Labour shortage

What happens when you don’t have enough workers to harvest a crop?

- The plants in the field stop producing fruit/crop and the crop starts to rot.

- There is less food in the shops for the people living in the towns

This is a real concern at the moment in the UK. Last year the National Farmers’ Union reported that £60m worth of food was wasted on farms because of a labour shortage. They said that Brexit and the Covid pandemic had left them short of up to 75% of the seasonal workers needed to pick their crops. So, the Farmers Union called on the government to create special visas that would help bring in seasonal farm workers to help.

Jesus uses similar farming imagery in today’s Gospel.

When he looks around at the people of Israel, he feels for them because they look so harassed and helpless. Helpless in the face of Roman occupation. Harassed by high taxation and by the demands of their religious leaders.

Jesus says to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out labourers.”

What harvest is he talking about?

Well, the Israelites had been chosen by God to represent his kingdom on earth. They were chosen to be God’s ambassadors so that all the surrounding nations would learn about Him and turn to Him.

“Indeed the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation…”

The Israelites were chosen to be a light: To be priestly mediators who would bring people from all nations to God. They were called to live in ways that revealed God’s compassion, His mercy and His love to the world.

And that is the harvest, I think Jesus is talking about here. The Israelites were supposed to feed the world around them. To share the fruits of what knowing God had given them – peace, love, forgiveness, mercy, salvation – with everyone else.

But this was not happening. Those fruits were not being harvested. The people were not sharing the knowledge of God with those outside their nation. Israel had turned inwards: Feeling besieged by the Roman Empire that had conquered their land. They had focused on protecting themselves and their religion. Their leaders weren’t speaking God’s words to the people. Instead, they were busy naval-gazing and focusing on their own petty theological differences and disagreements. Instead of teaching about God’s love, mercy and salvation, they weighed the people down with rules and regulations and extra hurdles that kept them from experiencing God.

So God’s good news, the message of salvation to the world, was staying in the field, staying within Israel. Not being harvested and sent out into the world.

Jesus tells his disciples to pray for God to send labourers, good leaders, to his people so that they would grow and produce the harvest they were called to produce. To share God with the nations around them.

And the scriptures reveal that Jesus is the answer to the prayers of the Prophets who spoke of a coming Messiah, a coming anointed one. He is the anointed labourer, the representation of God on earth, The one who brings the good news of salvation. He is the mediator between God and humanity, the one who offers a rescue from the things that enslave us.

Later on in scripture Jesus describes his mission using another farming image. He tells his disciples that he will have to die in order to save the world. He says: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

We, the church, are the fruit of Jesus’ mission. Through his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, he emerges as the 'first fruits' of all the re-born children of God who will receive God's offer of salvation.

The seeds of this faith have been planted in us. And, as God’s people, we are also challenged to produce a harvest. To not turn inwards but to share this message with those outside these walls. To share the good news that God offers forgiveness and love to everyone who wants to receive it.

Sometimes we can feel harassed and helpless like the people in today’s Gospel. Maybe we feel like sheep without a shepherd, as our parish is currently managing without a vicar.

Perhaps we feel like we are in a nation where people are disinterested or hostile to God and religion. Or that we are part of a global church which can be too focused on internal theological disagreements.

We may feel helpless in the face of the cost of living crisis, with foodbanks and homelessness on the rise. When we see tragedies like the murders in Nottingham last week, or the hundreds of desperate people who died when their boat sank near Greece.

But we can be assured today that God is looking at us with compassion. He sent his son, Jesus the Good Shepherd, to produce a harvest, to produce people to for His kingdom. And we are called to share the love, compassion and kindness that has been planted in us.

Just like we saw in Nottingham, St Peter’s Church, opened their doors for all the students and community and held a vigil, providing a place to grieve, to question, to be angry, to be horrified by the senselessness of evil and sin, to be comforted.

We are called to do the same in our communities, in our workplaces, in our families. To share the Kingdom of God. To point people to the Lord of the Harvest, to share what we have, our physical and spiritual resources. To share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We must remember that harvesting is long, intensive, work. When wheat is harvested it goes through a chopping, threshing and sieving process in order to get to the valuable and nutritious grain fit for human consumption. And it is the same for producing harvests in God’s field. Our spiritual fruit develops and is harvested through often painful processes. The fruit of forgiveness is often the end product of experiencing unforgiveable hurt from other people. Patience is grown in us as a result of going through a difficult and seemingly unrelenting time of testing.

The fruit of love is born in us as we encounter the God of love, and discover the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who gave up his life in order to save lost sinners, like you and me. When we realise the love of God for us, despite all our flaws, failings and imperfections; God’s love is poured into our hearts for our fellow humans.

God has planted us, and all those who recognise their need of His sacrificial love, in his field and calls us to bear fruit that can feed and help others. He urges us to pray for more labourers to work in God’s Kingdom.

So let us pray that God will send outward looking leaders who can take God’s love, compassion and message of salvation outside of these doors. And also allow the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us so that we too can do our part to plant seeds of faith in the heart of our community.