Means of Grace (Proper 6A)

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James Mann, Bucking Hay, watercolor 2008

“Means of Grace”
Second Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 6 (Year A)
18 June 2017
Homily

8 a.m. Said and 10:00 a.m. Sung Mass
Parish Church of Trinity, Ashland

The Rev. Fr. Tony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D., Rector

Exodus 19:2-8a; Psalm 100; Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:8

God, take away our hearts of stone
 and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.

“The harvest is heavy but the workers are few; so pray the Lord of the harvest to send workers for the harvest.”   The saying on the lips of Jesus in Matthew has always spoken to me, since I grew up in an agricultural area employing many migrant laborers and students on summer break—we never called it vacation—from their studies.  There was always a special need at peak harvest times, when there never seemed to be enough workers to bring the crops in before they spoiled.   Bucking hay—throwing the bales onto the trucks to be taken into covered barns before rain mildewed it—was a big draw for boys from my high school. The farmers paid what seemed to us good money, especially when they were nervous about getting the bales in before a looming late summer storm.   Bucking hay was back breaking work, but built your muscles, and usually came after swim season was over and before school started.   

Several Biblical scholars doubt that the historical Jesus actually said this:  they say it refers to the mission efforts of the second and third generations of Christians, and thus reflects the worldview of St. Matthew more than the historical Jesus.  But I suspect they have let their own biases cloud their judgment here.  A rigorous method of establishing whether the historical Jesus said something put on his lips in the gospels is broader than identifying simply things you doubt the Jesus of your modern progressive imagination would have said.   There are several rules of thumb and on the basis of them, I think it is a strong possibility that Jesus actually said something like this. 

One such rule is dissimilarity, whether the saying at issue differs from the sayings of the Jewish religion before Jesus and the faith of the Church after him. Although the end of the world as a harvest is a common image in both Second Temple Judaism and in the later Christian Church, the image is almost always threatening and future—the harvest will spell the great day of doom at the end of the world separating the good from the bad.  Here, Jesus is describing a good, joyful harvest that has already begun. 

Another rule is multiple attestation: whether the saying is found in numerous separate traditions in early Christian writings.  This one is shared by both Matthew (9:37-38) and Luke (10:2) but not Mark.  It is thus part of the Sayings Source, or Q, behind those two gospels.  But it also appears in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas (logion 73), where Jesus asks us to “Pray the Lord send workers for the harvest,” instead of Matthew and Luke’s “Pray the Lord of the harvest.”  It thus allegorizes the saying even more than Matthew does, by taking away the literal meaning “ask the harvest boss to send more workers” and making it refer to God alone.   Separately, a very similar image of the harvest as ripe, good, and now also appear on the lips of Jesus in the Gospel of John: after a reference to a traditional proverb, he adds, “but I tell you, lift up your eyes and see how the fields are already white, ready for harvest.  The reaper is receiving his wages and gathering fruit for eternal life” (4:35-36).   This saying has multiple attestation—Q, Thomas, and John.

Coherence with what we know about Jesus—that he was put to death by the Romans for political rebellion—as well as how a saying fits in with other sayings that are undisputedly from Jesus, is another rule of thumb, as is embarrassment—the difficulties that a saying would have caused for church leaders.  This saying about harvest does not present an embarrassment to the later church or cause heartburn to the Romans, but it most definitely fits in with Jesus’ undisputed proclamation that the Reign of God had come, and his parables about it:  the seed that grows secretly without any seeming help from a human tiller, the mustard seed that is small but produces an immense bush, and the parable of the rich soil where broadly cast seeds break into an abundant produce, unlike those in stony, shallow, or weed-infested soils.

So this saying is probably from the historical Jesus, despite its being repurposed by Matthew to talk missionary work in his age.  Such a repurposing of Jesus’ words is seen often in Matthew.  The best example, I think, it the parable of the bad personnel policy, also a parable about harvest—where workers hired at different parts of the day under the press of needing to get the crops in receive the same wage because the landowner can’t be bothered to pay on a pro-rated time basis the below-living wage pittance he gives his day laborers, causing a revolt of sorts by those who bore the heat of the day and worked long hours.   On the lips of the historical Jesus, the parable asks us to consider what is fair, and what is just.  It is part of the historical Jesus’ revolutionary critique of Imperial society and oppression of common people that ended up getting him killed by the Romans for insurrection.  But in Matthew’s Gospel, it becomes an allegory about the relationship of Jewish Christians and Gentile latecomers, and casts God in the role of the landowner, asking us to accept his abundant grace to others who seem less deserving than ourselves.   

So also in this saying of the heavy harvest and lack of workers.  For Matthew, it has allegorical overtones, with the harvest standing for the mission work of the Church, the crops standing for those ready to accept the Gospel, the workers for missionaries and pastors, and the harvest boss for God. 

But what would the simple saying have meant on the lips of the historical Jesus speaking to his Galilean followers in the early first century? 

“The harvest is heavy but the workers are few” clearly expresses a contrast like that between the small mustard seed and the huge mustard shrub, the quarter cup of yeast and the 50 pounds of flour that will be turned into bread, the few scattered seeds on good soil and the 100 fold bumper crop they produce.  Though the arrival of the Reign of God is joyful and abundant, and a very real and present thing, only a few now recognize it and enjoy it. This seed is growing secretly.  So we must pray that more and more recognize the arrival of the kingdom, that grace may abound and the small mustard seed grow into the great sheltering bush.

How can we make the Reign of God visible and present for others?  The goodness and care of God is ever present—the kingdom is here!  But in this mixed world of brokenness and wholeness, many can’t see this.  So we must be God’s hands and voice for others, giving them the answers to their prayers.  Jesus elsewhere says, “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to our Father in Heaven!”

“Harvest” is a powerful image, often fear-inducing because of the urgency of acting now or risking loss of the goods.    But in itself, the image means primarily receiving the results of our actions.    “Ask the harvest boss to send more workers” means feel the urgency, but don’t fear.  Jesus says, “the Reign of God is here!  Turn around your thinking and acting so that you can enjoy it and help others to!”  Sharing the love and support of God means expanding the realm of forgiveness and reconciliation.  It breaks the cycle of suffering the loss of good things due to our bad actions.   It is the ultimate anti-karma.   Jesus teaches it regularly:  “Judge not and you won’t be judged!”  “Put the Reign of God and the justice it demands first in your hearts, and everything will fall into place!”  What Buddhists call “finding your Buddha nature” is what we call “living in Christ.”  That means proclaiming the presence of God’s Reign through our words and actions, and standing in, in our small way, for Christ in the life of others. 

St. Teresa of Avila wrote,

“Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.”

The Prayer Book’s general thanksgiving calls Jesus, “the means of grace, and the hope of glory.”  Jesus calls us to follow him:  we must be the means of grace to those about us.  We should feed their faith, not stoke their fears; nurture and support them, not compete with or condemn them; be joyful and calming, not grim and alarming; inclusive, not exclusive. 

The St. Francis prayer expresses it clearly: 

“Lord, make us instruments of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let us sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is discord, union;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.” 

The harvest is heavy, the field is ripe.  God,  help us to show forth your presence and reign to all about us.  Make us instruments of your peace, channels of your love.  Make us the means of grace for others.

Amen.