“The Labourers”

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Genesis 18:1-15

Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19

Romans 5: 1-8

Matthew 9:35 – 10:8

Hear the sermon

There are many blessings that we celebrate in this time of worship today.

We celebrate the baptisms of three children into the Body of Christ. As we do so, we are blessed by the presence of Father Horrigan, whose presence reminds us that our unity in baptism transcends all denominational lines. There have been times, in the history of our faith, when it would have been unusual – and even unthinkable -- to imagine a Presbyterian and a Jesuit praying together over the waters of baptism. We thank Father Horrigan for his willingness to be here today.

We have also celebrated the completion of another year of Sunday School, and the dedication of the teachers, who have given so generously of their time and their love to the children of this congregation.

In a few moments, we will celebrate the blessing of receiving a number of new members into this community.

But, perhaps most of all, we celebrate the blessing of knowing that, when there are so many other things happening in a service of worship, it is likely that the sermon will be fairly short…

Please pray with me…

Today’s Gospel lesson, for this fifth Sunday after Pentecost, describes the ministry of Jesus as he proclaimed the good news of the coming of God’s kingdom, and as he used his power in the loving service of others. We read, “when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them.”

And, as the text unfolds, not only did he use his own power for their good, but he sent his followers out, with the same power and the same mandate. That mandate was clear -- proclaim good news. Serve the sick, the poor, and those with troubled spirits. Be a blessing. See this world through the eyes of compassion.

At the heart of this passage is a statement that bears a particular relevance to our service today. Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”

In a few moments, we will be receiving a number of new members into this congregation; people who have felt called, by God, to make the commitment to be a part of this community, and who are willing to stand up and present themselves as members of this Church.

In light of today’s Gospel reading, I would invite us to ponder this idea of membership in the Church.

After all, there is a lot of confusion about what church membership means.

Membership in the church is sometimes viewed in the same way that people view membership in some club or association. With membership in such clubs and associations comes certain rights, privileges and assumptions about what the club or the association will do for its members.

And such assumptions are not foreign to our understanding of membership in the church community. There are times when we, within the church community, can tend to encourage participation in the church by making sometimes grandiose claims and promises about what Church membership means. In the most extreme cases, we have insisted that membership in the church is a prerequisite for grace and salvation, or that God’s concern is uniquely reserved for those who are members of the Church. In so doing, we have made rather overreaching claims about what being a member of the church means.

At other times, we have minimized what it means to be a member of the Church. In the Presbyterian tradition, there have been times when we have suggested that membership primarily means that a person has an elder assigned to help in their spiritual care; or, in a completely minimalist sense, we have suggested that membership really is about whether or not a person has the right to vote at certain congregational meetings.

But is that really what being a part of the church is all about?

Or is being a member of the church more about what Jesus said to his disciples in today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew? Could it be that membership in the church is about standing up, making a public confession of one’s allegiance to Christ, and then committing oneself to the service of God and of our neighbours, alongside others who have also been called as labourers in the harvest?

If this is the case, then maybe membership in the church is not about what we are going to get, but about what we are going to give; maybe it is about responding to the call to join other labourers in the harvest, to join together not as members in a club, but rather as partners in ministry.

If we think about this idea of membership as a partnership in the ministry of the Church, we are opened to the wider vision of what participation in the church is all about. It is by becoming a part of the church that we join a noble community that transcends time and space; we enter into a communion of saints who, together, have sought to continue the ministry of Jesus Christ in every generation. It is a community that has done many good and noble things, but it is not perfect. There are times, as we have been reminded this past week, when the community of faith has been complicit in terrible injustices; for such sins and failures, we seek forgiveness and seek to walk in humility as we continue to serve Christ’s mission in the world.

And what is that mission? It is the task of seeing this world, as Jesus did, through the eyes of compassion, reaching out in word and deed to declare the good news of God, working towards the coming of God’s kingdom of love, of holiness, of justice and of peace, and dedicating every part of our lives to the One who gave his life for us, who has set us free from the power of sin and death, and who has invited all of us to become his partners in the ministry of reconciling all things, in heaven and on earth, to God. To become a partner in that ministry is to prepare ourselves not just to come together as members of a club, but rather to prepare ourselves to be sent into the world to allow God’s love to be known in and through our actions, in each and every moment of each and every day of our lives.

May it be our prayer that God bless this world, in and through the life and witness of the community of labourers in the harvest, and through this community of partners in the ministry of Jesus Christ.