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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 tradespeople 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 job 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 are 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 to 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 through everything 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.
