The signs of harvest are right in front of you

Easter 3 year C 10 Sermon

John 4:31-36

Jesus is telling his friends…the conditions are perfect for harvest… The signs are right in front of you…
just open your eyes.

You’re standing right in the middle of a field that’s ripened and ready…

Jesus disciples are on a steep learning curve…
they’re outside their comfort zone…walking in unfamiliar fields…

To avoid the appearance of competing with his cousin John…Jesus leads his disciples away from Judea…
and toward Galilee. But to go there, they have to go through Samaria…and the main thing that’s wrong with Samaria… as far as Jesus friends are concerned… the main thing that’s wrong with Samaria…
is it’s full of Samaritans... 

Still…the fabled Jacob's well is in Samaria and worth a look… so that’s where they head…

around noon Jesus sits down at the well for a bit of rest and some water…while the others head off to the nearest village looking for lunch.

We all know what happens next…don’t we…

 while his friends aren’t around…Jesus starts up a conversation with a Samaritan woman…considered a foreigner and therefore unclean…
as if he’s got something to offer her of all people…

And this woman… is so excited by what Jesus tells her she even leaves her water jar behind…

When Jesus disciples return from the village…they’re confused by Jesus behaviour… they’ve no idea they’re standing in a mission field that’s ripened and ready… they think it’s time for lunch… not harvesting. And say
‘Rabbi it’s time you ate something…’

And gazing after the woman… Jesus replies…

"I have food to eat… you obviously know nothing about."

But the disciples are focussed on the physical

and wonder "Who could’ve brought Jesus lunch already?"

They’re not so good with metaphors… this lot…
and Jesus speaks poetically…describes the mission of God symbolically…talks about spiritual things in using everyday images…but his friends are fixated on the literal

How long till they get it…how much time will they have to spend in his company to understand what really motivates him…what really keeps him going…

So Jesus spells it out for them…again… Ok guys...what I mean is…

my food …is to do the will of the One who sent me… and finish the work he started.

Open your eyes and take a good look at what's right in front of you. This population of so called unclean foreigners…these alleged enemies of ours…well they’re ripe for harvest. And I’m not waiting...if my saving message has fallen on deaf ears elsewhere…
I’m gathering in this crop…
and they’re already ripe for eternal life….

This is a harvest field you never ploughed. Without lifting a finger, you’ve walked into a field that’s already been worked long and hard.

Do you think it’s you doing the sowing on this mission of ours… ha…if that’s what you think you’re going to miss a lot of opportunities…wake up your ideas…
it’s God’s harvest we’re getting in on…
a harvest God’s already sown in the hearts of these people

And don’t you understand…it’s my job to gather it in…

and my job… to send you… into unlikely fields… already prepared… just like this one.

And why are we on this mission…Jesus asks them

So the sower and the reaper can be glad together.

…so the sower and the reaper… can celebrate.

There are several different ways
to celebrate the harvest…aren’t there? We can focus on God’s providence in creation…rightly… falling to our knees in awe and thanksgiving …

when our vines are heavy with burgundy and green… and our fields are white with grain as far as the eye can see…when the sheep are fat and honey is packed…
and our gardens are bursting with good things…

When the fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high…

And of course part of that way of celebrating is to care for creation and share our bounty with those who are hungry and thirsty…like the disciples keen to share their lunch with Jesus…

But according to our storyteller…
there’s another kind of harvest celebration
on Jesus mind …a harvest of hearts and minds…
already implanted with the spirit of God…

ripe and ready for relationship…longing for spiritual food and drink…searching for meaning…

They…are…out…there…

They… are… in… here…

They’re on the golf course and on the mountain…
at school… at the office…in the pub…or at Probus…

And don’t be put off …
by the appearance of self-sufficiency and autonomy… these hearts and minds don’t know what they’re missing… if they haven’t drunk from the water of life…that promises they’ll never be thirsty again.

And they are thirsty…

And don’t be blinded by your cultural prejudices like Jesus disciples were…no one is excluded from God’s planting…from God’s harvest…
And Jesus is saying… that’s not your judgment call.

In the Message translation of our story…Jesus speaks these words to the woman at the well.

If you knew the generosity of God… and who I am… you’d be asking me for a drink…
and I’d give you… fresh… living water.

If you knew the generosity of God…
you’d realise…that God’s boundless unquenchable love

is for you too…includes you…it’s already been planted in your heart…what you’ve been looking for all the time

…it’s what will fill you up.

Is that so hard to say…in our unlikely fields… beneath these mountains and beside these lakes? [pause]

Yes it is…

It’s hard to say…because like Jesus’ first disciples…

we don’t really believe God’s been at work already…
in the hearts of people we fear or label unclean.

Maybe we simply fear they’ll reject us… or ridicule us or like Jesus first disciples…
maybe we fear they’ll contaminate us.

Without these judgments… maybe it wouldn’t be so hard… to speak of God’s generous love and grace
with people we know.

And sometimes it’s hard to share these things because we ourselves…are still hungry and thirsty…
and in doubt about God’s love for us.

If that’s the case for you… then harvest thanksgiving is a good time to be reminded…that the generosity of our loving creator goes far beyond food for the body…
God has already been at work in you…sowing the seeds of love in your heart…waiting for your response… waiting for the harvest he’s sown in you…longing for you to ask as did the woman at the well did…for

the spring of water welling up to eternal life.