July 4, 2010 Galatians 6:7-10 Luke

10:1-11, 16-20 “Who, Me?

Harvest?”
Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

“Wanted: Hard worker for back-breaking labor, 12-hour days, in hot, wet fields or large processing
plants. Must be willing to relocate repeatedly. Piece work rate or minimum wage, no benefits.
Barracks-style housing provided. Women and teens encouraged to apply.”
Sound attractive? Not to most of us. Not to most of the U.S. work force either, but for seasonal or
migrant farm workers, this hypothetical “want ad” describes reality. It’s estimated there are 1.3
million migrant workers who provide essential seasonal labor for agricultural employers across the
country. The number includes both legal and illegal workers.
Most of us wouldn’t even consider taking such a job. Even fast food places like McDonald’s, Burger
King and the others that pay only minimum wage have a hard time finding workers because teenagers
think it’s beneath their dignity to flip hamburgers, and besides, the money isn’t that good. Imagine
trying to convince someone with that attitude to go pick strawberries, or to go pick beans. It may be
different, now, with the economy as it is, but I doubt it. Many teenagers don’t want to work at
minimum wage jobs, and adults know that it’s impossible to raise a family on minimum wage, so they
don’t want the jobs either. But who could do the work the migrant workers do?
We know why migrant workers are willing to take such difficult jobs when most of us today wouldn’t
even think about working under those conditions. A New York Times article explains this all too
clearly for us. It said, “Eager to earn as much as 10 times what they can at home, these workers are
willing to put up with living conditions and wages that few Americans would accept. The economic
imperative driving them – that they can lift their families out of poverty – is so powerful that it has
assured a plentiful supply of migrants even as real farm wages have fallen by more than 10 percent in
the last 20 years.”1 Indeed, not only is there a plentiful supply of migrant workers, there’s an over
abundance of this cheap labor supply, at least there was, thereby guaranteeing that wages remain low,
working conditions remain difficult, and housing conditions often times remain abominable.
These were the conditions during Jesus’ day as well. The growers didn’t depend upon migrant
laborers, but they did depend upon a plentiful supply of day laborers, workers who had slipped to the
very bottom of the economic ladder. Laborers who worked for next to nothing in order to put food on
the table for that day. Workers who had little chance of ever escaping poverty, who’s life expectancy
was dramatically lower than the rest of society. The owners depended upon these workers who were
just glad to work that day, because that meant they would eat that night.
It’s an ironic picture, therefore, Jesus paints in today’s text. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers
are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” I suppose Jesus’
listeners could imagine a glorious time when all the day laborers were already in the fields, and yet the
harvest was so great that there was still more crop to be gathered in, a glorious time of full
employment. Maybe there would be a time when an owner’s crop would be slow to ripen and so the
labor supply would be diminished, and the crop would be threatened because no one was there to
harvest it. That’s a possibility.
Or maybe Jesus was simply pricking the consciences of his listeners as he pricks ours today. The
1 1. Unfortunately, I have lost the exact reference from the NY Times for this quote.
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harvest is there, but would we go out into the almond groves to pick up almonds? Don’t they have
machines to do that now? Would we go into the beet fields or the bean fields, or the strawberry fields
to pick the harvest? “Who, me? Harvest? You’ve got to be kidding. I don’t do that kind of work.
That’s for someone with no skills. That’s for someone else to do. I haven’t sunk that low, yet!”
Not all, but many of Jesus’ listeners would’ve probably reacted just like us. That’s not for me. My
gifts are different. I’ll drive the tractor but I don’t do weeds, and I don’t pick almonds.
But Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” There are people out there ready to
come to the Lord, but there’s no one to share the Good News with them. There are people through out
the world, even people here in Chico, who don’t know the love of Jesus Christ, don’t understand that
they’re sinners no matter how well educated they are or how well off they may be. Despite the
number of churches in our city, there are thousands ready to hear the Good News, but there’s a
shortage of harvesters. Jesus says, “Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the
midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.”
And we say, “Who, me? Harvest? You’ve got to be kidding. You want me to give up my nice home,
my new car, my well-paying job, my dreams of getting ahead – you want me to give up all these
things and harvest souls? That’s not for me. That’s not my thing, (as we used to say.) That’s not
what I want to do.”
Two related reflections on what I think is a general reluctance on the part of many, if not most of us,
to see ourselves as harvesters in life’s field today. First, on a positive note, God calls all of us – lay
and pastor – to this task. Not to leave our homes, but to share the Good News. We’re called to go
into the fields to harvest together. It’s not only ministers who are to harvest, not even primarily
ministers. Barbara Brown Taylor, in her book The Preaching Life, writes this: “While a lay person’s
trips to the pulpit may be few, this good news cannot help but creep into everyday discourse, until
conversations with colleagues, midnight talks with children, and telephone calls to ailing friends all
resound with the faith, hope, and love of someone engaged in the ministry of the word.” 2 The harvest
is gathered in because you invite friends and neighbors to church. The harvest is gathered in because
we’re praying especially hard for 2 or 3 special people to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, praying
that a door will be opened so that we can share with those 2 or 3 people what Jesus Christ has done for
us. The harvest is gathered in because we’re constantly seeking opportunities to share the Gospel with
those individuals for whom we’re praying – not to cram the Good News down their throats, but to
gently ask them about the condition of their spiritual life, as well as life in general.
The harvest is gathered in, or not gathered in as the case may be, because we’re concerned with the
salvation of those still in the fields. This is the second, perhaps negative, reflection. Migrant workers
are willing to harvest the fields in which most of us would be unwilling to work because they love
their families. Much of what little they earn goes to their families where ever they may be living.
They love their families so much that they’re willing to live in shacks filled with bugs and rats, work
under the hot sun all day long for minimum wage growing old before their time because they have a
dream of their families having a better life.
Are we concerned enough about those who don’t know Jesus Christ that we’re willing to go into the
fields to harvest those who don’t know the Lord, even though we may not want to? Do we have a
compassion for all those who are lost so that we’ll be willing to take the risk of sharing our faith with
2 2. Taylor, Barbara Brown, The Preaching Life, Cowley Publications, Cambridge,
1993, pp. 34-35.
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them? Do we personally care enough about those who don’t know Jesus Christ that we obey Jesus’
command ourselves to go out into the harvest?
Jesus tells us, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into his harvest.” Are we willing to go into the harvest? Do our hearts burn with
compassion for those who don’t know Jesus Christ? As we come before His table this morning, may
we open ourselves to allowing the Holy Spirit to let us feel a deep concern for those who don’t yet
worship God. As we come before His Table, may we be reminded that God loved us, and loves all
those still in the field, loves us all, enough that He sent His only Son to die on a cross that we might
have life more abundantly. As we come to His table, may the Holy Spirit stir our hearts and
encourage our souls that we might better work to bring in the harvest for our Lord.