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Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. (Matthew 9:37)
Jesus does not lie.
We do. I'm great especially at justifying some of my actions, thoughts, or lack thereof. Jesus doe not lie, and never needs to justify His actions.
Nellie and I have gotten up early now for some time, to read the Bible out loud to each other, silent time to write reflections, and then a prayer together, and then I come to my office and share a prayer on that reading through my blog, "The Pastor's Gift." The other day we came across this passage, and as we read it, I remembered the numerous accounts I've heard about, know about, and read about, of churches that are closed. There should be nothing sadder for any Christian, especially a pastor, than to see a church closing or already closed. This goes against the entire message of the Bible for us to be fruitful and multiply the number of those who are coming to new life through Jesus Christ.
I may have shared the true account of a small church in another district that has rented its worship space out to three other churches, who have grown so big, they could no longer worship in that small United Methodist Church. That church, however, continues with its ten members.
Jesus does not lie.
There is a harvest, and it is ready, and as the rest of that verse say, "The workers are few."
We believe we've done all we can, and we say we're impacting those few that come Sunday after Sunday. And that may be true, but what about the harvest? There are churches that are truly growing, why isn't ours?
Jesus answers prayer.
I've shared with you at our charge conferences a prayer that I really wish you would pray, with a selected group of your trusted leaders. Prayer works. Prayer begins the process of reaching the harvest. It allows the Holy Spirit to come into our worship and our parking lots, and move among us to become the people we are called to become, and we might just reach the harvest.
Jesus walked everywhere He went.
That's the punch line of an old joke of the father-son discussion about long hair and the continued use of the family car if one of the two didn't cut their hair. I lived that.
Those churches that are reaching the harvest are going beyond their campus to knock and doors to pray with people. And as they pray they listen to needs being shared, and then responses to those needs are deployed. In one of my churches we have a store room full of wheelchairs, crutches, and other types of medical supplies that were just collecting dust. During one of our prayer walks we found a family in need of a lot of those items. We prayed for them, and then shared with them that which we had. God answered prayer through our church. And we sent a message to the family that we not only cared though our prayers, but in our work to answer those prayers that we could.
Jesus loved all people.
Prayer can begin to change the hearts of those who for years haven't. Some who complain about noisy children, once they hold them and carry them around, once again realize that God put that wiggle and giggle in that child, and it's okay to have some squeals and cries in the church - it is the sound of life!
Prayer may also change those who for years have had notions about different people, especially those who don't dress or talk like the rest of us. Working alongside each other, and sharing life stories, we discover the common core of humanity.
Jesus expected results.
So should we. We have not done enough. We should not be comfortable. We should toss and turn when we realize we have not done enough. We should move away from the notion that only a set number of hours are expected of us "at work." If you miss the time clock, you may be missing your old job; the one I have is exciting and never-ending. The more I do, the more I want to do more.
The harvest is plentiful.
We've got work to do.
And here's Advent!
