Scythe & Sickle

7 July 2019

Galatians 6:7-16; Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

I’ve shared before that the Bible must not be read only by verse but within a much broader context.  One verse, even a whole chapter, can often lack meaning if not read with a mind toward other passages, even other books, First Testament or New.

For instance, Jesus speaks of the “plentiful harvest” and the apparent lack of laborers (Luke 10:2).  However, the Lord does not tell everyone to pick up “scythe & sickle” and hit the fields; instead, He says, “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest”.  Far from letting any baptized member of the Church off the hook, we are invited to look more closely and evaluate more carefully what is being asked of The Lord’s Church.

Even if we believe we’re supposed to reap and gather, there is a word of caution found in Matthew’s Gospel.  In the parable of the wheat and the weeds (13:24-30), the master’s slaves had noticed weeds growing among the good wheat.  When they inquired of the master whether he wanted them to go and pull the weeds, the master said no.  “Let both [wheat and weeds] grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into the barns’ …”

We may think of “harvest” in terms of Christian conversion (i.e., getting people baptized).  This is not an unreasonable assumption because it speaks directly to the mission of the Church to “make disciples and baptize them”.  However, it may also be reasonable to ask whether one can be a disciple (a student) of Jesus and not be baptized immediately.  We’re not talking about being “saved” or “justified”.  We’re talking about someone merely interested in learning more about Jesus and the New Covenant before they fully commit. 

Some may say it is possible to be a disciple before baptism because of Jesus’ lesson in Luke’s Gospel (14:25-34); one must first consider the “cost” of discipleship because that cost is steep.  “Whoever comes to Me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes even life itself, cannot be My disciple … None of you can become My disciple if you do not give up all your possessions”.

In our modern vernacular, “hate” is a strong word; and it very difficult to reconcile “hating” anyone, let alone one’s parents since Jesus affirms the Holy Commandment to “honor mother and father”.  Again, context is everything.  When Jesus speaks of the impossibility of serving two masters, He says, "No one can serve two masters.  Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24).  For our Shepherd, there is no middle ground.

Long story made short, we all have some work to do on ourselves before we worry about discerning between good wheat and bad weeds – those worthy of Eternal Life and those condemned.  That call has not yet been made, and even the “reapers” of Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds do not make that call.  They “reap” according to the Master’s Word.

So Jesus sends His disciples out not as “harvesters” even though the “the harvest is plentiful” (Luke 10:2), and He does not refer to them as “reapers”.  Going back to the parable of the wheat and the weeds, what do the laborers do?  Though they think they can clearly see the difference between the wheat and the weeds – and even the Master acknowledges the presence of weeds among the good wheat – he clearly instructs the laborers to leave the crop to the “reapers”.  For he says, “In gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them”.  Put another way, the laborers, in their zeal to destroy the weeds, could put the wheat at risk.

No.  The disciples whom Jesus sent out were sent as messengers, “sending them on in pairs ahead of Him” (Luke 10:1).  That is, where Jesus intended to go, the “laborers” were sent ahead to prepare the soil, to sow the Seed that is the Good News that “the kingdom of God has come near” (Luke 10:11).  And as long as there is “peace” to be shared, there is useful work to be done in that place; “Do not move from house to house”, our Lord says. 

However, “if you are not welcome, go out into the streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you’.”   And notice this: whether in peace or in rejection, the Message, the labor, is the same: “The kingdom of God has come near”.

The soil may be bad and will not tolerate the Good Seed (the Message) and it could be this report will be sent back to Jesus who may decide not to go to that place, but the “reaping” is not to be done.  Those who will not welcome even the Good News are simply warned that something wonderful had come their way, and they would not even listen.  And the disciples are instructed; do not waste your time arguing and trying to “prove” your case, and don’t try to convince them how wrong they are.  Just move on to the next town.

That takes an awful lot of pressure off, doesn’t it?  All that is being asked of the disciples – then and now – is to engage in relationships!  Get to know people, and tell them “the kingdom of God has come near”.  That’s it!  No more and no less.  And the judgment, such as it is left to us, is simply this: they will listen, or they won’t.  What The Lord may choose to do beyond that moment is not our call to make.

It could be that the turmoil within the whole Church today (not just the UMC) is brought on by too many who are not biblically clear on the task and mission of the Church as the Body of Christ.  Though some may think otherwise, we are not “reapers”; we are “laborers”, messengers.  We can tend the soil and we can even sow Good Seed into that prepared soil, but the Seed we introduce to that prepared soil must be pure.  That is, the Seed is not our opinion and does not need our denominational “spin”!  We are not being supplied with “scythe and sickle”; we are given Seed.

So let us be about the labor of the Church, and let that be enough for now.  Faithful and diligent to the task to which we are called, we may all be surprised at the “harvest” we may witness!  Amen.