Answering the Prayer for Labourers in the Harvest

 

The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Mt.37-8

 

Frederick Buechner, American theologian and Presbyterian minister, wrote: go where your best prayers take you.

He also wrote: The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

 

The Gospel has Jesus, teaching, healing, and proclaiming good news as he moves from city to city, village to village. Crowds gather. From the midst of a crowd, Jesus says to the disciples, ask the Lord of the harvest, meaning pray – for labourers to be sent out. The harvest is plentiful, look at the crowd! Look all these people!

 

Go where your best prayers take you. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into the harvest.

This is a biblical prayer. Where does this ‘best prayer’ take us?

 

June 21 is the commemoration day of evangelist Onesimos Nesib, who died in June of 1931. Onesimos was born into the Oromo people of Ethiopia. He was captured by slave traders and taken from his homeland to Eritrea, where he was bought, freed, and educated by Swedish missionaries. Onesimos translated the Bible into Oromo and returned to Ethiopia to preach the gospel. His tombstone includes Jeremiah 22: 29 “O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!”    -Sundays and Seasons, c2022 Augsburg Fortress, pg205

Onesimos laboured in the harvest. Praise the Lord that the prayer of Matthew 9:38 was answered. But, that was in the 1920s. Was the prayer fully answered; how many other Onesimos’ were there labouring in the harvest? And since that time, new crops have grown, there are a few more generations of planting, and seeding; lots of people in the crowds.

 

The image of the harvest and labourers, makes me think of Canada’s agriculture industry. Every year we hear of farmers who turn under edible produce and crops because they do not have the labourers to harvest it. Even with migrant workers there are not enough hands helping. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but, when people are hungry and food bank use has significantly increased, can we really afford to let food rot in the field? If crowds, the people, are the produce in this image, how many get plowed under or left in their circumstances to rot?

 

There is an idea played out in the Christian churches and in ministry models, where missionaries, deacons, and pastors have a ‘special’ call and vocation; a call and vocation not shared by congregation members. It leads to communities sponsoring missionaries in far off places and hiring a pastor in  the local congregation to do ministry for them, rather than with them.

Today’s reading begins with a preamble (the end part of Matthew 9) to highlight the purpose of calling the disciples and the purpose of Jesus’ teaching, healing, and proclamation of the good news. It is spoken to the Matthean community, one that biblical interpreters have suggested, was not engaged in mission. Labourers were few. Jesus calls the disciples and those following, to a vocation to proclaim the good news (that the kindom of heaven has come near). Cure the sick. Raise the dead. Cleanse the lepers. Cast out demons.

 

I was ordained 25 years ago today. My call is specifically to administer Word and Sacrament. My vocation is as a pastor, but, the details of vocation are the promises made in baptism. I live baptism through being a pastor. I could live baptism in any number of careers or jobs – that is what vocation is; taking faith and applying it in daily living. As I reflect on this ordination anniversary, I look back at the fields I have walked through, the crowds I have interacted with, and my relationships with disciples. Through the years teaching, healing, and proclaiming the kindom, -through these hands- has been focused on the labourers; people like you. I feel called through Word and Sacrament to nourish and sustain you, so that you can go into harvest and labour on --- proclaiming the good news, curing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons. This is the task carved out for me, to focus on the labourers.

Over the years, I have had people outside the church ask me about career trajectory. Is it small parish, to ever bigger parishes, until one is a Bishop? Is that the goal? Pastoring, isn’t really like that, promotion is not part of the equation, not the goal. You are ordained pastor and serve as pastor, and remain pastor, unless for some reason you decide to be unrostered. Pastoring is like being on a pilgrimage, it is a journey without a set of marks to achieve. It is leadership that is about faithfully living one’s baptismal vows, and germinating wholeness in the people of God so that they flourish in labouring to bring the kindom of heaven near.  

 

Pastoring has been a pilgrimage and continues to be that for me. I continue to learn along the way, enter new relationships and end others, be surprised by the Spirit’s movement, and so often walk with the faithful in unmapped territory.

Pilgrimage – did you know that in the Middle Ages it was not uncommon for a court to send a guilty person on a pilgrimage to Rome to get a certificate of pilgrimage – the certificate was to guarantee that the guilty had travelled the distance? The idea for the traveller was penance, time to think about their actions, and through reflection and walking, have time for a change of heart to take place. For the community, the time of separation between victim and perpetrator, was a cooling-off period, and a chance for a posture of compassion to settle in. When the person returned from their pilgrimage, forgiven and renewed, they reintegrated into the fabric and life of the town.

For the people of the Middle Ages, they saw the healing power of pilgrimage.

 

Cure the sick. Raise the dead. Cast out demons. Proclaim the good news -heaven has come near.

How many of us would say this is our calling and vocation? Probably not many – yet, most of us would classify ourselves as Jesus’ disciples. Jesus’ disciples were summoned and given the authority to facilitate these tasks in the harvest.

If asked, I would say that in 25 years of ministry no one has been cured, no one raised from the dead, and no demons cast out, by these hands. But, as I reflect on pastoring as pilgrimage, as walking with others, stepping into relationship and travelling easy open sidewalks or bushwacking overgrown trails – there has been healing, raising from the dead, and demons cast out.  And yes, proclamation of the good news – that comes near.

Along my pastoring pilgrimage I have:

walked through rituals of life and death, to places of healing where there is peace and space to grieve or celebrate or both; had conversations that wander through feelings of shame and guilt, to come to a clearing where forgiveness and mercy are possible; tramped through swamps of addiction until demons are cast off and safe refuge is found; hiked treacherous trails guiding others to new beginning and rebirth.

And these are not paths exclusive to me – I know you too venture into territory that has you curing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons.

 

And for those who aren’t so sure of curing the sick, raising the dead, or casting out demons--- take a walk, sit on a bench where people walk, and while there talk to others, smile, pray, encourage, be friendly, offer peace, a moment of compassion. A little walk, the sunshine and fresh-air, and a moment of connection -the Holy present through you - is enough to start or continue a process of healing, casting out, raising up, and most certainly of proclaiming good news.

 

Pilgrimage – walking in relationship with your neighbourhood and living faithfully your baptismal vows are one answer to the prayer of Matthew 9:38, ask the Lord of the harvest to sent out labourers into the harvest.

 

And the Lord does – the Lord sends you.