Compassion's Harvest (Proper 6A)

 

“Compassion’s Harvest”
Second Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 6 (Year A)
14 June 2020
Homily

8 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Said Mass

8 a.m. on the Labyrinth; 10 a.m. live streamed from the Chancel
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 few.”  I grew up in a small farming town.   There never seemed to be enough workers to bring in the crops before they spoiled, so our population doubled with migrant laborers near harvests, and all the boys in my school had 2 weeks of hard but high-paying work every late August:  bucking hay, throwing the bales onto trucks to be taken into covered barns before rain mildewed it.   The urgency of harvest—gather up the produce before it’s ruined in the fields—drives this saying of Jesus:  with so much to gather, so much work, we need more workers. 

In caregiving for my beloved Elena, I have learned that putting on shoes gently and with kindness is a totally different act than simply cramming them on.  One helps, the other often hurts.  Lifting and doing transfers can be a gentle act, almost dancing. Or, when merely focused on getting the deed done, it can be what Elena and I call “potato-bagging.”  One helps and is affirming; the other can mildly demean and sometimes outright frighten.  And I must here make what can only be called a confession:  I usually am gentle, intentional, and supportive in my care-giving.  The only time when this frays and gets ragged around the edges is when I am on a short deadline, under the gun:  if we’re running late for something, I tend to let the task rather than the cared-for person take priority, and then it can get uglier than it need be.   This is particularly when the deadline involves a point-of-diminishing-returns on the caregiving:  if we get to bed too late, Parkinson’s patients can undergo what is called “sun-downing,” and have a melt-down.  What they don’t tell you is that we caregivers also are prone to sun-downing:  it’s not that we abuse or neglect, but rather, that we simply no longer make the patient’s comfort and confidence paramount.  The deadline takes over and the potato-bagging begins.      

“The harvest is heavy but the workers few.”  For Matthew, the harvest stands for the ultimate deadline—judgment and the end of history.  Harvest is the mission work of the Church; the crops, those ready to accept the Gospel; the field workers, missionaries and pastors.  The ultimate Lord of the Harvest is God.

 

But what would the simple saying have meant on the lips of the historical Jesus speaking to his Galilean peasant, artisan, and day-laborer followers? 

“The harvest is heavy but the workers few” contrasts the huge work demand with a tiny labor force trying to address it.  Such a contrast appears regularly in Jesus’ teachings: between the tiny mustard seed and the huge mustard shrub, the quarter cup of yeast and the 50 pounds of flour that it will turn into bread, the few scattered seeds on good soil and the 100 fold bumper crop they produce.  For Jesus, the arrival of the Reign of God is joyful and overwhelmingly abundant, but only a few people now recognize and enjoy it. “Broad is the road and wide the gate that lead to destruction, and few are they who enter in.  But narrow and constrained is the way that leads to life.”  Or, as in another parable, this seed is growing as if on its own, secretly, with the farmers not aware.  For Jesus, harvest represents the need to wake up and see God already at work among us, not the pressure of a deadline.   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 for many wild birds.   

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!”

“Ask the harvest boss to send more workers” means feel the urgency, but don’t fear and let it turn you away from the intentionality of love, compassion.  Sharing the love and support of God means expanding the realm of forgiveness and reconciliation.  It means proclaiming the presence of God’s Reign through our words and actions, and standing in for Christ, in our small way, in the life of others. 

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 and hope to those about us.  We should feed their trust, 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.  As Paul says, “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:9-10).

So much work!  So few workers!  God,  help us to show forth your presence and reign to all about us.  Help us show genuine love and care, and not become derailed by urgency or fear.  Amen.