus arrived at the leader’s house.

            That would be a rich leader for he owned property. Because his child had died there would be talk. He must have done something wrong to have received disfavour from God.

Jesus sent the mourning crowd away.

Jesus spoke and was laughed at.

            Jesus’ words were incomprehensible, deluded, and irrational. The girl was dead.  And to send to the mourners away was to prevent them receiving their wage as mourners at the house of wealth.

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus took the girl’s hand.

            A girl – not as special as a son. A child with no status of their own. Jesus showed mercy and touched a dead body.

Jesus raised the girl.

And there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

Jesus’ actions were reported through all the district.

 

The reports were both miracle story and controversy narrative, sharing a theme of opposition.

The scandalous headlines:

Jesus - Counteracts the dehumanization of occupation

Jesus – Courageously challenges religious structure

Jesus – Blatantly disregards social expectations

Jesus – Non-discriminately offers tangible acts of restoration

Jesus -  Recklessly administers mercy

 

And in Jesus’ opposition to the powers and authorities of the world, the systems, the judgement, the negative, the pervasive evil, and even death, in Jesus’ presence and actions, there was God -

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

The Greek verb to call in this text also means to invite. As followers of Jesus, Paul reminds us of the covenant and our invitation by the grace of God to the messianic banquet. A banquet where Jesus sits with tax collectors, sinners, the least, the forgotten, the ostracized, the sick, the poor, the landowner, others’ disciples, the dead --- and gives to each the bread of life.  Jesus’ brings into existence that which didn’t exist – belonging, kindness, mercy, wholeness, redemption, restoration, relationship. Matthew’s gospel highlights the relinquishing of old habits and embracing new responses to God’s grace, responses that are kindom work, God’s kindom. With a little help from Paul, we see that kindom comes about through faith, trusting in who God is and how God is. Jesus manifested in his ministry both Who and How God is.

 

In our everyday lives… walking along…

Because of who God is and how God is, who and how are we?

May we be of the same courage as Abraham, Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become… what God promised. Hoping against hope, may we believe in the coming of God’s kindom and in opposition to the world,

bring into existence – in each moment of our day -  mercy, kindness, belonging – giving life to the dead.