Harvest

Did anyone hear about the Prime energy drink shortage that hit the UK a year and a half ago? I suspect many people who have a teenager in their lives would remember how hard it was to buy a bottle of Prime a few years ago and how in demand they were amongst school-aged children.

Now, in my opinion, Prime isn’t a particularly nice tasting drink but the scarcity happened because two Youtuber video creators with a combined 40 million followers, managed to convince armies of young people to descend on shops and supermarkets and strip the energy drinks shelves bare. It got to the stage where supermarkets were limiting customers to only be allowed to purchase two bottles at a time, because they were selling out before they could restock the shelves.

The two social media influencers behind the craze walked away with millions of pounds for advertising the drink to their followers.

It’s no wonder then that in recent years businesses and governments have become aware of how influential people on social media with huge numbers of followers can be. With so much money at stake, influencers are always chasing followers, ending each video desperately appealing to their viewers to “click the subscribe and follow buttons.” When their appeals pay off and their followers grow into the 10s and 100s of thousands, they post videos celebrating their achievement.

But in today’s Gospel we see Jesus’s reaction to his increasing popularity and it is not very celebratory.

Jesus learns that the Pharisees had heard he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist. When he hears about this dramatic growth in followers, he does the opposite of what today’s social media influencers would do. He doesn’t celebrate his success, he doesn’t try to enrich himself using the influence he has on his followers. Instead he decides to leave the area and move on somewhere else.

Why does Jesus react in this way?

Because he has a completely different perspective to that of the Pharisees.

Jesus doesn’t see himself as being in competition with his cousin, John the Baptist. He isn’t competing in a popularity contest to see who could attract more followers.

For the Pharisees, it is a numbers game. They look at the number of followers they have as a means of validating their own position in society. They were religious leaders who lauded it over the people that they led. They created rules, laws and standards so high that they set the bar to enter God’s Kingdom out of reach.

The people who the Pharisees ruled over were oppressed and beaten down by Roman occupation and taxation on one side; and on the other, their finances and spiritual resources were squeezed by the religious requirements forced on them by the Pharisees.

The Pharisees, like some of today’s social media influencers, saw the people under their influence as sources of power and enrichment.

But Jesus didn’t look at the people following him as evidence of his popularity and importance. He didn’t need validation by how many people were following him. He was already validated. He still had the words that God spoke down from heaven to him and the crowd at his own baptism ringing in his ears. Jesus knew in his heart of hearts that He was God’s beloved Son, and that God was very pleased with him. Because he knew this fact, whether he had 1 disciple or a million disciples, he didn’t need followers to prop up his self-esteem or sense of purpose.

So when the disciples urge Jesus to eat some food, to fuel his body for the journey ahead, Jesus’ response surprises them.

‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.’

Jesus tells his disciples that what fuels him isn’t the same thing as what fuels the pharisees and people like them. He is not fuelled by the influence and power he can wield over people. He is not fuelled by the wealth he could get from the huge numbers of people following him.

When Jesus looks at the people he has encountered during his ministry – the Samaritan woman at the well and the people of her city, the 12 disciples he has called and all the people he has healed and preached to – he sees a harvest. They are crops that are ripe to be gathered into God’s Kingdom.

From the beginning of creation God – the sower - had planted people on the earth, & multiplied them through the offspring of Adam and Eve. He weeded His people out of Egypt via Moses, pruned them through battles in the wilderness and encouraged them with news of a future saviour through the words of the Prophets. And now, he had sent Jesus, to begin the reaping and gathering of the people God created to be in His Kingdom, under His influence.

Jesus sent to complete the work of the sower, by dying and becoming the first fruits of the resurrected creation, a humanity free from the corruption and rot of sin. Jesus came to cultivate a crop of people who will continue the work of the Sower: knowing God and making Him known to everyone He created.  

God sent Jesus and His Holy Spirit to nurture and cultivate followers whose food and focus will be the will of the Father. Doing good, doing the right thing and not being wearied by it, even when facing opposition and rejection.

He wants us to be people who serve others. Who don’t look down on people who are struggling and in need of help but are quick to be generous. God wants us to be a people and a Church who are willing to share what we have, whether we have a little or a lot.

God is good.

Our reading from Leviticus reveals that He cares for the poor and the alien. He tells the people of Israel to make sure they leave some of their harvest behind for them rather than taking it all for themselves.

So often society seeks to divide people into the "deserving" and the "undeserving". As austerity and difficult economic times squeeze people's pockets, there is a reluctance to share depleting resources with those deemed "undeserving". Asylum seekers, long-term unemployed, and people who have fallen foul of the law, are pitted against others who are also in need but appear more 'respectable' in the eyes of the world.

However, we see from this morning’s Psalm that God rescues those who are in dire situations, whether they are in a prison or circumstance of their own making, or whether the random storms of life – redundancy, ill-health, relationship breakdown, natural disasters or war – have caught them by surprise and are threatening to sink their ship.

Repeatedly we read that God helped everyone who “called on His name in their trouble and He saved them from their distress”.

God delivers all who call on His name.

The Bible tells us that "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." God does not want us to exclude anyone from the invitation to experience His rescue, His salvation, in Jesus Christ.

He doesn’t want us to exclude anyone through our own snobbery or prejudice. He just wants us to focus on His will. God wants His Will to be our food, like it was Jesus’. He wants us to focus on the ripeness of the harvest all around us.

He wants us to reap the harvest of souls that He has planted in the earth. He doesn’t want any of the crop to be lost. He calls us to be reapers. His will for us is to partner with His mission to gather in the lost. He wants us to share our food and resources with people who need help and to point them to the one who promises more than just food, but deliverance.

Today is Harvest, a time for celebrating abundance and giving thanks for all the good gifts we have received. Yet we know – as we have acknowledged by bringing in our donations that will go to the Hope Centre Foodbank – we know that many people do not have enough.

So, as we celebrate the abundance of harvest, the food we eat and all those who work in agriculture to sow, nurture and harvest it, let’s also remember the abundance of the gift that God has given us, Jesus, the bread of life, who offers us eternal life. And let us remember all the people in our lives and communities who are ripe and ready to hear the news of God’s provision and salvation and be harvested into His Kingdom.

We are called into partnership with God – the sower – to reap the harvest of people he has sown. He calls us to enter into the labour of harvest – to share our food, resources, but most importantly, the GOSPEL – so that we, the reapers can rejoice together with the Sower as we gather people into the eternal life He offers.