Fourth Sunday after Pentecost: July 6, 2025 | The Rev. Nat Johnson

Readings: 2 Kings 5:1-14 | Psalm 30 | Galatians 6:7-16 | Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

In our Gospel reading this morning, we hear about a second commissioning of Jesus’ disciples to go into the villages that Jesus intended to visit and prepare them for his arrival. Luke is the only gospel writer to give us this story. In the first sending, found at the beginning of chapter 9, Jesus commissions and sends the 12. He gives them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. He instructs them to take nothing for their journey, to stay in one house during their visitations, and to shake the dust from their feet as they leave a village that has not welcomed them as a testimony against them. Skipping ahead to our story, we observe a similar yet expanded commission.

There is, in our story, a greater sense of urgency to the task Jesus commissions the disciples to do. He tells them the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few and he invites them to pray for more workers. The urgency of this may be lost on many of us today who are disconnected from the agricultural practices that sustain our communities with food. Harvesttime is a time of frenzied work; driven by the need to collect what the earth has produced before it goes bad. Harvesters must work quickly and diligently. We must also note that Jesus does not commission the disciples to produce the harvest – the harvest is already there, in abundance, and their task is to gather it and to pray for more laborers to join in the work.

And so, we enter our gospel story today with the same urgent invitation. The harvest around us is plentiful, we are commissioned to go and to gather, and to pray for others to join us. Producing the harvest has never been our responsibility – that has been and remains within the domain of God’s activity. God is the one who causes the abundant growth in our communities, who prepares the hearts of those ready to receive the Christ who sends us. And yet, we are not passive actors in the drama of God’s salvation. We are enlisted as co-laborers, sent out to gather in what God has prepared. We are to plan, organize and work in ways that anticipate the abundance that God is producing, and we are pray to this God of the Harvest that others will come and join us in this important work.

As I think about where we are as a parish, about the dreams and vision we have for who we are becoming, about the ways that our deepest passions might meet the world’s greatest hunger, I feel the urgency of this invitation deep in my bones. We are a community few in numbers and the task of harvesttime can feel daunting and overwhelming. We are a community, few in numbers, who sees the world around us falling apart, whose hearts break at the destruction being dealt through legislative action. We are a community, few in numbers, who faithfully navigate the changes and chances of this world, who stand in solidarity with those society discards as unworthy, who strive to be fearless and welcoming to all who need respite. I wonder how our planning, organizing, and working together might shift, expand, and grow if each one of us who calls St Peter’s our parish home was to commit to pray daily and urgently for more workers to join us in the work that Jesus commissions us to do?

The work of harvesttime is not easy; indeed, it can be dangerous! Jesus likens our being sent to sheep being sent out among wolves. I suspect that most, if not all, of us here today feel that acutely in our present moment. To be faithful in our context is increasingly putting us at odds with the powers and principalities of this world. Jesus sends us out to show up where there is suffering, conflict, and need, and this means that we will inevitably face difficulties as we strive to go as faithful witnesses to the good news we are commissioned to proclaim. And, counterintuitively it may seem, Jesus calls us to engage in this work from a place of vulnerability, without the security of provision. We are called to rely instead on God’s faithfulness and on the hospitality of those to whom we are sent. These instructions challenge us to remember that the authority bestowed upon us in our commissioning is not found in our status, possessions, or abilities, but on the power and faithfulness of the Lord of the Harvest.

Jesus tells us that the work of harvesttime consists of two things – speaking peace to those to whom we go and proclaiming that God’s kingdom has come near. “Whatever house you enter,” Jesus says, “first say, ‘peace to this house!’” This word of peace is no simple greeting – it is a word of intention and invitation. It is speaking God’s intention for wholeness and wellbeing; it is speaking God’s invitation to liberation and freedom. This is the first word we are instructed to speak in every and all situations into which we are sent – and we are instructed to do so regardless of whether we believe that word will be received. Jesus doesn’t tell us to make a judgment about whether our time or efforts will be well-spent or wasted. He doesn’t teach us, in our modern parlance, to do a risk assessment and determine the worthiness of those to whom we speak this word of peace. Rather, he instructs us to speak this word, to share the peace that we ourselves have received – a peace that passes understanding – to speak this word to all without discrimination. This word, Jesus tells us, will never be spoken in vain. It cannot be diminished; it cannot be squandered, it cannot be taken away from us.

The second task of harvesttime is proclaiming that the kingdom of God has come near. It can be easy to overlook that this proclamation is also to be given to all without discrimination. Even to those who reject our word of peace, we are bid to speak aloud God’s abiding love, to name the nearness of God’s presence. In his instruction about this proclamation, Jesus reminds us that the kingdom of God is for everyone, that the freedom and liberation he has come to proclaim is offered to all, that God desires the restoration of all of creation. The kingdom of God is no elite club meant for a select few – it is universal in reach and encompasses all whom God has made. And we need not be weighed down by any rejection of this proclamation. Jesus instructs us to “shake the dust from our feet” as we leave a place that has refused to accept our word of peace and our proclamation of God’s kingdom coming near. We often understand this to be an act of judgment – and perhaps there is some truth to this, though I think it is far more nuanced and complex than we often give it credit for. And, ultimately, whatever judgment does come from rejecting the word of peace and proclamation of the kingdom is not ours to speak or enact – that remains, thankfully, God’s prerogative. I wonder if, instead, we might think of this as a ritual of letting go, a ritual of trusting that God will indeed answer our prayers for more laborers and that those who reject our words might yet encounter another whose word of peace and proclamation of the kingdom they will accept.

Friends, the harvest, indeed, is plentiful! Today we are called to embrace the commissioning Jesus speaks over us. Let us do so urgently! Let us pray daily and earnestly that the Lord of the Harvest will send more workers to labor alongside us. Let us engage in the work of planning and organizing and inviting others into this work. Let us speak this word of peace, of wholeness and restoration, of liberation and freedom, to all whom we encounter. And let us proclaim that God is indeed near, that God’s love abides with us and permeates the world around us. We need not fear how we will be received. So let us boldly speak words of peace to our spouse, our children, our friends; to the barista who makes our coffee, to the clerk who checks us out at the grocery store, and to the person asking for money on the street corner. And let us embrace the authority and power that God has given us in Jesus to proclaim to all that God is here, that God is present in the midst of us and at work in the world around us. So let us go on our way, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ! Amen.