A harvest

Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi song has the line: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?”

Isn’t that the truth?

How often do we take our family and friends for granted? And then we witness the suffering of people who lost loved ones recently, and we remember to be grateful for the loved ones in our lives – no matter how much they annoy us sometimes.

We take for granted the air we breathe. In fact we don’t often notice the air. It surrounds us but we can’t see it. We can’t touch it. But when – like me sometimes – you have an asthma attack and can’t get enough air into your lungs, you quickly become very aware of how important it is.

I think that’s a little bit like Christianity in this country. Christianity has shaped and influenced the laws, the literature, the arts, and the ideals of this country for centuries. But perhaps because of how influential Christianity has been in our history it can become like the air around us, invisible, unnoticed and easily taken for granted. We see this in the decline in church attendance and the struggle of small parish churches to stay open to serve their communities. We see this in the way the church and its members sometimes hesitates to share the gospel message openly. In an increasingly atheistic society, God is someone not thought about until a crisis or need arises and then people turn to Him in desperation, confusion or anger.

In today’s Gospel reading, when Jesus sees crowds of people in crisis and in need, coming to him for healing and help, He is filled with compassion. He cares that they are harassed by their circumstances and helpless in their suffering, like sheep without a shepherd.

They are people in crisis. People with diseases and difficulties; the abused, the mistreated, the poor, those wrestling with personal demons, the homeless, the rejected.

They are people terrorised by the occupying Roman Empire, people who feel that God is far away from them and far away from their suffering.

What I find interesting is that Jesus doesn’t look at the needy crowds as “people with problems”. He refers to them in a far more positive way, as a “massive harvest”. A harvest is the fruit of hard labour. Farmers work hard preparing and fertilising the soil, planting seeds, pulling up weeds, watering crops and scaring away pests so that in return they will receive a harvest of food that will meet their needs and give them life. Harvest is what all farmers and eaters look forward to.

That’s how Jesus sees these crowds of helpless people: they are full of potential. They are all individuals who are capable of not just receiving help from others but of giving something uniquely valuable and beautiful back to their society and to the world.

The problem Jesus sees is that there is a lack of labourers, people who are willing to bring in this ‘harvest’ of people brimming with potential and possibilities.

Jesus tells his disciples to go to the “lost sheep”, those who feel they have wandered away from God’s guidance, protection and love; people who feel that God has turned His back on them. The disciples are sent to tell them that God isn’t far away from their suffering and God isn’t far away from them. They are sent with good news: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”

They can’t see it but, in Jesus, God’s kingdom has reached down to earth, right in the middle of the world’s kingdoms and societies. And God is inviting all those who enter His kingdom to join His mission of transforming the societies they live in.

Jesus sends his disciples out as labourers but also tells them to pray to God so that he will send more labourers out into the harvest.

Their prayer is for us, the Church, followers of Christ. Their prayer is for those who have believed the Gospel to be encouraged to step out from the walls of church buildings and go to work as labourers in the harvest.

What work are the labourers called to do?

Jesus gives his disciples, and us, the authority of God’s kingdom. The kingdom is within us and God empowers us to bring the kingdom to people by bringing ourselves to them. This might mean being there with the sick, helping struggling people to overcome their demons and difficulties, giving generously to those in need. And while doing all of these things, not forgetting to share the good news of God’s forgiveness and love that is able to transform lives.

If we enter into this kingdom mission we can reap a huge harvest by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Just like those Christians centuries ago who created the first hospitals that transformed society; or the Christian founders of orphanages in pagan societies that used to leave unwanted babies out in the open to die. Or those Christians who started schools – the roots of our present day education system - spreading literacy and knowledge throughout the nation, spurring on the inventors and scientists of the 19th and 20th Centuries who would transform the whole world, bringing hope and health to generations.

Yes, this world is full of suffering. To be alive and human is to suffer. Sometimes we experience it in our own lives and sometimes the suffering we feel is just in living and seeing the suffering of people around us.

We suffer when we see tragedies in the news. We suffer to know that there are people with such evil in their hearts that they would strap a bomb to themselves and kill young people at a pop concert, or drive a van into innocent people in the streets. But even in the midst of the tragedy and horror we also see ordinary people coming together to help victims and survivors, raising money for those who have lost everything, paying for funerals, donating at blood banks. We see that hope can be glimpsed through the deepest darkness.

We have been called to share the hope of the Gospel with the world. The good news is that God looks at the crowds. He looks at all “lost sheep” and has compassion for us. He doesn’t leave us helpless and harassed but sends a Shepherd willing to lay down his life to save and protect us.

The good news is that God continues to call us, His people who have been justified by faith in Jesus, to truly be that priestly kingdom and holy nation He has created us to be.

Yes, life is suffering, but in Christ we can endure, and endurance builds our character and that character can produce hope. We have hope because we know that God loves us and

filled with God’s love that has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to be labourers in his kingdom. We can become those world-changers who go out into the suffering world and make a difference. We can go out to tell those who feel lost that God has not abandoned them, in fact He has come near.

Let’s take heed to Joni Mitchel’s warning that most of the time people “don’t know what they’ve got ‘til it’s gone”. Let’s remember what we’ve got. We have salvation, we have the Spirit and we have this message of God’s love to share with the world.

The kingdom is within us and we have been given the authority to go to the harvest, go to the people around us and join in the labour of enabling God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

The harvest is ready and waiting. Let’s go to work.

Matthew 9: 35-38

35 Then 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.

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few;

38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”