The Lord now chose seventy-two[a] other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. 2 These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. Luke 10:1-2
Rev. Michael Ruhl is the Executive Director for the Center for U.S. Missions. He writes this is his Mission Moments:
"The word laborers (or ergatai in the Greek text) refer to people who are actively engaged in labor and work.
It is significant to me that so few people in our culture want to do actual labor. We hire immigrant workers with strong work ethic to do much of the actual laboring for us. The cultural transition from the agricultural age to the industrial age to the information age may have contributed to this de-emphasis of labor and hard work. We call it 'working smarter instead of harder' ... but for some that mantra has become doing less and expecting more. And even in our churches, too many saints see their discipleship as being a 'consumer of religious goods and services', not working at transforming lives."
I think I am growing to understand why Jesus gave us the command to pray. It will take a move of God to move us to work hard for the harvest!
What is your work ethic in relationship to the harvest?
What one thing will you do to help your church be more effective in the harvest?
1 comments:
Work ethics are modeled to us, depending on our age, we have all accumulated both good and bad habits. Identity in Jesus as Lord, Master Teacher, being yoked to Him, the surrendering of our very lives, not just future eternity but an eternal present....is critical, especially w/new believers.
I have not laid my life down to the church but to Jesus for the benefit of the church. Different mindset. In order to battle consumerism (the image of god I am buying into), I actively must remind myself to look for Him in every person and circumstance. Jesus is actively alive working in me and through me. This is the mindset I was taught before I was baptized, so I began sharing/serving Christ as I learned.
In the field I work/my life, the workers Jesus revealed were those in captivity waiting for the name that would set them free. Those others watch how I live/model/treat another/my response to evil/adversity/transparency admitting my own failure. I don't know who Jesus has chosen/who will choose life, could be my enemy and even with my enemy I do not want to stand in His way, simply because I know what it's like to live w/out the love of Christ.
However, I resented this at first. My entire life I just wanted to be normal, work hard, live a good life, fit in and become invisible. I wanted to be invisible to my pain and the pain of others. Addiction, abandonment, abuse is the environment I was raised in and what I ran from. Jesus was now calling me back to serve in that arena. Hell, it's the world we live in.
This included my own family. I could help others but I needed to be prepared to shut down if anyone got to close..the risk of betrayl, rejection, being taken advantage of, the approval of others was far to great.
The more I fought the idea of serving these people the more I realized I was fighting against God Himself. In the church there are/were plenty of others I could find to agree with me. Play it safe, I don't deserve this...ect. Not my table, get someone w/a degree or more knowledge, a professional....
I wrestled w/God for 2 years and He finally won. Surrender, submission, obedience...since than I've seen many come to Christ, seen Him transform their lives. Including my own mother, at time's praying w/and for her, when she was drunk or strung out on crack. It meant forgiving people, maybe letting go of your rights, sharing the truth when it hurts, even letting them go when they are not ready to learn.
My brothers & sisters now consist of ex-gang bangers, homeless people,recovering addicts, some have been on the edge of suicide, now they are my coaches,teachers, sheperds,my community...family,friends,co-workers, angels I met in this journey who were simply broke down, maybe in a hospital, on the side of the road, a friend of a friend. When they were in need, I helped, but even as they needed, they came along and helped others.
The challenge is no longer loving them, but learning how to love our church. They do not fit our image, whether we say it or not it becomes an attitude. When you love the marginal you can not remain invisible. The work for me now is learning how to live within the boundries of our Lutheran culture. Instead of using knowledge to condemn & reject...I'm learning to work through my anger. Anger protects me from the boxes, the patronizing, the betrayl of brothers and sisters I truley believed I was suppose to be able to depend on. It protects me from recognizing that I too can/and am at time's the same way but for the love of Christ. I now have my POSITION in the body, it's to be a little toe, to give balance, to become love, finding the sufficiency and freedom I have in this is what I must continously work through, especially in our environment and believe me it's not easy. To be rejected by those who are a part of God's family hurts bad...that's why when we go out in the field, we need to remember, we are not elevating them, they elevate us, the ones who need Christ are the ones who can teach us how to truley love, because they are usually already doing what we should be doing in the church. They know what it means to be hungry and thirsty, do we?
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