Bringing in the Sheaves

Scripture:  Matthew 9:35-10:8

  Twice in my life I have had the opportunity to participate in a mission trip that left the United States.  While I hope both trips managed to do some small amount of lasting good, and while both experiences were personally meaningful, both times I was honestly a little unprepared and in over my head.  Nothing illustrates this better than one of the experiences I had when I went on a Spring break mission trip to Mexico while I was in college.  One of the days we were serving in a homeless encampment on the Mexico side of the border.   Hundreds of people lived in an open field in whatever shelter they could cobble together.   At one point I found myself entertaining a large group of children, a task that my woefully small Spanish vocabulary did not really equip me for.  Eventually I was able to organize a game where I used one of the few Spanish phrases I did know, which was to ask Do you like, and then I filled in the blank with other words I knew.  If a kid answered yes they would then run around.   It was working great, but then a little girl said something to me, and I had no idea what she was saying.   I thought I heard the word “agua” which I knew meant water, so I tried to say, “Yes, I also like water”, though I do not think I got it right. 

   This girl then runs off and a few minutes later she comes back with a small cup of water and hands it to me.  In all the preparation for this trip one of the things most emphasized was “do not drink the water.”  Yet this was an encampment, it was not like they had running water.  This girl was offering me a limited resource, and I now understood that I had essentially answered that, yes I would like water. It would have been rude to refuse it at that point, so I drank the water.   Perhaps it was God protecting me from my own foolishness, but I did not suffer any ill-effect afterwards.  

 Perhaps, college kids who can not speak Spanish were not the most effective choices to serve on mission in Mexico.  Yet, when I read this morning’s scripture, I realize that I was only a little less prepared than the disciples were when Jesus sent them out.   In this morning’s scripture we get a good look at the approach that Jesus took and preferred to sharing the good news.   As we consider this morning’s scripture, we can learn this approach and find that it is still remarkably applicable today.  

 In this morning’s scripture we can see four components that make up the approach that Jesus used.   The first component is in verse 36: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”   There are some biblical commentators who consider this verse to be the thesis statement of the gospels.  Throughout his ministry Jesus performed miracles, he healed the sick, he restored sight to the blind, and he cast out demons.    This morning’s scripture points to one of the primary reasons why Jesus did all these things.    One of the primary motivations for all the healings and for all of the other miracles of Christ up to, and including, the resurrection was a compassion for people.   Jesus saw people suffering and he wanted to ease that suffering; he saw people in need of help and wanted to help.  Jesus was not motivated by getting his name out there, by attracting more followers, or building a platform.  Jesus was not motivated by clout, fame, celebrity, or a sense of importance.  Jesus was motivated by compassion.

 As his followers today, we also should be similarly motivated.  I know that every church in the world, including this one, wants to grow.  Just about every church in the United States at least, wants younger people, so that the church’s future can be ensured for another generation.   But when it comes to what we do as individuals and collectively as a congregation, our motivation must be more than growth.   We should care about more than dollars in plates and butts in pews.   Jesus was not motivated by growth for the sake of growth, and he did not count success by comparing increases in year over year metrics. 

Like Jesus, compassion should also be our motivation.  Because there are people all around us that are looking for reasons to hope.  There are people who feel broken looking for help in picking up the pieces.  There are people who are tired and worn looking for safety and rest.  There are people desperate to be known that they are loved just as they are.   These are real needs that in the world, and these are needs that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ can meet.   Friends, as the body of Christ these are needs that we can help meet, but our motivation cannot be because we hope to see these people become members and giving units.   What motivated Jesus was when he saw the crowds he had compassion for them, and if we are going to follow Jesus our motivation should also start with a deep compassion for others. 

Making sure that our motivations line up with what motivated Jesus is important, because if we are going to follow Jesus, then this scripture points out that doing so is not a passive activity.   This is one of the more remarkable aspects of this morning’s scripture.  Jesus entrusts his disciples to do the same work that he is doing.  What Jesus does in this scripture would have been highly unusual in his time.  Jesus followed the model of a traveling rabbi.  The way the rabbi-disciple model normally work is that the disciple followed the rabbi and learned everything from the teacher, so that they could essentially be an exact copy of a teacher.  After years of meticulous learning, only the best of the best disciples would be entrusted by a rabbi to go out and teach in the rabbi’s name.   This was not the approach Jesus took. 

Jesus ministry on earth was roughly three years, and Jesus sent out the twelve in the second year.  Which means at most some of the twelve would have been following Jesus for about a year, but since they were not all recruited at the same time some had only been with Jesus for a few months.   It seems Jesus did not want his disciples to have a perfect academic knowledge of his teachings, but rather he wanted them to have hands on experience putting them into practice.  The twelve men that Jesus entrusted in this scripture were not necessarily the students with the highest grades, and with a tax collector in their ranks they all did not have reputations of being righteous, upstanding people.  Yet Jesus entrusted them and empowered them to do the work.  This is the second component to the approach that Jesus used for sharing the good news.   Jesus does not call the equipped, he equips the called.  Jesus equipped the disciples with the authority they needed to accomplish the task he was sending them to do.  In the same way, the called are still equipped today.  When our desire to follow Jesus leads us to seeking the meet the needs of others, then we can confidence that the disciples of Christ will still be equipped for the task at hand. 

Being motivated by compassion, Jesus equips his disciples and then sends them out.   This is the third component to approach Jesus uses to share the good news.  It is worth noting that Jesus did not send his disciples out with instructions to invite others to come back and see Jesus.   Jesus sent his disciples out to embody the good news.   He specifically sent them to their local context.  They were Jewish men and so Jesus sent them to people who are most like them, to the people that they can most understand and connect with, and Jesus sent them to meet needs in this local context in the same ways that Jesus was already doing. 
 
I believe that being willing to invite people to come to church with us is important.  There is real, life changing value to being connected with a faith community.  However, Jesus does not equip the called just to invite in, the approach that Jesus uses to share the good news is sending his disciples out into their context to share the good news.   In this morning’s scripture Jesus states why his approach requires sending out his disciples.  In verse 37 Jesus states, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into his harvest field.” 

In this morning’s scripture Jesus used a farming metaphor.  He used the image of a harvest to describe meeting needs, having compassion for people, and sharing hope that redemption is possible.  To continue the farming metaphor, I wonder if one of the reasons why the workers are still too few is because too many Christians treat their church buildings like the wrong kind of farm building.  Too often church buildings are treated like granaries.  A granary is a building built for one purpose.  It exists to hold grain.  When the grain is harvested it put in the granary and it sits there until it is time for it to move on.  A granary keeps the harvested grain safe and comfortable inside the walls.   Too many churches act like granaries, as comfortable holding areas for those who already know Jesus.  A granary church is not worried about what happens outside the granary.  As long as there is still room (and no one sits in someone else’s pew), a granary church has no problem with more people coming in, but they will do nothing to get them there because they are already safe and secure inside the granary.  

 Instead of granaries we need more churches to be like barns.   A barn still holds things, but only temporarily.   The barn keeps the tractors and the other farming tools safe, until it is time for them to be sent out for the harvest.   It is in the barn that equipping takes place, it is in the barn that regular maintenance is kept up, but nothing is meant to stay in the barn.  The barn is staging area for the harvest.  It is the building that workers leave to go out into the fields.   The barn is a working building and by its very nature is focused on the work that takes place outside its walls.  A barn church is one where the workers gather, are cared for, properly equipped, and then sent out into the fields to do the work. 
 
Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  We will never do that, if we are like a granary that waits for other people to come in.  We must be a barn.  We must seek to show love by serving people outside our doors. When we do this, not only are we following the method of Jesus, but the healthiest and most vibrant churches are the ones that seek to serve others and be the best neighbors.  This was highlighted in the Growing Young research about congregations that are effectively reaching younger generations.  In their book the researchers wrote, “Churches that become the best neighbors . . . focus on doing good both in their neighborhood and around the world.  While most leaders might guess this is important, we can’t stay strongly enough how vital it is for churches to engages in service, acts of compassion, missions, and social justice.”  If we want to join Jesus out in the fields and make a difference for the kingdom then being the church cannot just happen on Sunday mornings between 9:00-and 10:00 AM.   Being the church, being the disciples of Jesus Christ that love and transform the world needs to happen outside our doors in the community around us, as we the see the needs and meet the needs. 

  In this morning’s scripture Jesus instructs his disciples to “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field.”  We should pray that prayer because again there are people who need Jesus.   However, if we pray that prayer, we should not be surprised if we find we are the answer to our own prayer.  We might find God handing us the tools we need to gather the harvest.   May we be willing to do that.  As our own time and abilities allow, may we join in the work.  Like Jesus, may we have compassion for other people.  May we seek to meet their needs, may we seek to serve them, and may we seek to provide for them.   Just as we have freely received the love of God and the grace of Jesus, may we freely share that with others.  May we not just be a church that gathers and sits around, but may we be a sending church, a church equipped by Jesus himself to transform this world and bring in the sheaves.