Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

June 15, 2008

Genesis 18:1-15

Psalm 116:1, 10-17

Romans 5:1-8

Matthew 9:35-10:8

          Well, we have made a good beginning to this season of Pentecost.  Over these first few Sundays we have focused on what it means to be the church in the world.  And the questions we must continue to ask of all our gospel lessons each and every Sunday throughout our season of Pentecost are these:  What does it mean to be the church?  What is Jesus showing us about how to be the church?  What did that look like in the ancient church?  What does that look like for us in the church today?  We need to be mindful that until we arrive at Advent when our scriptural focus turns to Jesus, our gospel lessons are going to be primarily for us and about us.  Jesus will be telling us and showing us how we are to be the Church, God’s representatives on this earth; people who endeavor to bring the kingdom nearer to our world by the example of our life.

          In today’s gospel account Jesus is telling us and showing many things about how we are to be the church.  But the one I want to focus on is his harvest metaphor.  “The harvest is plentiful,” says Jesus, “but the laborers are few.”  And isn’t that the truth.  Just look around.  There are mighty few laborers for the kingdom sitting in these pews.  But there are lots of people out there in the world.  Jesus tells us that many of them are ready to labor in his harvest.  But they have not found their way into our churches.  And Jesus is bold enough to tell us why that is not happening and what we should be doing about it.  Jesus tells us why God’s laborers are so few in numbers; it’s because we do not actively go into the world to harvest those who would join us in our labor—we do not ask them; we do not invite them; we do not bring them with us into this place where God’s laborers gather each Sunday for the sake of the kingdom. 

          It is no secret that people of faith are not inclined to invite people into the church to labor on behalf of the Good News of God’s harvest.  Especially Episcopalians.  We seem to be actively antagonistic toward the “E” word.  (Evangelism)  On the other hand, and to our credit, we eagerly go into the world to serve the needs of others; we participate in political and social action groups; we raise money and we willingly put our bodies on the line to serve the work of mission and outreach.  But we are not inclined to bring the people we serve and interact with on a daily basis into our church and into our life of discipleship.  Instead, we wait for them to come to us.  But that doesn’t happen.  Just look around.  And so both the church and God’s kingdom languish by our neglect; by our not actively engaging people in the life of our church. 

          But in today’s gospel Jesus clearly tells us what we need to do about that.  We need to “ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”   Jesus recognizes that WE NEED MORE PEOPLE to do the work of the church for the sake of God’s kingdom.  He knows the people are out there.  And he knows that God is ready to send them to us.  The question is, are we ready to do what we need to do to bring them into our labor force.  Jesus wants us to know that we encounter the people God sends us in the daily interactions we have with them; people who are un-churched and unlikely to begin attending church of their own accord.  People are not out there asking, “Where can I find a church?”  People don’t just show up at church one day.  In fact, new people are only likely to become new church-goers when the laborers God already has in that church are willing and able, confident and bold enough to ask them.  And we are the people God is depending on to bring new laborers into the harvest.  He is sending them to us all the time.  We are the only people God has who can bring new laborers into his church to harvest the good news of the kingdom, but they will only come if we are intentional about inviting them.

          Jesus is certainly intentional about inviting laborers into God’s harvest.  He calls the twelve men God sends him to become the core of his labor force.  He teaches them how to labor in God’s kingdom and then he sends them out to do God’s work for the harvest.  Jesus calls them his disciples.  And there is a good reason for that.  Because disciples are people who are called into relationship with a master teacher who will prepare them for the life they are meant to live as his followers.  Jesus teaches his disciples how to represent God to the world by his own teaching and example.  And then he sends them into the world as his apostles.  And who are apostles?  Apostles are people who are sent out.  They are sent into the world to serve others as their master has taught them to serve.  But they are also sent out to call others into discipleship.  Disciples who will also be sent out to call others to discipleship.  And so the cycle perpetuates itself.  This is how the early church got started.  And this is how it grew in a society much like ours.  In social conditions which were dismissive, even hostile to the church.  I believe this is an important learning for the church.  And it is a common model for us to follow.

          Right now we are in the season of graduations, and graduation is a good example of how discipleship and apostleship work.  Parents send their children to schools where they become students of teachers who teach them by word and example what they need to learn to become productive citizens of their world.  At graduation they are sent into the world.  They may not be fully knowledgeable or completely formed in their vocation, but their master teachers are confident that they are ready to be sent out to serve their world as they mature in their vocation.  These same students become teachers and they call other students to their vocation by their own teaching and example; students who will also be sent out.  And they, too, become disciples of teachers who will also send them out when they are ready.  And the cycle of calling, and teaching and sending out becomes self-perpetuating.  But the process of preparing students to live in this world is neither random, nor is it accidental.  Everything about sending kids to school, calling them into their vocation, teaching them and then sending them out to the harvest is intentional. 

          This is an important learning for us in the church.  It is important for us to understand that we are in this church because God sent us to someone in this church who invited us into it.  Disciples were ready to teach us by word and example how we might also become disciples.  And at some point, as we were being formed in discipleship in worship and prayer and in studying scripture and mission and service to others we heard the call to “graduation,” the sending out which comes to us at the end of every Eucharist.  “Now send us out to do the work you have given us to do…to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart.”    We answered that call to became laborers in God’s harvest.  And we love our work.  We love our church’s programs and ministries, our service and outreach.  And we do them well.  We are intentional about our worship and service to God.   But we shy away from the most important reason we are sent out into the world to be his disciples.  To call others into discipleship in the church.  Jesus would have us know that we are to invite the people God sends to us in our daily life and work to join us in laboring for God’s kingdom so that together we can bring the good of God’s harvest nearer to us and to our world.

          No one said it would be easy.  Including Jesus.  Jesus tells his disciples straight out how difficult it will be to bring more laborers to the harvest.  And we are finding it to be just as difficult.  We are not good at bringing new laborers into the harvest.  We are not good at—oh no, I am going to have to say it.  We are not good at EVANGELISM.  We are not inclined to call the people God sends to us into our community of faith.  We are not inclined to invite them to worship or church school or to bible study or to anything which might lead them into discipleship.  Instead we wait for people to come to us.  In the meantime we complain that we don’t have enough laborers for the harvest.  And I hear your complaint.  Not just in this church but in all the churches I have ever been in who are declining in numbers and financial resources.  “We need more people in church.”  “We need more kids in Sunday School.”  “We need more people to do the work of ministry and outreach.”  We need more money to pay our operating expenses and more resources to maintain our buildings.”  We need, we need, we need.  And, indeed, we do NEED.  Yet, we just go on needing what we can only hope for, hoping the world will come to us.  Waiting for the un-churched to make the first move.  But it doesn’t happen. And it isn’t going to happen. Because that’s not how it works.  We know it doesn’t work that way, because it didn’t happen for us that way.  Think about it.       

          Try to remember the first time you came to church.  Try to remember your own call to discipleship.  There are very few people who go to church of their own volition.  Those of us who were born to parents who already attended church were brought to church with them.  Those of us who came into the church for the first time as children or young adults, most likely were brought along by a friend.  And if we came into the church as an adult it was because we were invited.  This is how Evangelism happens.  This is the way new people come into the church. 

          Jesus would have us know that the most important work we do as a people of God is to bring new laborers into the harvest.  As disciples of Christ and apostles in the world we are charged with bringing into the body of Christ the people that God sends us.  People we meet and talk to every day.  People we live with and work with; people we entertain and socialize with.  People we serve and take care of in our communities.  We cannot know which of them God is sending to us, which of them God has made ready to labor in the harvest until we ask them if they would like to join us.  And what’s the worst thing that can happen if we invite people to come to church.  They will say no.  But in a recent survey, researchers learned that people are more likely to say “yes” if only we will ask them.  Nearly 80% of people who are un-churched said they would very likely attend church if someone invited them.  I, for one, can verify the results of that survey and so can many of the people I know who are active in the Episcopal Church today.  This is how we came into the church.  We were invited.  And this is why we stayed.  Because the people in that church paid much attention to making disciples of newcomers.  And they took great delight in sending us out to do the work God began calling us to do.  Little did I know at the time that God would call me into his harvest to labor as a priest of his Church.  But here I am.  And I am here all because God sent me to a disciple who had the courage and confidence to invite me to worship in his church.  But I leave you with this thought.  And it’s a scary thought for me.  What if he hadn’t invited me.  What then.  One more empty pew.  One more unoccupied pulpit.  One more laborer sent by God into the world,  still waiting to be invited into the harvest.