“Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest”: a Wesley Day reflection
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
I had something on my heart that I really wanted to share with you this week, but I, like many of you, have been shaken by the gravity of what’s been happening around this part of the country in the last week. Yes, I’m talking about the tornado and the ongoing clean-up job. But I’m also talking about the celebration of the life of Alison which took place here on Friday. Such things as these can physically or metaphorically shake the foundations of a community, and if anything, can help to bring people together, unified around a single cause: whether that’s caring for a grieving family or assisting neighbours with post-tornado clean-up. I know it meant a lot to John and Beth to have so many of their church family present at the funeral on Friday. And it was heart-warming for Sandra and I to see this faith community come out in mass to farewell a daughter of this parish taken from us far too soon!
So, as I’ve been sitting with our Matthew passage over the course of this week, contemplating the life of John Wesley, and weighing up the events from the latter part of the week, a question emerges for me: if God’s harvest is plentiful, I wonder what sort of people God is building up for such a time as this?
At the heart of this morning’s passage is a statement of God’s intentions for his mission to the world:
“Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness.” When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
In such a highly-connected, ultra-speed, consumerist culture as ours, the model for mission presented to us in Matthew’s gospel, well it almost seems a little silly in its simplicity in comparison to modern-day metrics of success. We read that as Jesus was entering the cities and villages he preached the good news that the Kingdom of God was near, healed the sick, all the while praying that his disciples would eventually be singing along to the same tune.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” In almost predictable fashion, Jesus summoned the 12 disciples and gave them authority to do the same he had been doing all this time: that is, proclaim the good news “that the Kingdom of God has come near,” and heal every disease and every sickness. The disciples had had their time of preparation – group mentorship with Jesus himself – now it was up to them. Just as God was preparing the hearts and minds of the disciples, while they and Jesus went from city to city, village to village, proclaiming the good news and curing every disease and sickness, so too has the Spirit of God been preparing remarkable and, honestly, quite ordinary people throughout the history of the Church for precisely the same thing: participation in the mission of God, in the proclamation that the Kingdom of God has indeed come near.
Today, we observe Wesley Day, an acknowledgement of the indelible impact of the work of God’s Holy Spirit in the life of John Wesley. What I’m particularly interested in, in the life of John Wesley, as I consider the question that has emerged for me out of our reading, is: what formed the man who instigated one of the most significant Christian revivals?
The 18th Century was a period in time of great Western expansion. And ministers in the Church of England at the time of John Wesley were heavily involved in European expansionism. Clergymen who were interested in the ‘new’ thing that God was doing in the world would sign up in droves for new mission opportunities arising in the United States. John, and his brother Charles, both young ministers in the Church of England, enthusiastically signed up and, in their early-thirties, travelled to Georgia, in the U.S. as part of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. What a mouthful! As it turns out, this wasn’t exactly where John felt that God was calling him. After 2 years of attempting to, and I quote from his journal, “evangelise the natives,” he decided to head home, with his brother in tail. Whilst on the boat journey home, he and Charles met a group of German evangelists, the Moravians, products of an 18th Century Pietist revival in Germany. He and Charles were blown away by the sheer faith of these Moravians: their “peacefulness in the midst of a storm and calm assurance of salvation” deeply impressed the brothers. In the years to come, John visited the Moravians in Saxony, Germany. He also returned to the States, for further attempts to convert the Native Americans, but to no further avail.
One night, on 24 May 1738, John reluctantly attended a gathering at an Aldersgate Street address, where he had a profound encounter with God. And I read an excerpt from his journal from that night: “At about a quarter to nine, while [someone] was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation.” This strangely warmed heart experience was the beginning of Wesley’s success in fanning the flames of the 18th Century revival.
In John Wesley's day, the Church of England was almost an institution built around securing the salvation of the elite few. For John, the Church neglected its responsibility to the vast many, but especially the working poor. After his strangely warmed heart experience, John attempted, on many occasions, to reach the working poor with the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. However, he quickly found himself at odds with the Church that ordained him.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
In revolutionary defiance toward the spirit of the day, within an institution more concerned with maintaining the status quo than fulfilling the commission of Jesus, John Wesley, following the example of fellow British revivalist John Whitfield, started preaching outdoors to audiences of the working class. Naturally, this was seen an abhorrence for Church of England traditionalists, for whom the Word of God was only appropriate for the ears of those deemed right and proper, in other words, the wealthy elite and most definitely not Cornwall miners at places like Gwennap Pit. The intriguing, and not so surprising thing, is that, as he records in his journal, thousands came out in droves to hear him preach the Word of God, and thousands more came to believe in the saving work of Jesus Christ. As it turns out, John Wesley was the kind of person that God was building up in that particular moment. But the question remains, what formed and moulded John Wesley? Wesley commentators are almost conclusive: what formed John Wesley was prayer.
The transformation that took place in the life of John Wesley, the personal spiritual renewal that led to the 18th century revival, and influenced Christianity as we know it today, was formed in prayer.
It has been said that Methodism and indeed the legacy of the Wesley brothers was born in song. As I’m sure you’ll know, John’s brother Charles wrote the words for over 6,000 hymns, many of which we still sing to this day. So, yes, the legacy of Methodism can be found in song, but before the music, there was prayer. We read early accounts of John’s methodical prayer and daily devotion life. This appears to have been instilled in him by his mother, Susannah, but reignited by his time with the Moravians, in Germany, less than a year before his “strangely warmed” heart moment at Aldersgate. Whilst with the Moravians, he took part in the life of a community that was in the middle of 100 years of non-stop prayer! How can you not come away from a place like that changed forever? In accounts of his daily life, we read that morning prayer and Scripture reading was vitally important to him. You’ll have noticed the photo on the screen. It’s Wesley’s devotion table and his prayer cushion. His own spiritual renewal, which gave way to the great 18th century revival, was born out of a posture of prayer.
So, what sort of people is God building up for such a time as this? On Friday, one of Alison’s nephews read out a poem from a collection of poetry that she’d written. One line really stood out to me: “even in the tribulation, it is well with my soul.” What brings a woman, who had battled for 8 long years from cancer to assert with such confidence that through it all, “it is well with my soul?” We may never know for sure. But, knowing Alison, my hunch is that the Spirit of God was preparing her for when times got really tough – hospice-care level tough – so that even in her last moments she could without a shadow of a doubt proclaim that “it is [indeed] well with my soul.”
Alison was the kind of person that God has been and always will be raising up for such a time as this. Someone whose personal faith, supported by a rigorous prayer life, spilled out into everything they say and do, to everywhere they go, and among everyone they meet, and no more so than in the extremes of her illness!
We read that Jesus goes before the disciples, preaching the Good News that the Kingdom of God is near and curing every disease and every sickness. He then calls the disciples to do the same, promising that he’ll raise up more labourers to tend to the plentiful harvest. We who profess to follow Christ are called out into the world to follow him. The task is not an easy one. After all, we are told that it will be like being sent out as sheep among the wolves.
Yes, it is an awfully daunting task. But let’s take it back to basics. Let’s recommit ourselves as individuals and as a community of faith to daily prayer. For it is from a strong foundation of prayer that we are spiritually renewed. After all, in the face of such a tumultuous week, what else is there to do, except pray!
Something that is so often looked upon with an air of suspicion, even incredulity, in our more mainline Christian traditions is spiritual renewal. Indeed, the Oxford-educated, Church of England priest, John Wesley, would have been among the first to raise questions about it had he not had his own personal encounter with Jesus that day at Aldersgate. I’m sure the Pharisee Paul would have scoffed at the thought of personal spiritual renewal until he found himself one day blinded after an encounter with the presence of God on the road to Damascus. And I’m certain many of you wouldn’t be here today unless you’d had a personal encounter with the Risen Lord yourselves. So, if talk of spiritual renewal takes you by surprise, or sits uncomfortably with you, by prayer is that you’d have your own “strangely warmed” heart experience this week.
Just as God raised up John Wesley, in his time and place, I believe that God is raising up people from within our midst, to be labourers in his harvest. Could it be you?
My prayer for you this week is that you would reconnect with God in prayer. And that as you reconnect with God, the Holy Spirit would continue to work afresh in you, as he transforms your heart and mind to his likeness.
Kororia ki te Matua, ki te Tamaiti, ki te Wairua Tapu,
Glory to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.