September 06, 2010
Labor Day
Laboring for the Lord is often in the forefront of the mind of the believer, but I’m not sure many of us think of ourselves as reapers. Jesus said, “I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” (John 4:38 NIV)
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Gail;
-----Reaping can not be diminished. But neither can sowing. Nor can any of the other works belonging to the new life. Life itself is a systemic thing. Anyone who lives responsibly must find productive employment to earn the means necessary for survival. That is a sowing. He also must sit down at his dinner table and eat the fruits of his labor. That is a reaping. The sowing can not happen without attitudes conducive to co-operation, co-ordination, and submission. Out of these come teamwork and community. Teams and community do no function without camaraderie extending from personality, pleasantries, and other characteristics of social delight. All of this is systemic.
-----Jesus was speaking to His apostles when He said, “I sent you to reap...” They had been perplexed by His not eating, and had pressed Him regarding the matter. It was to them He was replying. It is apparent in His expression, “I sent you...” that this discussion was occurring after they had been sent to go ahead of Him through the towns. The history of Israel, the prophets in that history, and the stories of what Jesus was doing had sown ahead of them. And all of this is systemic. To His apostles Jesus was speaking in the context of eating, having turned the discussion from physical food to spiritual. So it is natural that the highlight of His message was reaping, but it is appropriate that this highlight rested upon the reality of all the work that makes for a harvest. Therefore, “Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped...” Although, to His apostles this discussion was about reaping, to the rest of us, the focus must not be so narrow.
-----I am not diminishing its message to us about reaping. I am elevating its message to us about laborers - those sowing and those reaping. And not just about these, but also about fencers, stone-pickers, tillers, waterers, and weeders; and about carriers who take the harvest to the market, marketers who distribute the harvest to the people, and financiers who provide the capital for it all to work. I am talking about the systemics of the harvest.
-----“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:10) What are these good works? Being baptized? Going to church every week? Tithing to the church? Serving communion? Teaching Sunday School? These are certainly a few among them. But the good works prepared beforehand are even more systemic. They are deeper in the heart which God also prepared to do them. Kindness is a work through which patience, another work, acts to produce forbearance. Gentleness works to produce understanding which produces communication. Peacefulness produces forgiveness, another work. Honor produces respect. Out of goodness proceeds generosity. The Bible is replete with discussions of these works and calls to walk in them. The more we walk in the attitudes of the Word, the more the attitudes systemically produce the efforts that become a sowing, and a reaping, and an encouraging, and a giving. The more our personalities become these works, the more attractive coming alive in the Lord becomes to those who are not alive. These are the preceding labors from which the reapers benefit.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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