Sermon: Enough

Sunday, June 18, 2023
St. John’s Lutheran Church, Schuyler, NE
Third Sunday after Pentecost
watch this service online (readings start around 18:58; sermon starts around 30:51; there’s also some special music around 20:31 and 1:20:45 by yours truly)

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. This verse from Jesus is one that I can imagine a lot of people find relatable in these days – especially those of us who are invested in the work of being church together. It always seems to end up being the same tired people doing the work, the same worn out folks trying to scrape together the energy to keep pushing the church forward. 

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few – or, to say it another way, there’s plenty of good work to be done, but there’s just not a lot of people to do it. It’s a dynamic that’s also familiar to anyone engaged in work like trying to slow the decline of small towns in rural Nebraska – or just in general, those of us who are committed to trying to do good or to fight for justice and peace in a world that often seems, at best, indifferent to our efforts. 

It’s a reality that I am especially conscious of today, as I prepare to leave this call and transition into something new. There are so many open calls, so many congregations in need of pastors – just in this synod alone. I am well aware of how few pastors there are to go around – and here I am, creating another vacancy. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 

As people invested in the work of the church – and just generally trying to do good in this rapidly changing world – we can easily start to feel overwhelmed when we consider how much work there is to be done. There’s so much hunger and suffering and poverty to alleviate, so many disasters in need of response, so many people in need of good news – and that’s to say nothing of trying to keep the lights on and the furnace running and the bills paid. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Jesus says these words to his disciples in our gospel reading, as he sends them out on this big mission to the entire people of Israel. The sending of Jesus’ followers is a pretty familiar story to most of us, but in this particular version of the story, there’s a detail that I confess I totally skimmed over the first time I read it. I usually think of this story as the sending of the 70 (or the 72, depending on who you ask) – but take a look back at the gospel. How many people does Jesus actually send out?

Twelve! He sends twelve. Jesus has only chosen twelve people to go and do all this work of evangelizing an entire *country*. (Granted, that’s double the number of people on St. John’s church council, but still!) Twelve is not a lot of people. Jesus is not kidding when he says that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few!

And the thing is… I’m not totally sure why that is. It doesn’t seem to me like it should’ve had to be that way. I mean, just a little later on in the gospels, we see Jesus being followed around by crowds of way more than twelve people – he’s followed by crowds of hundreds and thousands. There are so many people following Jesus that he ends up having to do a whole ass miracle – twice! – just to make sure that all of these people have enough to eat! 

Jesus had oodles and oodles of followers at his command. So why would he only send out twelve of them to do such important work??

I suppose you could argue that it’s because only these twelve were found to have, say, the right disposition of heart, or that they were the most wise and knowledgeable, or that they were the only ones with a particular set of skills – you could argue that. Considering what a high proportion of them were uneducated fishermen, I kind of doubt that that was it, but it’s possible.

But as I pondered this question over the last week, it occurred to me to wonder: What if Jesus only sent these twelve people because Jesus only needed twelve people? What if Jesus only sent these twelve people because these twelve people were enough?

Jesus prays that the Lord of the harvest would send out laborers into the harvest. And even though there are so few of them, these twelve followers of Jesus are undeniably the answer to this prayer. They may be few in number, but they are the laborers whom God has chosen to go out into the harvest. And they get the job done! These twelve went out with a story to tell – and it’s a story that we are still telling, two thousand years later.

It’s a thought that I find incredibly encouraging – especially when I think about the work to which all of us gathered here have been called in these days. Though there are a few more than twelve of us, we are still a pretty small bunch. And in this time of change and transition, it can be easy to look at the amount of work there is to do and wonder how our limited energy and gifts and resources will ever stretch to cover it. 

But like those twelve disciples, God has called us to this work – on purpose! And though we are few in number, perhaps that’s because we, too, are enough. We, too, are the answer to Jesus’ prayer that God would send out laborers into the harvest.

And for this reason, perhaps we should read this verse about the harvest being plentiful and the laborers few in a more hopeful way. Instead of seeing this as a verse about scarcity, perhaps we would do better to read this as a verse about how important it is that each of us do the work we are called to do. Our work matters. What we each bring to the table matters. However small or unimportant it may seem, the work that we do in God’s name, moved by God’s love – it matters. And it makes a difference.

We have good news to tell, and this world is hungering and thirsting to hear it. People are hungry to hear the good news of God’s love and grace – hungering to know that they are loved unconditionally, and that God has given them gifts and a purpose for the good of the world. People are hungering for hope – for hope that the endless stories of death and division and destruction that we hear constantly in the news are not all there is. We have another story to tell – an awesome story – and it matters that we tell it. 

Jesus sends out the twelve to spread the good news both in word and in action. He instructs them to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons” – you know, basic ministry stuff. He calls them not just to preach the good news to others, but to be the good news to others. 

It’s a call that’s actually very reminiscent of St. John’s own mission statement: “to witness and serve in the name of Jesus Christ.” And in fact, it’s something that this congregation already does pretty well, despite being few in number. You already know how to preach the good news by just showing up, by sewing quilts or filling school kits, by being a church that says yes to welcoming others. 

And my prayer is that these words from Jesus may be an encouragement to you to keep going – to continue living out your call to be a blessing in this place to its fullest extent. I know there will always be worries about budget shortfalls; there will always be worries about what this congregation’s future will look like without more bucks and butts to keep it going. Heh, and I realize it might actually be more alarming than reassuring to read a story like this one, of Jesus sending his disciples out to do God’s work without so much as a change of underwear!

But the message that Jesus is sending to the disciples – and to us – is that God *will* provide. God has called us to this work. And God will see to it that we have what we need to carry it out. After all, as Paul reminds us, this is the same God who loved us enough to come and die for us. God’s not gonna leave us hanging. We can trust in God’s promise that there will be enough. And we can trust that, with God, we will be enough.

The harvest is plentiful, and the laborers are few. And thanks be to God – we’ve got everything we need.

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A prayer for St. John’s:

Good and gracious God, our loving Creator, I am so thankful that you called me to be the pastor of St. John’s Lutheran, and for this last five years of ministry. Thank you for this congregation, for their joyful fellowship, for their spirit of willingness and openness, for the deep love and care and service that they faithfully show one another and their community, for their genuine commitment to walking the path of discipleship – and for five years of amazing salads, pancakes, casseroles, coffee, and of course, soup. Thank you for equipping us to do the work that you called us to do together in your name. Thank you for the many ways your Spirit has moved through the witness and service of this congregation, enabling us to weather floods and pandemics and conflict together, witnessing to your love all the while. 

May your Spirit continue to guide the people of St. John’s and to reassure them of your faithfulness as they go forward into the next chapter of their story. May your presence and your love be powerfully felt here. As they, like many congregations, step forward into an uncertain future, let your deep hope well up in their hearts like a spring of fresh water that never fails – and may this hope wash away all fear and worry with an unwavering confidence that you will provide, just as you have promised. 

Inspire the people of St. John’s with your wisdom, and with a vision of the future to which you are calling them, that they may know the path you would have them walk. Sustain them with your love and mercy and see that they have every good and necessary thing, that they may flourish and continue to do your work in this place. Watch over them and keep them safe. And help them to remember that you are with them always, to the end of the age. In Jesus’ name. Amen.