FIRST READING Deuteronomy 30:9–14
9 and the LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, 10 when you obey the LORD your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 11 Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” 14 No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.
PSALM Psalm 25:1–10
1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
2 My God, I put my trust in you; let me not be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.
3 Let none who look to you be put to shame; rather let those be put to shame who are treacherous.
4 Show me your ways, O LORD, and teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long.
6 Remember, O LORD, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your steadfast love and for the sake of your goodness, O LORD.
8 You are gracious and upright, O LORD; therefore you teach sinners in your way.
9 You lead the lowly in justice and teach the lowly your way.
10 All your paths, O LORD, are steadfast love and faithfulness to those who keep your covenant and your testimonies.
SECOND READING Colossians 1:1–14
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
3 In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7 This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit. 9 For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
GOSPEL Luke 10:25–37
25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” 29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
ARE YOU IN LABOR
As many of you know I’m a big fan of the comedic work of Bill Cosby. Back in the 70’s, he entertained us with he and his wife’s experiences during the birth of their first child. Being “intellectuals”, they decided to have their child by natural child birth; Mrs. Cosby would take no drugs or pain assisting measures of any kind. As Dr. Cosby so eloquently described it, natural child birth was just that, natural. Labor begins, the woman pushes and pow!, the baby comes. He failed to see the value of birthing classes except to get the certificate so he could attend the birth. But as they found out, actual labor, while natural, was anything but easy.
Bill said that when the first real contraction hit, reality set in. Carol Burnett once described the pain associated with child birth as taking your bottom lip and pulling it over your head. Bill said what happened next, came as a complete surprise. He said his wife, after this first real contraction, stood up in the stirrups, grabbed his bottom lip and announced to the whole delivery area, “I want morphine”! Based on what I’ve seen at Krystle’s birth and by what Terry and other mothers have told me, they call it labor for a reason. It takes time and effort. I brought this up this morning as a humorous way of focusing in on our gospel lesson.
In the Luke reading assigned for today, no one is in labor as in giving birth to a child, but rather, Jesus is looking for laborers in the kingdom of God. In Luke chapter 10 we read, “After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” This was as true then as it is today.
Notice that Jesus appointed seventy disciples to prepare the way for His ministry; to prepare the way for His coming. Jesus obviously had a large number of followers. And He, like Moses before Him, had a lot to do and needed help to accomplish God’s plan and will. So like Moses of old, Jesus chooses or appoints seventy, well qualified followers, to help Him with His ministry. And on this occasion He sent them out in pairs, undoubtedly for mutual encouragement and help. Jesus saw the tremendous need, a need so great that a great corps of witnesses was needed. “The harvest is plentiful,” he said, “but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Christ’s words ring just as true in this generation as in that day long ago. The harvest is still plentiful. People today still need what Christ has to offer. People today are spiritually hungry. Many people in our society are lost . . . however, we define that word. People have their lives as messed up as any generation has ever messed up their lives before. The world is crying out to you and me, “We need a Savior more than we ever have!” Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful.” Christ’s call for laborers, by the way, is based on human need. It’s not based on a desire to build the biggest church in town. It’s not based on the desire to cram dogmatic values down someone else’s throat. The world desperately needs what only the church can give, a Savior.
In October 2012, Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life published a report detailing the number of Americans who answered “none” to the question about religious affiliation. According to the findings in this report, the number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under age 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.
In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics, nearly 6% of the U.S. public, as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%). In a nutshell, the group:
• comprises of atheists and agnostics as well as those who ally themselves with “nothing in particular”
• it includes many who say they are spiritual or religious in some way and pray every day
• they overwhelmingly say they are not looking to find an organized religion that would be right for them and
• they are socially liberal, with three-quarters favoring same-sex marriage and legal abortion
What surprised me the most in this report was that one-third of Americans under age 30, the current generation of parents and community and religious leaders, say they have no religious affiliation, yet claim to pray, and aren’t looking for a church. When comparing this with previous generations under 30, there’s a new wrinkle, says Greg Smith, a senior researcher at Pew. “Young people today are not only more religiously unaffiliated than their elders; they are also more religiously unaffiliated than previous generations of young people ever have been as far back as we can tell.”
Young people today more than ever fail to see their need for the church and worse yet their need for a real relationship with God. No wonder we see prayer in school under attach and being abolished. No wonder any mention or hint of God is being stripped from our public places. No wonder Christians are being more and more persecuted for their beliefs. People flat don’t comprehend just how lost and desperate their situation is.
Someone said that the church isn’t a museum for the saints, but a hospital for the hurting. If you understand that the church, above all else, is a place for people who have problems, then you can easily see what Jesus meant when He said the harvest is plentiful. Pastor Jeremy Houck put it this way: The church is designed for the single mother who works two jobs to support her kids. The church is for the drug addict who can’t stop his habit. The church is for the young person who struggles with self-esteem.
The church is for the young couple who live together and have never been exposed to the best way to build a home. The church is for the man who doesn’t respect his boss, so he steals from the company and from his coworkers. The church is for the housewife who goes out searching for some excitement in the arms of a man who belongs to someone else. The church is for the alcoholic who is ready to admit they need help. And just as important, the church is for those under 30, who fail to see the need for God, who fail, or refuse, to see the need for what the church has to offer, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not the social gospel, the gospel of prosperity or of self-sufficiency. But the good news that Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. This is why many churches don’t grow. They’re more interested in trying to attract the “right kind of people” with a message that says, as long as society says it’s OK, then God approves.
They’re looking for people who have it altogether, not those who are falling apart. They’re looking for the up-and-ins, not the down-and-outs. They’re looking for saints not for sinners. We’re looking right over the great harvest and not even seeing it. Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Mark 2:15). Those in need of God’s grace come in all ethnic, economic and societal station. “The harvest is plentiful,” if we’ll take the time to look.
Some of you may be familiar with the Celebrate Recovery programs popping up around the country. Celebrate Recovery services are designed to reach those who have had problems with alcohol or drugs, people who are hurting because as children they were abused, or they’re suffering after a divorce or the loss of a spouse.
One man tells about visiting a Celebrate Recovery service in a city in the South on a Thursday evening. He says, “It was a loud service. The band, though, was great. But here’s what impressed me. More than 400 people, primarily younger people in their 20s and 30s were gathered in one place. Some of them had been through rough times. At least half of them were men . . .” Imagine that! Who says the church can’t reach people in their 20s and 30s? Who says the church can’t reach men?
“In this service,” he reports, “more than 400 young and middle adults, more than half of whom were men were lifting high the name of Jesus.” Why?, because the church was meeting them at the point of their need. And that’s the real point here. It’s not about following the latest trend; it’s about finding out who God is calling us to minister to and then meeting those people at their point of need. Everyone needs God’s love and grace, but there are many, many people in the world today who desperately need us to share with them what Christ and His church have to offer.
Some people, though, have a buffer zone around them; good health, numerous material possessions, people who love them. Yet even though they fail to see it, they still need a Savior. Too often it’s the good life that our affluent society provides them, that keeps them from realizing the most important need they have. But, they still need Christ. Jesus was speaking directly to our generation when He said, “The harvest is plentiful.”
What Christ needs is laborers who will go out into the fields. This is the church’s primary reason for being; we are commanded to reach out in love, just as Jesus reached out to a hurting and dying world. The last thing Jesus did before he left this earth was give us the great commission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a). This is our primary purpose, but not our only purpose. We’re also to be a charitable organization.
We’re to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves, remembering how Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me” (Matthew 25:42-43). We’re also to be responsible members of our community. We’re to support community organizations and to work for peace and justice in the world. And we are to maintain a house of worship and gather each week to worship God and to teach the sacred Word.
As I said, these are vital ministries, but they’re not our main business. Our main business is to introduce the world to Jesus Christ to the extent that people become His disciples, living the Christ life in such a way that the whole world is touched. I understand it’s not an easy thing for most of us to do, particularly if it means sharing our faith with a stranger. But the world is in desperate need and we need to be willing to step out of our comfort zones and share the good news with others. Perhaps you’ve heard the hilarious story about the man who prayed the same prayer every morning: “Lord, if you want me to share my faith with someone today, please give me a sign to show me who it is.”
One day he found himself on a bus when a big, burly man sat next to him. The bus was nearly empty, but this guy sat next to our friend who was praying for a sign that he should share his faith. Having this burly man next to him made our friend nervous. He anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus. But before he got to the next stop, the big guy burst into tears. The man then cried out with a loud voice, “My life is such a mess. I need to find Christ. I need the Lord. Won’t somebody tell me how to know the Master?” The burly man finally turned to our timid friend and asked, “Can you tell me about Jesus?” Our nervous friend immediately bowed his head and prayed, “Lord, is this a sign?” I guess he was looking for Bill Engvall to get on the bus and say, “Here’s yur sign!”
Most of us aren’t very comfortable sharing our faith with a stranger. It’s easier if we do it with a friend. Maybe this is why Jesus sent these witnesses out in pairs. When we work with others we find mutual support and strength. There was a time when churches would send people out two by two to evangelize the community. Our Jehovah’s Witness and Mormon friends still do it that way and because of that, I’m not sure that’s the most effective way. People don’t seem to want strangers knocking on their door.
A woman who worked at home invited a friend over for coffee. She told her, “Ignore the sign on the door. It’s just for drop ins and salespeople.” The sign read, “Bell does not work.” Then penciled underneath were these words, “Knocking won’t, either.” Some people just aren’t welcoming to uninvited guests.
One guy says there was a knock at his front door one cold and rainy day. He opened it and there stood two Jehovah’s Witnesses, damp and shivering in the cold. They asked if they could come inside. He couldn’t leave them standing there, so he said okay. He brought them into his living room and offered them a chair. They were quiet for a long time so he asked, “What happens now?” The older one said, “We don’t know. We never got this far before.” Going out two by two was once an effective strategy for reaching people. But times have changed. We must find new ways of sharing Christ to a new generation of seekers.
There are some things we know about this new generation of young adults. We know that they value relationships. As someone has put it, they’re not looking for a friendly church; they’re looking for friends. They want people to be genuine. And they like informality, including casual dress.
One writer tells about a friend of his, a woman perhaps 50 years of age. He’s never seen her in anything but blue jeans and a somewhat sloppy blouse which she probably got at Goodwill. That’s because he’s never seen her anywhere but church. Recently he discovered quite by accident that she comes from a very wealthy family. She grew up living in a prominent family on a multi-million dollar estate. He wondered, why is she so under-dressed? Is she that frugal with her money? As he soon found out, the answer was no. She doesn’t want anyone to come to her church and feel that they won’t be accepted because they can’t afford nice clothes. This is a commitment she made years ago. She wants everyone to know that you don’t have to belong to a certain economic group to be welcome in the family of God. Idea’s and sentiments like this are great once the people get in the door, but they first have to get here. Someone first has to invite them, and sometimes that’s as simple as a personal invitation.
Surveys show that, if you invite a friend to church, 50% of the time they will respond with a “yes.” That percentage goes up substantially with a second, third, or fourth invitation. The problem is that most of us are reluctant to even ask. Why is that? Are we ashamed of the Gospel? Are we ashamed of our church? Is there something we could do to make you so excited about our church that you would invite a friend to worship with us? Many of you know the story of Garrison Keillor, host of the popular program on public radio, Prairie Home Companion.
Keillor was brought up in a fringe group of the Plymouth Brethren Church. Finding the church’s heavy legalisms and dullness off putting, Keillor stopped going to church. From then on people would ask him, “Do you go to church?” And he would say, “No.” Then they would say, “Why don’t you go to church?” And he would tell them. That ritual exchange served him well for many years until, sometime back, a Lutheran friend engaged him in those same two stock questions, “Do you go to church?” and “Why don’t you go to church?” But then this person surprised him with a third question: “Why don’t you come with us?”
Never having been asked that before, Keillor didn’t have a stock answer. And before he knew it, he found himself saying yes. And that’s all it took and he was back in the fold once again. Wouldn’t it have been a shame if no one had ever asked? The fields are ready for the harvest. That’s what Christ is telling us.
People today need Christ as much as they’ve ever needed Him. Christ’s greatest need is for laborers, people who are willing to share their faith openly and boldly with their friends and neighbors. Christ needs people who are sensitive to the needs of others in this fast-changing world. Sometimes all that’s needed is a simple invitation. “The harvest is plentiful,” says Christ, “but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” The time is now for us to answer that call.
Amen