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.

Breaking the Seal

Easter year C Sermon

With nagging persistence and political cunning…
the Jewish Temple authorities persuade
the Roman governor…to play the final card…

It’s illegal for the Jewish courts to execute anyone…

and the religious establishment wants Jesus dead …wants the upstart pretender to the throne of David eliminated…what’s needed is a display…
of the absolute power of the Roman Empire …
to execute criminals by crucifixion.

Since this Jesus continues to claim a higher authority he needs to find out what…unlimited power actually is … defy it and it can just have you killed… challenge it and you will die…the end…that’s all she wrote…

And so Jesus receives the highest penalty Rome can dish out…. [pause]

But killing him isn’t enough…Matthew’s account tells us… the chief priests and the Pharisees are going to leave nothing to chance…even with him dead… everyone’s heard the insane rumours that Jesus thought he’d come back after three days… if he were killed…

Something has to be done… to stop Jesus’ followers from stealing his body and telling everyone he’s been raised from the dead. That sleight of hand would be the last straw…

…and so as the sun rises on day two…the chief priests and the Pharisees…demand the Roman governor officially seal the tomb under tight security.

A boulder displaying the Roman Seal …
weighing maybe one and a half… maybe two tons…
is rolled across the entrance…and guards are posted.

To tamper with a Roman Seal was punishable by death.

And morning dawns on the third day… [pause]

The horrible and humiliating death of their leader has dealt a shattering blow to the faith of Jesus’ followers and family. They’d actually started to believe he was the anointed one of God… the Messiah who’s save Israel from its oppressors once and for all…

Now they’re thrown into a spiritual and emotional crisis… deep and agonizing they are gutted…and all their hope destroyed…

Just three days into their grief…the women who arrive at the tomb aren’t expecting anything to have changed…they’re bringing spices to ward away the smell of death.

Traveling with Jesus…they hadn’t known what to make of his reference to rising again. At that time in Jewish history… resurrection for all the faithful … was what God would do at the end time… giving a new body…to everyone from their ancestor Abraham on down through time. Resurrection was always going to happen on a grand scale…

and only after Israel’s great and final suffering. [pause]

Resurrection’s definitely not on their minds as the women approach the tomb on the third day. So when they find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty…they have absolutely no idea what’s going on…

What they were certain of… is that Jesus really died …there was no doubt about that. The Romans were grimly efficient with their crucifixions… no one survived…even the 39 lashes of the flagrum Jesus endured… were enough to kill some people…

A seven inch spike through both heel bones…and in the wrists…the suffering…the suffocation…

[pause]

And after he died…these women had watched…as the hope of Israel…was laid to rest in the tomb…they would’ve given anything for a sign of life…

So it’s not at all surprising … how terrified and bewildered they are to find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty…in Luke’s version they’re dazed and confused…yet as that third day unfold the unimaginable and inconceivable starts to happen.

And over the next forty days… whole crowds of allegedly sane rational human beings…reported speaking with Jesus…walking with Jesus…sharing food with Jesus and being blessed by Jesus… People touched him and were touched by him…

Jesus was seen…individual people weren't reporting visions or subjective spiritual experiences…whole groups of people were encountering Jesus together.

[pause]

And somehow Jesus followers emerged from the
spirit-crushing events of the crucifixion…and went on to proclaim the resurrection and divinity…of the one who was crucified dead and buried.

And the movement they founded…and the church they founded for all its weaknesses and flaws is still gathering … even here beneath these mountains and beside these lakes…at the ends of the earth. [pause…………]

What could be so compelling… to change a quivering terrified… defeated…despairing band of mourners… …some scared stiff even to be linked to Jesus…

What could be so convincing… to turn these frightened hopeless emotional wrecks into courageous messengers … ready to travel any distance and face any danger… for the sake of Jesus’ cause. [pause]

It is my belief…that nothing… but a face to face…skin to skin…breath to breath encounter…with the risen Christ…will or can explain… the transformation of the cowards of Gethsemane…into the heroes of Pentecost…

I believe nothing else… but meeting the risen Christ… could galvanize that cringing bunch…who stood back in the shadows even denying him… as the soldiers led Jesus away…

Oh…but maybe the da Vinci code is right and Jesus didn’t really die after all…maybe he just lapsed into a coma …and then revived.

Maybe despite the flagellation and the loss of blood…the spikes…the spear in his side…and the tight binding of the grave clothes…maybe Jesus came to… pushed the boulder away from the inside… overcame the guards… in urgent need of medical attention then walked or crawled on pierced feet and hands…to collapse at the door of his followers

Why would they proclaim him to be the conqueror of death… and Prince of Life…Emanuel…God with us. [pause]

And yet after that third day…there was a dramatic change in Jesus friends …[pause]

I still see this transformation today in the lives of people who name Jesus as the one they follow. Naming him not as just a great role model from the distant past…
but as the one they encounter today…the one who is there.
…the one who gives us strength and courage…
in the face of ridicule betrayal and persecution…

The one who convinces us to act justly and compassionately toward those who hate us…to show mercy to those who hurt us…

The one who teaches that revenge and retaliation will never lead to peace…but that evil will be overcome with love.

The one who enters time and space… to reveal God’s purposes of reconciliation and re-creation for all humanity… simply can’t be stopped… by the worst humanity can do. Because God’s love is stronger than even death.