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Get your own, Free HomepageHe worked and worked and finally, after some time, he had a garden that was his pride and joy. So one afternoon he invited the old, pious widow-woman from across the way to come over and see his garden. The elderly, God-fearing woman came over and took a good look around. She looked at his crop of tomatoes and said, "Oh, the Lord has certainly blessed this land." She looked at the corn and said, "My, the Lord sure has blessed this corn." Then she looked at the rows of peas and exclaimed, "Glory! What the Lord has accomplished here!"
The farmer finally said, "With all due respect to you and the Lord, ma'am..I wish you could have seen this place when the Lord was working it without me!"
There is a fertile land, planted with the souls of people, waiting to be harvested. But the Lord needs workers! Thus, we celebrate with you, Beth, today...as you come publicly to proclaim the commitment you have already made to God...to be a worker in the harvest fields.
And we are assured...there is a plentiful harvest out there. In service to Christ, you will never run out of things to do...there will always be more lives to touch. That's a promise...and a warning. But not just for you. The Rite of Ordination is a tradition developed in the church to recognize those who are called to a particular role of spiritual leadership. But the call to be workers in the fields of God is one that extends to every Christian. Jesus was very clear about that. So let each of us listen with our hearts to what God is saying this day.
In the reading we heard from the Gospel of Matthew, there is a very vivid description of the waiting harvest and the need for workers who will go into the fields. First we are told what Jesus did: he was a teacher...he was a messenger of God...and he was a healer. Collectively, as the Church, we are called to be the Body of Christ and do those same works in the world today. If Jesus saw the need among people in his time, how much more is the world today in need of the ministry we have to give?
When Jesus described the crowds of ordinary men and women, Scripture says he had "compassion" for them. But that English translation doesn't really do justice to what the original language was saying. The word we have translated as "compassion" - which sounds like someone saying, "Awww...poor babies"...that word was actually much, much stronger. The word actually used came from a rootword that meant "bowels." So we might say that what Jesus felt went straight to his guts. As we would say today, it made him sick to see the condition the people were in.
We read that they were "harassed and helpless"...but again, the original language tells us so much more. What we have called "harassed" or "bewildered" was an extreme word that could have described someone or something treated without pity, someone utterly weary, even a corpse which is beaten and mangled. It brings to mind an image of Matthew Shephard...left on a fencepost to die. What we call "helpless" or dejected meant "laid prostrate"...unable to rise.
Together, what an accurate description of those to whom we in M.C.C. have been called to minister. Are there any more spiritually beaten up and laid low than those who have been rejected, ridiculed, lied to and dismissed as expendable by the church...by some families...by much of the world? That is the harvest field that is crying out for workers. Crying out for Beth...and for everyone of us here who has come to know that God's love for us is real.
And let me add...for the discomfort of those who may be thinking that people like Beth and I should do the hands-on work while you graciously agree to pray for us and for the harvest. prayer alone is not enough! A Bohemian proverb says, "Pray to God for a good harvest, but don't stop hoeing."
The great church reformer Martin Luther had a friend who shared Luther's passion for the Christian faith. The friend was also a monk. They came to an agreement. Luther would go down into the dust and heat of the battle for the Reformation of the world; the friend would stay in the monastery and uphold Luther's hands in prayer. So they began that way. Then, one night, the friend had a dream. He saw a vast field of corn as big as the world; and one solitary man was seeking to reap it - an impossible and a heartbreaking task. Then he caught a glimpse of the reaper's face; it was Martin Luther...and his friend realized the truth in a flash. He said, "I must leave my prayers and get to work." And so he left his pious solitude and went out into the world to labor in the harvest.
It is the desire of Christ that every person might become both a missionary and a reaper...some away from home in far off lands...but most right here where we live. Now there are those who genuinely cannot do either because circumstances of health have made it impossible...and when they extend their prayers they are truly offering strength for the laborers. But most of us have the strength of body and the health of mind to do our part in the field of needs. And just giving money is not enough. If the harvest of humanity is ever to be reaped, then every one of us - the ordained and the lay person - - must be a worker for God among God's precious people.
That is this morning's challenging news. The good news is that, not only is there a plentiful harvest waiting to be reaped...but there is a harvest of plenty waiting for those who faithfully do the reaping! In our reading from the Book of Ruth, we catch a glimpse of a woman who out of love for another woman, Naomi, and with a desire to know the God of Israel and to live among the people who worshiped this God, had given up everything to journey to a new place and to live in faithfulness. She meets a man named Boaz...a relative of Naomi's...and Boaz, in our reading this morning, wishes for Ruth, quote, "a full reward from the Lord."
You see, those who live in faithfulness to God, do experience their own "harvest of plenty." Ruth experienced that harvest. She found that, by God's grace, her physical and material needs were met; she had food and shelter as she needed them with enough to share. We can expect our needs to be met by God as well.
Now please notice...I did say "needs" not "desires," "wishes," "lusts," or "expectations." God will provide what we need...and what we need will be enough. I can remember once, about 5 years ago, sitting on the bed, crying...greatly distressed about money and bills and a job and the future. Then I heard the mail carrier outside. In a few minutes, I went out and found a package, a gift from a friend. Inside was a small lapel pin, shaped like a hand holding a small child. Attached to it was a card which quoted the prophet Isaiah: "I will not forget you; I have carved you on the palm of my hand."
The circumstances of life will, guaranteed, bring times of plenty and times of poverty. And not always in equal proportion! But God does not abandon us. If we will learn to trust God and make do with what we have, we will discover that our true needs will always be met...in God's way, in God's time .
Ruth also discovered that part of the plenty that comes when we remain faithful to God is a supportive community. Ruth said to Naomi, "Your people shall be my people." And indeed they were. Boaz took Ruth in and saw that she was provided for and accepted in her new community.
God's arrangement of requiring the Body of Christ to be in the form of a community is definitely no accident. I have told you before, "A Christian alone is not a Christian." We need each other. A human being in isolation cannot be fully human...because it's our interaction with each other that brings our full humanity forth.
Christ has arranged the church in a way that guarantees that we will need each other. Now that can be frustrating. People can be our greatest pain sometimes...a pain to our hearts...a pain in our guts...a pain in, well, all kinds of places! Beth, I hate to tell you but I recently discovered a very ironic truth. In my American Heritage Desktop Dictionary, "ordain" comes just before "ordeal."
But people are also bring our greatest blessings. Particularly for those of us - clergy or laity - who accept the call to labor in Christ's fields. Part of the harvest of plenty that we reap is the chance to help create a path to God for others. Ruth experienced that. Through the child that she would later bear by Boat, a lineage continued that went on to include Jesus of Nazareth: the ultimate path to God for all people.
We, too, can be a part of continuing that path for those who are seeking God in their lives. Ministry of any kind can be difficult, time consuming, frustrating, exhausting. But then there are those occasional reminders that what we are doing here in this place, together as a church, is touching and changing people's lives.
Just this past week, I received two letters and I want to share a portion of each of them with you. One was from someone who doesn't regularly attend our church but with whom I had shared some resources about Homosexuality & Christianity. That letter read, in part, "I have shared information from the books with my two best friends and my father. I have found the reading very helpful and encouraging. I will be returning very soon to visit again on Sunday morning. This time I will bring my father along. Thank you once again [to your church] for sharing the love of Christ is such a way that the people who feel rejected can know with certainty they are loved."
The other letter said, in part, "...this church has truly made a difference in my spiritual life. I had made the mistake of throwing out my spirituality along with my bad religious experience. In turn, I found myself feeling empty and unfulfilled. I have attended regularly since January and the loving words and lack of judgment have made me feel 'good enough' when other churches have not. I do feel God's love in our church and am so thankful...." Those kinds of words make every hardship...every challenge...every setback...every absurdity...worth it all. And we should all recognize them as a part of the plentiful harvest we are reaping because of the work we have agreed to do for God in this place.
In being Ordained today, Beth, you are not suddenly exempt from the day-to-day challenges of discipleship. And church...just because you may not be "ordained," doesn't make you exempt from the day-to-day calling to help bring in the harvest. There's too much work for just a few of us to do. And the rewards of the work are plentiful enough for all of us.
Keeping that always in mind, let us celebrate and turn to God together now as our sister Beth comes forward to be ordained into the ministry of the clergy.
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