HARVEST.

 

My friends in Deeping St. Nicholas finished harvesting last Sunday, but only because there was still one of their 3 sheds empty. While friends in Billingborough, with still one field not quite ripe, it has been the worst harvest for 25 years. Who would be a farmer? 

But Jesus uses farming to teach. 'One man went to sow...'  After going through the villages Jesus says to the disciples "ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his field." Mt.9:38 

The grape harvest is still to come. When our children were young & we visited my Mother in France, across the valley there was a vineyard & we could see the farmer & his wife work up & down the rows, all morning, every morning! Gen 3: 19 the Lord tells Adam "by the sweat of your brow shall you eat.."  So should we expect a harvest from Mt.28:19 "go & make disciples of all nations.." to happen without hard work.?  The Good Samaritan invested mental & physical effort as well as time & money. But there is good news. Do you remember the workers in the vineyard? Mt.20:1-8 some were hired at the start of the day, some mid morning, mid day, mid afternoon & as the harvest was still not finished, still more at the 11th.hour. So it does not matter if you came to Jesus in your youth, in your prime or later in life. The important thing is to be in his workforce until the sun sets. 

A prayer based on one by Ambrose, Bishop of Milan c.340-397

Heavenly Father, as the moon has no light of its own but reflects the light of the sun, so you call us to reflect the light of the love of Christ in the darkness of our world. Amen

Terry Connellan