The Challenge of God's Harvest
Sermon
THE CHALLENGE OF GOD'S HARVEST
What a stirring picture Jesus lays before us in this text! He looks out, as it were, on the whole world. He sees mankind as a great field to be harvested. Have you ever looked out on a golden grain field in the summertime? Here in Wisconsin it always seems to be such a beautiful sight - millions of spears of grain, standing straight, reaching out toward the sky, ready for some useful purpose.
That's what Jesus sees here. He sees men, women and children of every age and nation who make up this field. These people are the most important fruit of the earth. Someone is eventually going to reap this harvest. To put it in the simplest terms, people are going to be won for good or evil. They are going to live in darkness, or they are going to be brought to the light. They will come to see the greatness of living with God, or they will live under the reign of the devil. People will live out their days in the heights of hope and faith and fulfillment, or they will feel smothered in the depths of despair and frustration. To put if in the barest terms, the harvest of mankind is a matter of heaven or hell. As Jesus looks over this field, he is concerned that his laborers be busy about God's harvest.
So, at home and abroad, and within the church itself, you and I are to be on God's mission. In the imagery of our text here, we are called to be laborers in God's harvest. Jesus then is challenging us here when, first of all, he reminds us that the harvest truly is great; secondly, he reminds us of the obstacles in meeting this challenge when he tells us that the laborers are few; and finally he gives us the answer to the challenge when he says, "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into the harvest." Today, then, let us talk about THE CHALLENGE OF GOD'S HARVEST.
The opening words of Jesus here are just as true today as they ever were. "The harvest truly is great!" What a heavy crop waits to be gathered into God's storehouse! Immediately we may thing of the explosion of population that has taken place all over the globe in the past several years. We live in a sea of humanity. Twenty years ago we couldn't believe the population experts with their predictions. Today their observations have more than come true. The predictions for the 1980's and 1990's sound radical today, but no doubt they will become a reality, too.
But more than sheer numbers, the major challenge to the Church today lies in the fact that more than ever before people's hearts are ripe to hear a spiritual word. That's the way in which "the harvest is truly great" - people's hearts are "set up" as never before to hear a healing word from God. During the last several years we have gone through a phase of disillusionment, I believe. In the forties and fifties we were enamored with the prospects of scientific achievement. This love affair had its climax in our landing men on the moon. We looked to technology for pleasure and comfort, and somehow we thought we would reap the bonus premiums of personal security and inner contentment as well.
The phase is over. Today we see how bankrupt we can become when we stack all our cards with technology and human resourcefulness. Our bounding optimism has not only been shattered by two world wars, but today our social system is at such loose ends that many persons openly talk about the breakdown of our society as we know it.
These are days that try men's souls. The revolution and changes are getting people down. One wonders what the world is coming to next. Many people are plainly baffled, so baffled that they are ready to throw in the towel and simply exist, not really live anymore. People feel shackled by life. They are like prisoners, chained and bound. They listen to the voice of their own insecure heart which says,
Don't look, you might see.
Don't listen, you might hear.
Don't think, you might learn.
Don't make a decision, you might be wrong.
Don't walk, you might stumble.
Don't run, you might fall.
Don't live, you might die.
In such a context we may say that the time for hearing God's healing, encouraging message has never been better. Truly, the harvest is great!
And in addition to this the harvest is also great when we consider the large number of young people today. Young minds - boys, girls, children - are especially ripe for the harvest right now. What a vast number are in the so-called "formative years." About one-half the population in our country is considered to be young people. These are the harvestable years, these years of being young. These are the years in which impressions are made, values jelled, and a direction for life sought. Young people, as always, are looking for a star to which they may hitch their wagons. They will latch onto that promise which appears most inviting. Look out at our schools across the country today. See the young people! Innocent, seeking minds. Inquiring minds. Restless minds. Minds ripe for harvest. Minds fed up too soon because of the sterileness of much of twentieth century living. So many young people, tired of life already at twenty-one. They've seen it all, they've experienced it all, they feel. They grow cynical, with three cheers for nothing and three sneers for just about everything. It reminds me of the telling observation by the Broadway playwrite, Arthur Miller, when he said, "The best time to be alive is three years old. From then on it's all down hill." Truly, the harvest is great.
Now you and I are God's harvest workers. We have a message to bring to those who are ripe for harvest. Every Christian is called to share the good news of the Gospel, the news that brings hope and new life and a new outlook.
Let's not get the idea that we merely want to lure more people into the church though. This is no selfish harvest we are engaged in. We're not just trying to see how much we can make the barn bulge. God hasn't placed us in the church to preserve the institution. Christianity is no monument.
Oh, some regard it as such, that's true. Some years ago I read in the newspaper about a woman in Michigan who purchased an 89-year-old deserted church building out in the country because it was her girlhood church, and, as the woman said, "I want to maintain and preserve it as a shrine. This little church has a lot of memories. I'm not going to renovate it or anything, just clean it and keep it up." That's what a lot of people are satisfied to do with the church of Jesus Christ. They just want to keep the doors open. They want to clean it and keep it up.
But Christianity is no monument. It is a movement. It is a movement because it has a moving message - that is, a message that is able to move people, a message that is able to make people's hearts over so that they begin to have meaningful, creatives lives again.
This message centers in the fact that God once moved to love us and to make us his own. In a sense Jesus Christ is the only laborer in this harvest. He alone could do it. He alone has made it possible for our sins to be forgiven. He alone went the ugly way of the cross, loving us to the end as he suffered and died for us there. He alone has demonstrated the amazing love of God so that our eyes are opened and we call God our Father. Is there anyone among us here who does not need to hear that message? Is there anyone here not ripe for such good news? Everyone - and all of us - wait for God's good Word in Christ. Truly the harvest is great! So that is Jesus' first thought to us here.
And the second statement of Jesus here is just as true as the first, but it is sad. While the harvest is truly great, Jesus tells us that the laborers are few. Again, as far as sheer numbers go this is true. While millions and millions are ripe for God's harvest all over the world, there are in proportion very few to do the work. And the proportion gets more lopsided against the favor of the church each year.
In our own country thousands of Christian pulpits are vacant because young men and women are hesitant about pursuing the full-time ministry of the church. There is a great need for many thousand more full-time workers in the world-wide church. This we all know, and to the task of interesting young men and women in Gospel ministry we should all be committed.
But apart from the statistical dilema, I believe Jesus meant something deeper by these words. He meant to tell us also that even the laborers we do have - that is, all Christians everywhere - seem to find it difficult to speak the word of the Gospel to others. The easiest thing in the world is to agree with Jesus that the harvest is great. The saddest thing in the world is that the laborers are so few - when there might be so many. As Christians we find it hard to live and embody the message of God's love to all people. In a host of key issues that really touch on people's problems as persons, we would rather sit in our antiseptic churches, lest the dust along the road of love contaminate us. Throughout the four Gospels Jesus has strong words for those who are only able to say, "Lord, Lord," but who refuse to bring the love and healing of this Lord into the world. "The harvest is great, but the laborers are few." It is still true today.
But Jesus gives us an answer to the challenge of the harvest. He says finally, "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into the harvest." To pray is to be committed to God's will and way. As William Arndt puts it, "When hearts are willing to pray for a certain understanding, they are likewise ready to assist in having it carried out." A district church president said it this way, "Here I am, Lord, but please send my sister. This parody of the prophet's words is more than facetious. With dreadful seriousness it also reflects the reluctance of some people to be in mission for Christ and his church."
Our prayers can easily degenerate to the point where we stand before God and say, "Here I am, Lord," but have no serious intention of going into God's field as a laborer. To pray for God's harvest is to be committed to the harvest. When we pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the harvest, we are not merely reminding God that he is short-handed. This God knows better than we. What we are doing is asking God to give us the zeal, faith and consecration to be one of the laborers ourselves.
Friends, let's catch the vision of this text! The harvest truly is great. Let's catch the tragedy of the situation. The laborers are few. Then let's be part of the answer, not the problem. As we pray for laborers in the harvest, let us do it with that personal committment which says, "Here I am, Lord, send me!"
That's what Jesus sees here. He sees men, women and children of every age and nation who make up this field. These people are the most important fruit of the earth. Someone is eventually going to reap this harvest. To put it in the simplest terms, people are going to be won for good or evil. They are going to live in darkness, or they are going to be brought to the light. They will come to see the greatness of living with God, or they will live under the reign of the devil. People will live out their days in the heights of hope and faith and fulfillment, or they will feel smothered in the depths of despair and frustration. To put if in the barest terms, the harvest of mankind is a matter of heaven or hell. As Jesus looks over this field, he is concerned that his laborers be busy about God's harvest.
So, at home and abroad, and within the church itself, you and I are to be on God's mission. In the imagery of our text here, we are called to be laborers in God's harvest. Jesus then is challenging us here when, first of all, he reminds us that the harvest truly is great; secondly, he reminds us of the obstacles in meeting this challenge when he tells us that the laborers are few; and finally he gives us the answer to the challenge when he says, "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into the harvest." Today, then, let us talk about THE CHALLENGE OF GOD'S HARVEST.
The opening words of Jesus here are just as true today as they ever were. "The harvest truly is great!" What a heavy crop waits to be gathered into God's storehouse! Immediately we may thing of the explosion of population that has taken place all over the globe in the past several years. We live in a sea of humanity. Twenty years ago we couldn't believe the population experts with their predictions. Today their observations have more than come true. The predictions for the 1980's and 1990's sound radical today, but no doubt they will become a reality, too.
But more than sheer numbers, the major challenge to the Church today lies in the fact that more than ever before people's hearts are ripe to hear a spiritual word. That's the way in which "the harvest is truly great" - people's hearts are "set up" as never before to hear a healing word from God. During the last several years we have gone through a phase of disillusionment, I believe. In the forties and fifties we were enamored with the prospects of scientific achievement. This love affair had its climax in our landing men on the moon. We looked to technology for pleasure and comfort, and somehow we thought we would reap the bonus premiums of personal security and inner contentment as well.
The phase is over. Today we see how bankrupt we can become when we stack all our cards with technology and human resourcefulness. Our bounding optimism has not only been shattered by two world wars, but today our social system is at such loose ends that many persons openly talk about the breakdown of our society as we know it.
These are days that try men's souls. The revolution and changes are getting people down. One wonders what the world is coming to next. Many people are plainly baffled, so baffled that they are ready to throw in the towel and simply exist, not really live anymore. People feel shackled by life. They are like prisoners, chained and bound. They listen to the voice of their own insecure heart which says,
Don't look, you might see.
Don't listen, you might hear.
Don't think, you might learn.
Don't make a decision, you might be wrong.
Don't walk, you might stumble.
Don't run, you might fall.
Don't live, you might die.
In such a context we may say that the time for hearing God's healing, encouraging message has never been better. Truly, the harvest is great!
And in addition to this the harvest is also great when we consider the large number of young people today. Young minds - boys, girls, children - are especially ripe for the harvest right now. What a vast number are in the so-called "formative years." About one-half the population in our country is considered to be young people. These are the harvestable years, these years of being young. These are the years in which impressions are made, values jelled, and a direction for life sought. Young people, as always, are looking for a star to which they may hitch their wagons. They will latch onto that promise which appears most inviting. Look out at our schools across the country today. See the young people! Innocent, seeking minds. Inquiring minds. Restless minds. Minds ripe for harvest. Minds fed up too soon because of the sterileness of much of twentieth century living. So many young people, tired of life already at twenty-one. They've seen it all, they've experienced it all, they feel. They grow cynical, with three cheers for nothing and three sneers for just about everything. It reminds me of the telling observation by the Broadway playwrite, Arthur Miller, when he said, "The best time to be alive is three years old. From then on it's all down hill." Truly, the harvest is great.
Now you and I are God's harvest workers. We have a message to bring to those who are ripe for harvest. Every Christian is called to share the good news of the Gospel, the news that brings hope and new life and a new outlook.
Let's not get the idea that we merely want to lure more people into the church though. This is no selfish harvest we are engaged in. We're not just trying to see how much we can make the barn bulge. God hasn't placed us in the church to preserve the institution. Christianity is no monument.
Oh, some regard it as such, that's true. Some years ago I read in the newspaper about a woman in Michigan who purchased an 89-year-old deserted church building out in the country because it was her girlhood church, and, as the woman said, "I want to maintain and preserve it as a shrine. This little church has a lot of memories. I'm not going to renovate it or anything, just clean it and keep it up." That's what a lot of people are satisfied to do with the church of Jesus Christ. They just want to keep the doors open. They want to clean it and keep it up.
But Christianity is no monument. It is a movement. It is a movement because it has a moving message - that is, a message that is able to move people, a message that is able to make people's hearts over so that they begin to have meaningful, creatives lives again.
This message centers in the fact that God once moved to love us and to make us his own. In a sense Jesus Christ is the only laborer in this harvest. He alone could do it. He alone has made it possible for our sins to be forgiven. He alone went the ugly way of the cross, loving us to the end as he suffered and died for us there. He alone has demonstrated the amazing love of God so that our eyes are opened and we call God our Father. Is there anyone among us here who does not need to hear that message? Is there anyone here not ripe for such good news? Everyone - and all of us - wait for God's good Word in Christ. Truly the harvest is great! So that is Jesus' first thought to us here.
And the second statement of Jesus here is just as true as the first, but it is sad. While the harvest is truly great, Jesus tells us that the laborers are few. Again, as far as sheer numbers go this is true. While millions and millions are ripe for God's harvest all over the world, there are in proportion very few to do the work. And the proportion gets more lopsided against the favor of the church each year.
In our own country thousands of Christian pulpits are vacant because young men and women are hesitant about pursuing the full-time ministry of the church. There is a great need for many thousand more full-time workers in the world-wide church. This we all know, and to the task of interesting young men and women in Gospel ministry we should all be committed.
But apart from the statistical dilema, I believe Jesus meant something deeper by these words. He meant to tell us also that even the laborers we do have - that is, all Christians everywhere - seem to find it difficult to speak the word of the Gospel to others. The easiest thing in the world is to agree with Jesus that the harvest is great. The saddest thing in the world is that the laborers are so few - when there might be so many. As Christians we find it hard to live and embody the message of God's love to all people. In a host of key issues that really touch on people's problems as persons, we would rather sit in our antiseptic churches, lest the dust along the road of love contaminate us. Throughout the four Gospels Jesus has strong words for those who are only able to say, "Lord, Lord," but who refuse to bring the love and healing of this Lord into the world. "The harvest is great, but the laborers are few." It is still true today.
But Jesus gives us an answer to the challenge of the harvest. He says finally, "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into the harvest." To pray is to be committed to God's will and way. As William Arndt puts it, "When hearts are willing to pray for a certain understanding, they are likewise ready to assist in having it carried out." A district church president said it this way, "Here I am, Lord, but please send my sister. This parody of the prophet's words is more than facetious. With dreadful seriousness it also reflects the reluctance of some people to be in mission for Christ and his church."
Our prayers can easily degenerate to the point where we stand before God and say, "Here I am, Lord," but have no serious intention of going into God's field as a laborer. To pray for God's harvest is to be committed to the harvest. When we pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the harvest, we are not merely reminding God that he is short-handed. This God knows better than we. What we are doing is asking God to give us the zeal, faith and consecration to be one of the laborers ourselves.
Friends, let's catch the vision of this text! The harvest truly is great. Let's catch the tragedy of the situation. The laborers are few. Then let's be part of the answer, not the problem. As we pray for laborers in the harvest, let us do it with that personal committment which says, "Here I am, Lord, send me!"
