Fruit: Laboring (blog)

"Go!  I am sending you out..." (Luke 10:3) In August my daughter, some of her co-workers, and other volunteers helped to harvest corn grown by a non-profit farming group that shares fresh produce with those in need. The harvesters won't know who benefited, but they can be sure that their labors nourished many hungry people. Together they harvested more than 22,000 pounds, or about 90,000 servings! Imagine what a simple serving of corn on each plate, at even just one dinner table meant to the family receiving it, knowing that someone cares and wants to help, that they aren't alone in their struggle, aren't forgotten or unseen.  Think about what hope one serving can bring. My daughter didn't know anything about harvesting corn when she showed up to help that day, and I'm guessing other volunteers were equally inexperienced. But that didn't stop them from going, because they knew that someone who did have the necessary knowledge, skill and experience would be there with them to teach them. They learned how to harvest corn by going out into the cornfield - I love that! The disciples who followed Jesus out into God's really big harvest field didn't know much about the spiritual fruit they would help to gather in or how they would do it. They weren't exactly "volunteers", but they left everything they knew in order to walk with Jesus and learn from him along the journey he had called them to. We also learned some things, in this blog series, as we followed Jesus and looked to him to teach us. We opened our eyes wider along with the disciples when Jesus said, "...look at the fields!  They are ripe for harvest" (John 4:35), and saw that the 'fruits' he was talking about (people ready to believe in him) are abundant, but also hidden. We noted how our Teacher brought his disciples closer into the larger community at Sychar by engaging one person, the Samaritan woman (John 4:7-26). In just one conversation Jesus met her resistance with good news, offered her a new life choice, shared truth with her, and helped her to see what she had been missing by revealing himself as her Savior! We looked closely with Jesus and saw that the woman's willingness to acknowledge her broken relationships and her longing for someone to save her made her "ripe for harvest", ready to believe in him, and eager to tell other people about his promise of deliverance and new life. "Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." (Matthew 13:8) We saw how redemption is Jesus' work. The Son of God born into our world, Jesus died for our sins and rose again to life so that all who believe in him can be forgiven and saved, and restored to God forever (John 3:16).  In Jesus we have the promise of new life, which he calls us to share with other people as the Samaritan woman did.  She ran to tell her neighbors about Jesus and brought them out to meet him. We've learned all of these things by following Jesus, in John's gospel, and looking closely as he engaged the woman at the well.  Imagine how much more we will learn as we follow Jesus out into the harvest field and experience for ourselves, in our everyday lives, how he engages people through us! More importantly, imagine what a difference our learning and labors alongside Jesus will make in the lives of the people around us. Think of what a difference the good news of God's love and salvation in Jesus can make in the life of one person, and of the hope that one person can then bring to other people. We don't need to be 'ready' to go out into the harvest field with Jesus, we just need to "Go!" Jesus taught his disciples that, "...The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."  I think that's still true today. Jesus also instructed his followers to, "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Luke 10:2) We can ponder why the workers are few, and I believe God calls some of us to do that (in a positive, constructive way). We can lament, but not for too long as Jesus never calls us to discouragement. And we can pray, as Jesus instructed his disciples to do, and then go out into the harvest field with our Teacher, trusting that our day's work is nourishing and bringing hope to spiritually hungry people, even if we may not always see it right away. Have you ever wondered about the rest of the Samaritan woman's story?  What became of her? Maybe she went out to neighboring towns to tell other people about Jesus. Or maybe she stayed in Sychar, learning to reach out and care for others in her community, with faith in the power of Jesus' love and forgiveness to bring healing and hope to the people right around her. Either way she still had to trudge out to a well to draw buckets of water every day. But now the heavy lifting would remind her of Jesus, of how he met her there in her need to offer her a living, growing, seed-bearing hope - his life in exchange for hers, and her life now caught up in his for all eternity. The well is where life-changing conversations can happen. I'm guessing it was the Samaritan woman's new favorite place to be.