Sermon for November 14th (Speak)

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest fields.” What is this harvest that Jesus is referring to? He is sending his disciples out to bring in those who believe Jesus’ message. If that message finds good soil and is accepted, those believers will become part of the great harvest of all believers at the end of time.

“The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man” Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew. The disciples are being sent out to speak to Jews and every Jew would have already heard that God had promised them a Messiah. Those that believe Jesus is that very Messiah are the good plants that God has planted. Those who do not believe, those who reject this message, who do not believe that Jesus is the promised Savior, are not only rejecting the disciples’ words, but are rejecting Jesus himself, and therefore God’s plan for their salvation. Jesus makes it clear that there are sinister forces at work, namely the Devil, who is planting weeds of doubt and unbelief. Those who accept the message are part of the harvest and those who reject the words are not.

According to the gospel of Matthew chapter 13, “The one who received the seed that fell on the good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” I have heard this described in an interesting way once before. Jesus is teaching the disciples to be fruit inspectors. Jesus just describes what they are looking for. He is saying that they are harvesting apples. If a person accepts the message, they are an apple. If they reject the message, they are something else . . . oranges perhaps. But either way, as Jesus explains, “You shall know them by their fruits.” At the end of the age, God intends to harvest the apples and throw out the oranges.

No doubt some of you are unhappy with the direction that this sermon is going. It doesn’t seem fair that some are apples and some are oranges. God himself doesn’t seem to like that either. He spoke through the prophet Ezekiel, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Declares the Sovreign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” Jesus Christ came to turn oranges into apples —to turn sinners into saints—to make unbelievers believers, “Repent and believe in the good news!” he said. But how is he going to get that done?
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? Faith comes through hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

I think that it is very easy for us to become comfortable with our place in history—too comfortable. Jesus promised to come again, but that was 2000 years ago, and so we’ve just figured that he won’t come anytime soon. There’s always going to be enough time for us, for our loved ones, for people who don’t care about their salvation to start caring again. But get a load of this reading from 2nd Peter, “Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

Whenever Jesus came into contact with his disciples, he told them to go and speak, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them everything that I have commanded you.” Why does he care so much? Because the harvest is coming and when Jesus returns like a thief in the night it will be too late. So what are we to do with this borrowed time? God is calling you to speak.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve been talking a lot about faith and what it is and what it means. Faith means to trust, to listen, to follow, to hold onto God’s promises, to confess and to obey. Faith also means to speak. The problem is that we get so focused on ourselves when we start talking about faith that we end up becoming enamored with our own bellybuttons. Have you ever seen a little kid when they find their bellybutton? Suddenly, in that child’s universe, their bellybutton becomes the most interesting thing to look at and they will keep looking down until they find it over and over again. They stick out their little bellies and pull up their little shirts again and again just to make sure that it is there. And then they show it off to everyone who will look. It’s cute for a one year old, but don’t let your faith become your newfound bellybutton.

In the book of James we read, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” Do you see that James isn’t saying that there isn’t faith, but that it is not a living faith. Like an dead apple tree in the backyard that never grows apples. Who cares if it is an apple tree anymore? You can show off you faith and show off your apple tree as often as you’d like to anyone who will look, but if it is dead then it might as well be a peach tree, a banana tree or a lollipop tree. No one will be able to tell the difference! It’s purpose is dead.

Remember when I told you about the harvest? And how there are some apples and some oranges and God wants the apples? Did you like hearing that or did you want to change that? Did you feel scared or even angry about it? Why? Because God is loving, right? Well, if you believe that—that God is a loving God— if you have faith in that, if you trust that and are willing to confess that out loud and follow God wherever he leads you, even if it’s to tell someone else about that wonderful promise of salvation then you will want to speak! A living faith can’t just sit back and say, “Too busy.” No! A living faith speaks because it can’t help itself. A living faith must speak because it loves all people and hopes in the goodness and power of God above anything else. Even hoping against hope that God can turns oranges into apples before the harvest day.

In the story today, Moses had many excuses why he couldn’t speak. What can we learn from his story?

His first excuse was this, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Believe it or not, Moses didn’t seem to foresee that he was going to be a hero of the faith; in fact, he didn’t feel worthy. And he was right, he wasn’t worthy, just like you and I are not worthy. Who am I? Who are you? Who are we to be given such a wondrous message of love to give to people who are hurting in this world?

What is God’s answer to all this unworthiness? God doesn’t build Moses up talking about his spiritual gifts or about giving of his time and talents. God simply says, “I will be with you.” Having the faith to speak means trusting that it isn’t about you—it’s about God seeking his lost sheep and using your voice to call them home.

But then Moses said, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you?” I recently remembered how it felt after I received a call to seminary. How could I explain that God was “calling” me to be a pastor? How could I prove it? Was I SURE it was God or just a chemical imbalance?

In the story, Moses is told by God to prove it through a series of three miracles. We look at that and say, “Nice! If I could turn the Nile into blood people would probably believe me too! If I could turn a stick into a snake I wouldn’t be so worried about being believable!” So pray for a miracle. Why not! If you need one, pray for one. In the story of Paul and Barnabas in the book of Acts, we hear that, “they spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.” The point is, it is up to you to speak, God will provide any necessary signs. If you believe you need one, why not ask for one and see what happens?

But Moses complained, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” In today’s vernacular we’d say, “But I’m not a good public speaker! I wouldn’t know what to say!” Once again, this is not about what YOU have to say. It’s what God has to say. God spoke to Moses and said, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” If you don’t already have a Bible, ask us for one. If you are a Christian, you need a Bible and you need to read it. In proverbs we read that we should read God’s Word like we were searching for hidden treasure because in these pages we will find the knowledge of God. “For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” God is ready and waiting to teach. Open up your Bible and listen so that you have the words to speak when the time comes.

Moses then starts running out of excuses, “Oh Lord, please send someone else to do it.” “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?”
God responds, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to do.” “You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you.”

This is probably the hardest part of speaking God’s message. God says very clearly, over and over to his prophets in the Bible, that he will make it so some do not hear. He told Isaiah that he would stop up the ears of the people who he spoke to, Jesus told the disciples he was speaking in parables so that the kingdom stayed hidden for some, God even hardened Pharaoh’s heart. That’s why you cannot have the faith to speak unless you have a living faith that trusts God, listens to him, follows him, holds onto his promises, is able to confess and obeys completely. His ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts, and even if you do everything “right” the good you expect and want may not happen.

So why bother? I will end this message with a heartbreaking note. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” If people never hear the message of Jesus Christ, they won’t be able to believe that his amazing love is for them, that his ultimate forgiveness saves them for eternal life. People need to hear the love of Jesus, because if they don’t know his love, that is hell pure and simple—in this life or after death.

What is the good news in all of this? Where is the hope? You were once an orange. But God gave people in your life the faith to speak so that you might hear and believe. Now you are the apple of God’s eye. He will give you the faith to speak as well. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” God tells us to ask him to send out his workers and so we shall, right here and right now. Let us pray . . .