Where Jesus was About to Go

​4th Sunday after Pentecost – C (Proper 9)                                      LSB #707, LW #260, LSB #895
Text – Luke 10:1-2
 
After this the Lord appointed 72 others & sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town & place where He himself was about to go.  And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
 
WHERE JESUS WAS ABOUT TO GO
 
 
Last Sunday’s gospel lesson hammered home the point   of the sacrifices Jesus may expect of us in order to be about the work of proclaiming God’s kingdom.  Even burial of the dead   is not to interfere with our work of evangelism.    Today’s gospel reading follows that & its main emphasis is the urgency of proclaiming the message   that God’s Kingdom is near. 
This text is often used in the recruitment of students   for the work of teaching & preaching.  The St. Louis seminary once sent materials to encourage just that.  But that angle makes for a rather small audience in a congregation like this.  So I’m working a different angle in order to broaden my target.      Have you ever thought of yourself as a target? 
In North Dakota, driving from Rugby to Willow City in late summer, you pass by fields of canola, sunflowers, hay, corn & flax; acre after acre of crops    ready to be harvested.  The sunflowers stand tall while the canola & flax sway gently in the breeze.   Hay bales are scattered across mile after mile.    Harvest time approaches   & much work needs to be done. 
The time will be short before the bitter winds & harsh cold of winter arrive.    There’ll be much work to do & when the harvest is ready the workers are needed,   because there isn’t a lot of time in which to get the work done. 
When the harvest is ready, the crop is at great risk.  Its value is easily lost or destroyed by variables like the weather, the market, the operating condition of the machinery.      Farmers are anxious when the crops are ripe for harvest.   They long to bring it in before it spoils or gets damaged.  Likewise, that should be our attitude as workers in God’s kingdom.   We should be anxious to bring in the harvest of souls before they are lost or damaged.     We should consider where we would be if no one had taken time to introduce us to Jesus Christ. 
Look around this nation.  Drive from farm to city, affluent suburb to blighted urban area, changing small town to changing city neighborhood,   & you will see a harvest that is ready.  Not a harvest of grain, but one of real people with real lives touched by joy & by sorrow. 
Even closer to home, there are the people you pass along the street,   the employees you work alongside,   your neighbors,   the people you see in the grocery store.  How many are living without the peace & eternal life God so freely offers through His Son?   The harvest is ripe, & many are ready to be brought into the kingdom of God. 
It’s one thing to be talking about field crops.  It is another   to be talking about souls.    It’s one thing to be talking about a renewable resource, which can be planted again next year.    It’s another   to be talking about those who will suffer the tortures of hell apart from Jesus Christ.   The harvest of souls is plentiful, & the Son of God is about to go there. 
However, as in today’s gospel where He sent the 72 workers out where Jesus Himself was about to go,   your Savior has also sent you   where He is about to go.     Maybe you did not volunteered.    You may not be aware   that you have already been sent.     Yet,   by virtue of your baptism, Christ has called you   to be His own. 
As one of God’s children, your actions have already been a witness,   whether a good one or a bad one.  Neighbors have already noticed the type of life you live.      Co-workers have been evaluating the integrity with which you conduct business.    And by comparing your words   with your actions   children have been aware of any hypocrisy you’ve displayed. 
Have you been preparing the way, into hearts & lives, for the Savior who follows you? 
What kind of positive witness have you been concerning the nearness of God’s Kingdom?    Our society is in dire need of the healing Jesus offers.  A recent book titled, Culture Shift, details just how far the prevailing beliefs of this country are from those revealed in God’s Word. 
For many people, God is simply ignored.  Time & attention are devoted to work, fun & other busyness.  A few minutes here or there may be allotted to church-type activities,   but most of the time Jesus is seen as irrelevant, & He’s pushed aside in the pressures of daily life.  
Others will have nothing to do with the Bible’s stand against abortion or homosexuality.  The truth of God’s Word is replaced   with the desire to pick & choose what’s right, depending upon how a person feels.  Right & wrong have become entirely relative while more & more, people refuse to see themselves as having done wrong, as being sinners by nature   before God. 
With that, they’re increasingly reluctant to consider the fact that they need a Savior.  Yet, that’s no excuse for us to shy away   from taking the message of Jesus Christ to these people. 
When you enter a town & are welcomed, tell them, “‘…The kingdom of God has come near to you.’  But whenever you enter a town & they do not receive you, go into its streets & say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you.  Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’”  (Luke 10:9-11 ESV) 
In either case, we are to tell them that the kingdom of God is near.  That’s why the harvest is so urgent.  It’s not simply that the crop is ready, but that God has knelt down to His people, in the persons of His Son & His Holy Spirit.   And the stakes are very high     because those who reject Him will be lost for all of eternity.   There will be   no 2nd chances. 
Christ has sent you & me to bring the message that the OT reading from Isaiah   is now being fulfilled: “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.  …When you see this, your heart will rejoice & you will flourish like grass; the hand of the Lord will be made known to His servants,   but His fury   will be shown to His foes.”   (66:13-14 NIV)  God’s kingdom is near & His judgment along with it. 
To those who’ve been harvested – brought into the family of God, there’ll be peace, & to those who’ve been suffering there’ll be comfort.  But for those who reject God’s forgiveness, their future will be a living death.   They’ll bear our Lord’s never ending fury & wrath because they refused to be comforted by Him.
With the ascension of Christ into heaven, the end times began & the harvest is even now in progress.  Each of us has been sent to prepare the way before the Lord.  We already are where Jesus is about to go, & the harvest is plentiful. 
Now, the last angle we’ll look at is the target I spoke of at the beginning of my sermon.     Do you remember?     That’s you!  If you have thought about being a target, it’s likely to be something you’ve shied away from.  It certainly doesn’t sound pleasant, & so far the sermon has mostly been about what God expects of you. 
However, there’s another side to being one of God’s targets.     It’s not the kind of thing you should shy away from,   & your sinful nature is at the root of that fear.  The sinful nature within us wants nothing to do with being the target of, or accepting, God’s love. 
Accepting His love implies that you have a need for it.  It implies a weakness on your part.    It implies that something is missing & you do not measure up.    Accepting Jesus’ love makes you dependent upon Him, & being dependent upon anything   is the great American sin.  
So not only does the harvest of souls include your neighbors & co-workers,    it also includes you.  Maybe you’ll think, “But pastor, I’m already a member of this church.  I’m already a Christian.”  And you may well be,   yet as disciples of Christ, though we are to speak & to act in His very name, He also wishes to speak to & act in our lives.   Are you ready to be
harvested?   Are you willing to become dependent upon God’s love for you?    Are you allowing Him into every day of your life, & not just 1 of 7 or even less?   Each morning as you awaken you can leave open the door of your heart to Jesus – enjoying the peace & comfort He brings.    Or    you can bar that door shut. 
There’s a well-known painting where Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart, waiting for you to allow Him into the day-to-day routine of your life.    That picture comes from the book of Revelation, & the door He’s knocking on   is the heart of someone who’s already a Christian. 
He wants to talk with you, to share in your joys & your sorrows.   He wants to be there with you when you rise in the morning & when you lie down in the evening.    He wants to be with you in the heat of the day   & in the darkness of the night.     He wants to heal the wounds you have endured, & renew your hope along with giving you His peace. 
The world we live in is a dog eat dog world, but God’s children don’t have to get through it on toughness & personal will power alone.  Unlike the world, Jesus forgives when we fail.  He brings healing, peace, wholeness, forgiveness & salvation, if you will only believe it.  Messiah is not simply a god who lives apart from us.     Our Lord   is alive within. 
The times & the harvest are urgent for you as well.  You could be living in the eternal peace of God’s kingdom rather than the temporary & fleeting peace of this world.    In the very preaching & teaching of those sent by Christ, the kingdom of God has become a present reality, & the kingdom of Satan is defeated  where that preaching & teaching occurs. 
The 72 disciples returned with joy   reporting that even the demons were subject to them in Christ’s name.  But Jesus responded by refocusing their attention on the result He desires for everyone in the harvest, “Rejoice not that the spirits are subject to you,   but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”  (Luke 10:20)   That   is how God’s Kingdom is near even now, today in the year 2019.    His kingdom is near in the forgiveness & the love that He offers to every one of us.    Yes,   even your heart is a place where Jesus is about to go.    Will you let Him in?    Amen. 
 
 
Lord of the living harvest that whitens on the plain, where angels soon shall gather    their sheaves of golden grain.   Accept these hands to labor   these hearts to trust & love, & with them ever hasten Your kingdom from above.  Amen.  LW 260:1.