Harvest Time

Today was Reign of Christ Sunday, a day when we anticipate the compassionate, just rule of Christ at the end of time. We can anticipate that time just like the ancient Israelites anticipated the harvest. If you wonder why that is the case, this sermon will explain it!

Harvest time! Doesn’t that phrase call up wonderful images, especially for those of us who live here in the Midwest? At harvest time, everywhere you look, you can see fields of tall corn or wheat waving gently in the wind. “Amber waves of grain” is the way that the way the song “America the Beautiful” describes it. And in those fields are huge combines harvesting all the mature crops that were only seeds so many months before! The grain pours like a waterfall from the combine into a waiting truck, ready to be safely stored until it is needed. When I see those huge trucks that are full of grain that was recently harvested from the fields, I am happy that it’s harvest time in Ohio once again!

In ancient Israel, of course, there weren’t any combines. The image that would have made an ancient Israelite happy were sheaves of wheat standing in the fields like so many soldiers standing at attention. And if the Bible is to be believed, the people looked forward to that harvest all year! Psalm 126 is an example of that anticipation. Even if life is hard now, the psalm says, when the harvest comes, everything will be just fine! The festival at a good harvest sounds like it was quite a celebration: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and Super Bowl Sunday all rolled into one. After all, if the harvest was poor, the whole country faced starvation. But a good harvest meant that the country’s food supply was secure for one more year; and everyone celebrated, from the smallest child toddling next to his mother to the oldest person in the community who had to be helped when he walked. No wonder that the people looked forward to the harvest all year!

These days, we don’t look forward to the harvest the way that the ancient Israelites did. In fact, the only people who really anticipate the harvest are the farmers who look forward to having some rest after the hard work of the growing season! Of course, we celebrate Thanksgiving every year at harvest time; but most of us don’t really connect it with that year’s harvest. We can go to Kroger any old time and pick up a turkey from the meat counter, some cranberry relish from the deli, a pumpkin pie from the bakery, and a bag of mixed vegetables from the freezer. Even those of us who do our own cooking don’t raise the turkey, pick the cranberries, or grow the vegetables in our own garden! Why would we look forward to the harvest? It’s just another season as far as most of us are concerned! That’s just a fact of modern life.

But we Christians have another harvest that we can anticipate – and anticipate with great joy! That’s the great harvest that God will bring in at the end of time. Mark talks about it in his gospel in a little parable that is frequently overlooked (4:26-29). The kingdom of God, Mark tells us, is like a field that yields good crops. The farmer scatters the seed, and then the crops grow miraculously: the seeds sprout, the stalk grows, and then the wheat head appears and matures. When everything is ready, that farmer harvests the grain. It’s a short, simple parable, but it would have called up lots of images in the minds of the listeners. They would have recalled how uncertain life is at the beginning of the growing season. All kinds of things are uncertain as they get ready to sow their seeds. Would those seeds fall on good soil? Would they germinate and grow into sturdy crops? Would those crops withstand the growing season, or would insects, weeds, or weather cause them to wither and die? Maybe they would even remember how, on some years, they wept with hope as they sowed those seeds, because the previous year’s harvest had been poor, and they were nearly out of food! You can almost hear them singing Stephen Foster’s poignant song, “Hard Times, Come Again No More.”

Let us pause in life's pleasures, and count its many tears

While we all sup sorrow with the poor.

There's a song that will linger forever in our ears:

“Oh! Hard times come again no more.”

Tis the song, the sigh of the weary:

“Hard times, hard times, come again no more!”

Many days you have lingered around my cabin door

“Oh! Hard times come again no more!”

But in Mark’s parable, that song is silent. In Mark’s parable, the harvest is sure! They can count on lots of ripe, healthy grain that will be harvested and stored away safely and securely. After this harvest, there will be no more hard times, no more laments, no more weeping with despair. That’s because Mark isn’t talking about an earthly harvest; he’s talking about the harvest at the end of time. And we know what will happen then: Christ will gather his people together like sheaves of wheat, and we will be safely and securely kept in his kingdom; not just for a season, but for eternity!

It’s a good comparison, isn’t it, comparing the uncertainty of our earthly lives with the uncertainty of a field of growing crops. Sometimes the weather cooperates and we are joyful in the knowledge that the harvest will be a good one. Other years, there is too much rain (or too little); a resistant strain of weed threatens to crowd out the good crops; or a sneaky little insect infiltrates the crops and makes a meal of them. Our lives are just like that: sometimes, things go well, and – as the psalmist describes it – “our mouths are filled with laughter” (Psalm 126:2). Other times, our lives are difficult, and we “go out weeping” (Psalm 126:6), wondering if we will make it through another day. But we can all look forward to the harvest when Christ will take us home to a place where there is no more weeping, no more pain, no more uncertainty, no more insecurity, secure forevermore. “The one who goes out weeping… will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.” (Psalm 126:6) How do we know? We know because Christ Jesus is our king! And Christ is not a monarch who is a slave to his whims, his prejudices, or his greed! Christ rules God’s kingdom with love, with mercy, and with compassion. Christ Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow; and he has promised us that he will care for us eternally. That promise is something that we can trust!

So, this Thanksgiving, as we sit down to a huge dinner table groaning with food – or to a smaller table with just a few family or friends – or to a cozy table set just for one or two – we can be thankful not only for the food, for our friends, and for our families, but also for Jesus Christ and his love for us. And we can anticipate the time to come when he will come to take his harvest home: eternally secure, eternally safe, and eternally joyful. Thanks be to God!

Powerful People

Where is power found? The scriptures are clear that it is frequently found in the places -- and the people -- that we least expect!

This morning, I want to introduce you to two very powerful people. (Their story is in II Kings 5:1-14.) The first is Naaman. He was the commander of the army of Aram, a country just north of Israel in the region of what is now Syria. Today, we hardly remember Aram’s existence, but in the time of ancient Israel, it was an important neighbor of Israel. Naaman was a powerful man, since he had control of the whole army of Aram. The other person is his wife, Mrs. Naaman. She was powerful, too, in her own way. She didn’t command any armies, but she probably commanded Naaman! Next to the king of Aram himself, Mr. and Mrs. Naaman were the most powerful people in the entire country!

And wherever Mr. and Mrs. Naaman went, people who were much less powerful would go with them. Mrs. Naaman would have her slave girl with her, a little girl who was seized in a raid on Israel. She wasn’t powerful at all. In fact, of all the people in the whole country, she was probably the least powerful! She was a child; she was a girl child; she was a foreign girl child; she was a foreign slave girl child. You can’t get much less powerful than that. And Naaman would always have a couple of the soldiers under his command with him. They took orders from Naaman; so they had to do what he said, whether they liked it or not. They weren’t powerful, either. Mr. and Mrs. Naaman and their helpers are quite a contrast: some of the least powerful people in Aram serving some of the most powerful.

But in one very important way, Naaman wasn’t powerful at all; because Naaman had leprosy. Leprosy wasn’t taken lightly in ancient Middle Eastern society. There was no cure for it. Leprosy was a death sentence; it destroyed a body from within. Lepers were shunned, exiled from society. Even if you were a powerful man like Naaman, leprosy was still more powerful. And Naaman had leprosy. He was absolutely powerless against that disease! But Mrs. Naaman’s powerless little foreign slave girl knew something that Naaman didn’t know! She knew that there was a prophet in Israel who might be able to cure even leprosy! “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria!” she said. “He would cure him of his leprosy!” So off Naaman went to Israel, hopeful that this prophet, whoever he was, might have the power to help him; because Naaman was powerless to help himself!

When Naaman got to Israel, he was directed to go to the prophet Elisha. He was expecting a welcome reflecting his rank as an important general. But Elisha didn’t even come out of his house! He sent somebody to tell Naaman to go wash seven times in the Jordan River, and everything would be just fine. Well, that put Naaman’s knickers in a twist! Go wash in the river?! Was there to be no public display reflecting Naaman’s importance? Why, how dare this Israelite treat Naaman like he was some ordinary Joe Schmoe! Naaman was on the verge of storming home taking his leprosy with him, when another one of those powerless people spoke up. This time, it was one of Naaman’s soldiers. “Why don’t you try it?” he asked Naaman. “If it doesn’t work – well, no harm, no foul. You would do something difficult; why not do this easy thing?” And in the end, it was the powerless soldier who encouraged Naaman to do the very thing that cured him of his leprosy!

Maybe we need to reevaluate just where the power lies in this little story. Naaman, a person with lots of worldly power, had no power over the disease that is slowly killing him. The real power was God’s; and it was used by the prophet Elisha, who worked on God’s behalf. And the people who had no worldly power at all – a slave girl and a common soldier – they pointed Naaman towards God’s power, the only power that could heal him. All our earthly power is nothing when we compare it to God’s power to heal and to transform. And like the slave girl and the soldier, we have the incredible privilege of pointing people towards God’s power and encouraging them when they are discouraged! Sometimes, we even reflect God’s power when we act in loving ways.

I’m going to share a story with you – a true story – that took place just over a week ago. This article was written by our Association Minister Carl Robinson, and it appeared in the Nov. 12 issue of the SONKA online newsletter Tidings.

[A] family [was] in desperate financial need. She was working a good-paying but unreliable part-time job. Because of transportation problems resulting from having to purchase a vehicle from a buy here/pay here place, he was laid off from his construction job. They have 5 children ranging in age from 2-10. One of the children suffers from severe food allergies which she neither fully understands nor controls. Thus, she ends up in the Emergency Room on a regular basis. Utilities were turned off in their rented home and eviction proceedings were threatened by the otherwise understanding landlord. The family needed immediate assistance. Some of the churches in SONKA saw last week’s invitation [to help] and responded. Six of them pledged or gave money. One cluster of churches [also] contributed. [Another] person dropped by the Association office with an envelope of cash which was designated for groceries. The pledges totaled $1850. I delivered the cash on Friday last. It allowed the family to cover rent, get the electric turned back on, and fix their car. With the repaired transportation, he was able to return to work…. He works third shift so she can drive the eleven miles to her part-time job. Those [folks from SONKA] changed a family’s life.

That, friends, is God’s power; and it’s reflected by little people like us. In fact, our congregation was one of those who contributed towards that family’s welfare. God’s power isn’t the kind that commands and controls; it’s the kind of power that helps and heals. It’s not power that comes from having lots of people in the pews; it’s power that comes from having a few church members who are committed and generous! Who are the powerful people in our country today? Some of them are sitting right here in this sanctuary! We are powerful people who have changed lives by helping to reflect God’s love and grace. I have no doubt that in the next month, we will change even more lives as we help Project Believe and the families whose names will appear on the Angel Tree.

I have always appreciated the statement that is attributed to anthropologist Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Commitment… generosity… love… and hope. Those things, my friends, are where real power lies; and this congregation has that kind of power in abundance! We are powerful because we rely on God’s power! I pray that we never forget it.