A serious
problem that most smaller and rural communities are facing is a shortage of
skilled tradespeople – welders, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, carpenters,
heavy equipment operators, groundskeepers, farmhands, and the list could go own
– people who do stuff. At present, people
of the Baby Boomer generation are doing most of these skilled trades. They are beginning to retire in droves and
there are few trained younger people to step into their places. A shortage of people who do stuff means that it
will become more expensive to build and renovate homes, build and maintain
automobiles, plant and harvest crops.
Need I scare you more? This is a
problem of apocalyptic proportion. Young people who would like to make a career
of dependable, good paying would be wise to consider a learning a trade. The harvest is waiting, but the labourers are
few.
Another
shortage we have is in the area of volunteers.
In another ten years there is likely to be no one to help us find our
way around our local hospital, no civic clubs raising funds for necessary
projects, and there will be fewer community events like Summer Folk. Younger people (50’s and younger) are not
volunteering or joining service groups anymore.
The basic need for people just to simply help each other is a ripe field
and the workers are very few.
Then
there is the shortages the world has always had; the shortage of peace, the
shortage of justice, the shortage of health, the shortage of everybody having
enough, the shortage of humanity yielding to the abundance of God’s love. Ourselves, we have it quite comfortable. On a whole we as a nation are in that top 20%
of the global population that has plenty, that has more than enough. Yet and likely as a result, we suffer the
ills of apathy, isolation, and rampant individualism that is rapidly turning
into narcissism. Our need to reconnect
with the land, with community, with neighbour, with God is a huge harvest
waiting to be reaped. Yet, the workers
are few and they – US – we are tired.
The need that all of humanity has for the Kingdom of God to come is the
ripest field anyone has ever seen, but who will go and bear the scythe to reap.
Jesus
offers a solution to the labour shortage. He tells his motley crew, “The
harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the
harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” Could it really be that easy? Have a prayer
meeting? It’s worked in the past. The disciples were gathered together in
Jerusalem praying when Pentecost happened. Ever since, every great revival, renewal, or
mission sending movement in the history of Christianity has begun with people
gathering to pray. Could it really be
that easy?
Well,
we won’t know unless we try, but be warned: look at whom Jesus sends. He called forth the labourers from among the
little crowd of people gathered around him and sent them. This means that if we are going to pray to the
Lord for the purpose of sending out workers into his harvest, then each and
every one of us needs to accept that it might be “me” that he wants to
send. Are we each prepared to say, “Yes”?
Another
thing we need to note is that he sends these folks out, OUT, out into the world
ahead of himself like lambs among wolves.
He doesn’t say go into the crowd here and come up with creative ways to
make the crowd look more friendly and welcoming and alive. He doesn’t tell them to polish the rocks the people
are sitting on and add pillows, or to plant more shade trees along the road for
air conditioning, or to sing catchy camp-fire songs, or to play fun games so
even children will want to come and be a part of the crowd making that arduous
walk to Jerusalem (in cardboard shoes).
Jesus doesn’t send the workers to do Attractional Ministry. Rather, he’s
got in mind what’s come to be known as Missional Ministry or Incarnational
Ministry – the ministry of going about out there doing the things that he does
or says.
Jesus
does Sending Out Ministry. Do you
remember what Jesus said to his disciples when he appeared to them on Easter
evening as they cowered in fear behind locked doors? He said, “Peace be with
you. As the Father has sent me, so I
send you.” This is ministry that happens
as we about our way – as we go visiting with friends and family, as we go to
work, as we go to the places we go and from the sound of it, it seems require
that we be good guests in the lives of others rather than us requiring people
to be good guests when they come here.
Jesus
tells his disciples to travel light and to accept the hospitality of others as
they welcome us into their lives. We seem
to instinctively prefer that people come to us,
and become like us, so that we don’t
have to change. Yet, the ministry Jesus
calls us to requires we leave behind our security blanket of the expectations
we have that people be just like us.
Yet, if we travel without those expectations, we are less likely to
judge and more likely to listen and learn from others.
Jesus
sends his disciples out to bring peace to people along the way. Jesus said to his disciples in John’s Gospel,
“Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Jesus’ peace is his presence, the Holy
Spirit, with us. Because the Holy Spirit
abides with us we have a peace that the world does not have and so we can give
peace and make peace. One way that we
can give peace is that we can be a non-anxious presence in the lives of
others. Sometimes people step into the
lives of others and cause worry, create conflict, or make problems seem bigger
than they are. But, by the peace that
Jesus has given to us we can step into the lives of others and listen, and
encourage and help others to forgive and to mend broken relationships. We can step into the lives of others and
bring hope rather than further despair.
Similar
to bringing peace Jesus sends his disciples to cure the sick. A ministry of healing is something all
churches should have. This looks like
designated worship services that people can come to and be prayed for. This looks like visiting your neighbours when
they are ill and praying for their healing.
Healing ministries take a lot of courage to make happen, but healing
does happen whether it be in the form of tumours disappearing or people simply becoming
able to accept the inevitable because God is with them.
Finally,
Jesus sends his disciples out to be living testimonies to the reality that the
Kingdom of God is at hand. This was the Gospel
that Jesus himself proclaimed.
Everywhere he went in everything that he did and said the Kingdom of
God, the Reigning power of God, shown forth and took effect. And so it is that he sends us forth.
We
are the labourers who have to go and reap the harvest. The harvest waits wherever we go. We cannot expect that people today are just
simply going to out of the blue up and decide to come to church to find Jesus
and his Kingdom. The harvest is out
there. We are the workers. Jesus sends us. He sends us with nothing more than what he
has given us: peace and prayers of healing.
Let us go. Amen.
