The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Today’s message goes from a shortage of workers in the flower fields to increasing numbers of workers in the missionary field. Using the analogy of bees pollinating flowers, turning them into a bountiful harvest of fruit.
Blue Lake Presbyterian | 6-18-2017
Good morning, welcome to Blue Lake Presbyterian.
Today’s sermon is titled “Plentiful Harvest” and is based on Matthew 9: 35 10:8
To all the fathers in the audience and listening online: Happy Father’s day. On a day like today, I can’t help but think of my dad who passed away four years ago this week. He grew up during the Great Depression, and endured the German occupation in World War Two. His moral compass, work ethic, warm heart, love for others, and resounding humility always will be an inspiration to me, and I am forever thankful for everything he taught me.
I remember helping out my father on the farm while growing up in Holland, one particular December, it was extremely cold and the crops, even in the greenhouse were growing very slowly and then around Christmas, it got warm and Daffodils and Tulips all came together. The whole family and even neighbors pitched in to get all the flowers picked. The harvest was plentiful but the laborers were few.
Fast forward to 2017, two weeks ago, I attended a California Cut Flower Commission board of commissioners meeting in Sacramento. The CCFC is a State agency; it is the lead advocacy and marketing organization, representing all flower farmers across the State of California.
The board meets twice a year, and it is a great opportunity to catch up with fellow farmers and hear what is going on. In discussions, the issue of labor came up. Some farmers reported not having enough workers to pick all the flowers this spring.
The abundant rainfall this season, cleansed the soil of salinity, it strengthened the plants and yielded a plentiful harvest, but ultimately there were not enough hands to get all the flowers picked
In Arcata, we were blessed with sufficient labor this spring. The Teen Challenge team and special needs team members from DES; and students from HSU all helped out.
But listening to the labor shortage stories of the other flower farmers brought back painful memories of 2008 and 2009, when our company experienced an immigration action by ICE and we lost nearly 80% of our workforce in Arcata at that time. Even 9 years later, the memories are still vivid.
Jesus used the analogy of a plentiful harvest and not having enough laborers in terms of spreading the message of the “Good News”, and that brings us to today’s scripture reading of Mathew 9:35 10:8 which can be found in your pew bible.
35Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
10Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
5These twelve, Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
Friends, the Gospel of Matthew is one of the longest in the bible, it is named after Matthew who was the equivalent an IRS agent in today’s terms before becoming a disciple of Jesus.
You can sense his affinity with money, as there are more references to money in Matthew than in the other Gospels. Matthew wrote his Gospel to underscore, to the Jewish people that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah of the Hebrew Scriptures. Matthew contains 65 Old Testament quotations, more than any of the other Gospels.
In today’s reading Jesus instructs his disciples to perform the same works he does, calling them into a ministry marked by healing and liberation. The blind seeing, the lame walking, the lepers cleansed, the deaf hearing, all these signs accentuate the proclamation of the good news.
Jesus sent out the 12 disciples with the following instructions: go nowhere among the gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Isn’t this a bit confusing? Their first mission is to the “lost sheep of Israel” the people who were promised a Messiah. I suppose, it was reasonable to assume that they would be most receptive to hearing about the Kingdom.
Thinking back to the days in 2008 when we didn’t have enough workers to get all the work done, I remember how we focused on the most necessary tasks. For instance planting of bulbs was delayed and we prioritized picking flowers for our customers instead. But first we picked the most valuable flowers like Lilies and particularly the Oriental lilies. We didn’t have enough people to pick all crops.
So it was with Jesus, he had only 12 disciples and according to verse 36, he saw the crowds and had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. But with 12 guys you can only do so much, so he instructs them to prioritize and focus on the Hebrews, the people of the house Israel.
Eventually, the Kingdom would include Samaria and pagan territory, a Kingdom for Jew and Gentile alike. The beginnings of the mission that ultimately was to reach the ends of the earth…
The bible reads in Acts 1:8: “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
In other words, evangelism starts with its “own kind” and then branches out.
Jesus believed that the Jewish people were ripe and ready for the Gospel, ready for the Kingdom. The time was ready. The time was ripe.
In Willow Creek, we grow a crop called Ilex verticilata, the red berries for Christmas, but in order to have a plentiful harvest of beautiful berries in the fall and winter, three things are important. 1)blooming female plants, 2)male plants blooming at exactly the same time, and 3)bees, for pollination. In May and June, there are tens of millions of these little flowers blooming in the field in Willow Creek.
The flowers are plentiful but the work of pollinating needs to be done by bees. Depending on the temperature, an individual flower may only be blooming for a day or two, so once they start blooming; these bees literally are “busy bees”.
For years we had an abundance of bees in our field, they came from a beekeeper in the area. Then one year at blooming time, we spotted only a few wild bees, but the bees of years past were absent, a plentiful harvest but few workers.
By the time we figured out that this beekeeper no longer was around, and we quickly brought in bees from a beekeeper in Fortuna, but valuable time had passed and many flowers had not pollinated.
That year we had a poor Ilex crop and we learned a hard lesson. Since then, we call the beekeeper well ahead of time to bring his beehives.
It is like that with folks that have a hunger and thirst of the soul, the Gospel message at the right time can make the difference between a flower that wilts away in days or a flower that is pollinated and grows into a nice branch with beautiful berries and branch full of fruit Jesus said in Matthew 7:15 you will know them by their fruit.
There are people all around us that are ripe and ready for Jesus to enter their lives. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
People are willing to do church work in order to keep a church running smoothly, but it is much harder to find disciples who evangelize to help people know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Today’s reading is a precursor to the “Great Commission”, in which Jesus instructs his disciples after the resurrection in Matt 28:19: So you must go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And you can be sure that I am always with you, to the very end.”
What do we do when there are millions of people who are ripe for the gospel? Ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers and make new disciples for Jesus Christ.
Earlier this week I attended a flower conference in downtown Chicago, I was asked to give a presentation on the state of domestic flower industry. A little over mile from our Hotel was the Moody Bible institute.
It made me think of a story I heard about DL Moody who had sponsored the one month long North Field Bible conference and he encountered a student from Princeton named Robert Wilder, this fellow was filled with the spirit and had a heart for souls and mission.
They organized a night at the conference and students were genuinely moved as they heard about lost souls and spiritual needs around the World, including China, Japan, and India. On the last day of the conference, 100 students had signed the missionary declaration, known as the Mount Hermon 100.
This led to the student volunteer movement for foreign missions, involving colleges like Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton and Yale, eventually 160 colleges participated.
In 1886 there were less than 400 missionaries, by 1890 900, by 1900 5000, by 1915 10,000 by 1945 22,000 missionaries went across the world to spread the gospel.
According to “The Traveling Team” website there are 400,000 missionaries worldwide today. In the part of the world what is referred to as the 10/40 window, meaning between 10 and 40 north latitude there are over 3 billion people that are unreached by the gospel. In Asia and Muslim dominated countries the percentage of Christians is very low. For instance in Japan it is less than 2 %.
Over the Memorial Day weekend I did something very unusual, I kicked back and watched movies with my wife, like the movie “Silence” it tells the story of Jesuit missionaries in 17th century Japan.
Although the film is based on a fictional novel, many of the events and people depicted in “Silence” are real. During the mid-1500 the Jesuits started planting the seeds of Christianity in Japan. 400,000 Japanese were baptized, but by 1620 missionaries were officially expelled from the country.
A number of priests went underground to minister to the Christian community. Among them was Fr Ferreira, the lead Jesuit missionary, he was the first to renounce his faith under severe torture.”
The story depicts gruesome and barbaric persecution of the Christians in Japan. It is a sad story but it explains why for hundreds of years the fruit of the spirit disappeared in Japan.
It is like when the beekeeper takes the bees away or, does anyone remember “Malathion’, a very toxic insecticide that kills all the bees, no bees, no pollination, no fruit.
But if evangelization is not impeded, remarkable things can happen. In 1945 the Christians population in South Korea was 2%, just like Japan today. 70 years later it has grown to nearly 30% of the population. As a matter of fact, there are more Presbyterians in Korea than the entire USA.
While driving to the farm 5.30 yesterday morning, I listened to an interview of Ed Canon, president of Far East Broadcast Company. A link to the interview will be available on the website. It was amazing to hear what this organization is doing.
Spreading the good news of the Gospel in 50 countries, they receive 2 million listener responses a year of how people’s lives are transformed by the message of the Jesus Christ. But the China story in particular, caught my attention.
FEBC started broadcasting into China in the late 40’s, but there was no indication that anyone was listening to this program.
13 years later the first letter arrived, and this is what it said: I want to know more about the man you speak of, Jesus, and by the way, many, many people are listening faithfully to your broadcast.
In the interview Ed Canon reported that last year they received over 800,000 letters from listeners in China and 10’s of millions of people sign on to download podcasts over the internet. The ministry in China has expanded wildly.
God is at work in Africa as well. Last summer I met Kelly Landini and his wife Vicky from Zimbabwe. Through Campus Crusades for Christ he leads a ministry in that country. Last Wednesday he sent a note and wrote that while speaking at Mabelreign Girls High school, 47 girls gave their life to Christ.
God has used Kelly and his wife in tremendous ways and this brought many fruits in His Kingdom, as he ministers digitally in countries in Southern and Eastern Africa but also to churches, fathers, mothers, the vulnerable and disadvantaged in society.
Friends, the harvest is plentiful, Jesus told his disciples go out and spread the good news. .
How can we share Jesus concern for those who are harassed and helpless, the sheep without a shepherd?
Today’s society is no different as it was then, hungry and thirsty souls, in a broken world.
The good news of the gospel will transform lives, but sometimes, people are not receptive to listen. That doesn’t mean we don’t tell the story, just like 13 years of ministry in China with no response, but FEBC staff persisted, and people were listening, and today there are an estimated 50 million Christians in China and growing.
When folks do become receptive to the gospel, when the right opportunity arises, we as believers in Christ are called to share our testimony. Just like the flowering Ilex needs the bees at the right time, doing their good work.
Paul wrote in 2Cor 5:19 therefore we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us.
Folks let the message of hope and healing and forgiveness spread through our community, our Country and abroad to all the ends of the earth.
Let the love of Jesus, fill our hearts and souls.
Let us be inspired to step up as workers in the “Plentiful Harvest”.
Thank you, God Bless you
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