A sermon delivered by Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min. on July 6, 2025.

Last week, we looked at the cost of following Jesus when he asks us to fall in line behind him and follow where he asks us to go. We noted that when we choose to align our lives with Jesus’s Way, it requires more than a tacit nodding of one’s mental approval for doing so; it requires us to count the costs of doing so, it demands we reset our priorities in our daily living, and once we step out, we can’t look back. We noted our tendency to couch our discipleship with a series of Yes, Buts. “Yes, Jesus, I will follow you, but first…”

At this point in Luke’s Story, Jesus has turned his face to Jerusalem and realizes his time is growing short. So today, we have him sending out 35 advance teams to fan out to villages he has yet to visit but plans to on his way to Jerusalem.  This is where we pick up in the text today.

Luke 10:1-11

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. ²He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. ³Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. ⁴Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. ⁵Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ ⁶And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. ⁷Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house.⁸Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; ⁹cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’^[1]

One of the reasons I love living in the Upstate is being able to get on my bike and take off through all this beautifully, rich farmland. During the spring and summer planting seasons, you can smell the heavy scent of natural fertilizer; it’s the wonderful smell of future profits and harvest in the air. 

Farm life is not always easy, especially at harvest time, when there is a bustle of activity. A friend of mine who grew up on a farm tells me that you’re up before sunrise and mommas cooked a big breakfast for everyone before they go out and begin their work. The days are full and long because you are racing against the fleeting hours of the day with good sunlight to harvest the crop. You are also racing against the reality that there is only a limited time you can harvest the produce of the farm before the crops and grain begin to rot. There is a sense of intentionality at harvest time. The quiet long days of growing are over; there’s work to do and there’s only so much time to get it done. Harvest time is a busy time when everyone has his or her part on the farm to get the crop in on time.

In our Story today, we hear about the ebb and flow of God’s grace and our participation in it. As disciples, our job is not to prepare the harvest as that is God’s sole responsibility. A disciple’s job is to physically, personally, intentionally respond to that graceful giftedness of God and gather in the harvest and pray others will come and join us in this critical time; we need others to labor with us to help get the crops in before they rot.^[2]

Our text today has Jesus is letting us know that it’s harvest time for the Church. Today we are gathered around the breakfast table before we head out the door and he is giving us our job assignments for the day. Did hear what it is? It is to go out and harvest the crop God has already planted and pray for more laborers to help us. Before we hit the fields and start our harvesting, Jesus gives us some advice. 

He first tells us harvesters are exposed and vulnerable. You and I are going out into a world that is hostile to the message and way of life we are demonstrating. The news of the Kingdom of God will butt up against the empires, the values, and the mores of this world; in response to the good news we bring, the lions of the world will try to bring us down and silence us as it reminds us in verse 3.

Yet, the Farmer also tells us in verse 4, “Beloved, take heart and trust God completely.” Travel light with the bare necessities. You don’t need a lot of stuff to help with the harvest; you only need to trust God.

Jesus, the Sower, tells us to travel with single-minded focus (vs. 4b).  Don’t dilly-dally on the way as the crops are ready for harvest now…not next week or next month but now! He cautions us there will be distractions along our way to the fields, but we are to keep our focus.

Furthermore, Jesus tells us from the Table that we are to go into the fields with words and spirits of peacefulness that will stand in stark contrast to the of angst and darkness in the world today (v. 5). He says that while out harvesting, we show others that it’s okay to live simply. Living within the Kingdom of God means being content with who we are, where we are, and with who God is and what God expects (v. 8).

Our recent news cycle over the last several weeks offers some insight in Jesus’ call for harvesters to go out into the fields. Congress passed a bill this week that approves $30 billion dollars for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department. Migrants working in our farmland’s fields are getting arrested and detained for doing work Americans do not want to do. The irony is those people grumping about illegal immigrants are also complaining about the higher prices they must pay because there is a shortage of workers to bring in the harvest. 

The greatest challenge in US Christian congregations today is that we are full of consumers of the spiritual fruit and produce Church provides but there are not enough willing laborers in the church to go out and bring in the harvest. “That’s the pastor’s job.” “I don’t want do be seen as a religious fanatic.” “Someone else will do it.” Friends, we sit and wait to be served the fruits from the labors of others when our call is to be day-laborers in the Kingdom gathering in the crops today ourselves.

Friends, it’s a temptation to look at our text today and focus on the fruit “out there” in the world and wonder, “What can you do pastor, to bring more younger families into the Church?” This is the typical way of looking at this Story. This is a story about someone else bringing in the proverbial sheaves. I suggest a different way of looking at Jesus’ words. 

Perhaps Jesus’ words are a demand on us a church body. Jesus emphatically tells us to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to give us laborers for the harvest. In other words, we are to pray, that like members of a family farm, we are to pray that everyone in the family gets their fanny out of bed and helps bringing the crops in. Harvesting requires everyone getting involved and not just a few specialized migrant workers. Everyone on the farm has his or her part to play whether it’s harvesting, gleaning, or storing. Others prepare the mid-day meal and evening suppers for the laborers while the others are in the field sweating and getting covered with manure-infused soil. The deal is everyone is involved in the harvest time. It’s intentional. It’s focused. Everyone has her or his part.

Church, our text today demands all of us get off the porch rocker and into the rhythmic dance of the harvest. All of us have a job to do. The Church and her neighborhoods are a farm that needs harvesters not consumers. If we want a larger crop of produce, it will take all of us and not just the farm owner to get it done.

Some years ago,I met a retired Presbyterian pastor and during our conversation, his watch alarm begins to chime. He says, “Excuse me,” as he looks down and presses a button and then looks at me and smiles. I quickly asked him, “Do you need to go! I didn’t mean to keep you!” and he replies, “Oh, no. It’s 10:02.” I gave him a doggie-head tilt look, and he said, “It’s my reminder to pray for  laborers of the harvest. In Luke 10.2, Jesus tells us the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, we are to pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send out laborers into the harvest.”^[3]    

Beloved let us take a moment and do two things. First, ask yourself if you are a spiritual consumer or are you a harvester? Second, take a moment and set your phones or watches to sound a chime at 10:02 to remind you first who you are and second what God needs you to do – go labor in His vineyard! So be it. Amen. 

© 2025 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801 and shall not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

^[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

^[2] David Lose, Feasting on the Word.

^[3] Harland Mirriam, Presbyterian pastor and Chaplain, US Army (RET).