Third Sunday of Trinity 2019

Lectionary reading: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

The question that I am asked more than any other is this:

How can we get more people to come to church?

It is the wrong question.

The question we ought to be asking, as my friend Keld recently asked me, is:

How many people do we expect to see come to faith in the next six months?

Now, that is a question we tend to shy away from, in the Church of England. It sounds presumptuous. People coming to faith is God’s business, not ours. Okay, leaving aside what Jesus says for a moment, how is God doing? How many people have we seen come to faith in the last six months? Or the six months before that? Indeed, when was the last time that we saw someone come to faith?

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.’ Indeed, Jesus said this more than once, sending out first twelve more labourers and then seventy-two more (Matthew 9:37-38 and Luke 10:2). He even challenged them that they were in the habit of saying that the harvest was four months away—that is, always just out of reach, never actually arriving—but, in fact, they are to pay attention as he corrects them, declaring that the harvest is ripe now (John 4:35-38). There is always a harvest.

Note that Jesus doesn’t say, pray for a harvest. He says, pray for labourers. And he says that to those who are about to find themselves labourers. It isn’t a division of labour, where some are called to pray, and others are sent to harvest.

I shared some of these thoughts recently, and the question came back:

So how do we do that? How do we bring in a harvest?

How do we see people come to faith?

Well, it just so happens that Jesus has some instructions for just that scenario. Let’s take a look at them.

First, Jesus says, go in pairs. Now, I’m sure we’re all familiar with pairs turning up unannounced on our doorstep, perhaps wanting to speak to us about Jesus, perhaps collecting for Christian Aid Week. And you’ll breathe a sigh of relief to hear that I’m not going to ask you to go door-to-door, or even about the neighbourhood, in pairs. But each of us does go about the neighbourhood, sometimes in pairs, as spouses or good friends, and speak with people we meet. We listen to their stories, their struggles and joys right now. So, if we are moving, and meeting, why not offer to pray, there and then? Just a simple prayer, asking for God’s blessing, in the struggle or the joy. People are more open to that than you might think; and, if they decline, that’s fine too. No need to press them.

Of course, there are also those times when we are on our own. Perhaps much of the time. And that’s okay, too. But even then, I’d encourage you: is there a friend you meet up with regularly for coffee, Or, for those of us who are married, is there a time in the day when we might review our day together? To be accountable to one another about how our labouring is going. Not how busy we are doing things at church or for the community, but, having God-conversations. How might we creatively go in pairs?

Next, Jesus says, look for the person of peace. That is, look out for the person who is open to peace. They’re easy enough to spot, because they stand out from the angry people. Look out for the peacemakers. You see, anyone who is open to peace is evidencing the Holy Spirit already at work in their lives. They are reaping a harvest of peace, they are sowing peace into the lives around them, and they are ripe to know God more fully.

Then, Jesus says, say, the kingdom of God has come near to you. We’re not bringing the kingdom of God, where it was not until we arrived; we’re naming what is already there. We’re celebrating what God is doing in the world, and inviting people to join in. That concern for justice you clearly have, that care for creation, your ability to see the stranger as a person, or to recognise evil in the world, that love you know and share—these are signs that the kingdom of God has come near to you. And that kingdom has a king, and he’d like for you to know him. In fact, he’d like for you to know that you are his daughter, his son; that you are loved, yes, and commissioned. That this king has a purpose for your life, and can empower you to make a difference, for good, in the world.

And then, Jesus says, return with joy. Celebrate the harvest. When we come together as gathered church, tell the stories of where we have seen God at work this week. Joy changes our entire perspective.

This is our 80^th year, at St Nicholas’ and later in the year we will hold a flower festival under the banner 80 fruitful years. But the measure of fruitfulness is not flowers. The measure of fruitfulness is women and men, boys and girls, coming to faith and growing in faith and passing faith on. The flowers are the celebration of fruitfulness.

Allow me to return to the question: How many people do we expect to see come to faith in the next six months? These are, as it happens, the final six months of this decade. How many people do we expect to come to faith by Christmas, as we go out looking for people of peace, proclaiming that the kingdom of God has drawn near, and return here with joy?

It isn’t a rhetorical question. It is a commissioning to the mission field of our parish.

When you came in, you were given two pieces of card. Here is what we are going to do. You need to answer the question, How many people do we expect to see come to faith in the next six months? That will give you a number. I’d like you to write that number on both pieces of card. And then I’d like you to put one of those cards in your pocket or handbag and take it home and put it somewhere where you will see it every day. And I want you to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send you out into his harvest field. If your honest number is 0, God can work with honesty. Pray that your expectation would be exceeded, and that you would be surprised by joy. The other piece of card—on which you have written the same number—I’d like us to collect up in the bowl that will pass around, so that we can know what our expectation is, and how it might grow.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, send us out, in the power of the Holy Spirit, as labourers in the harvest field, to love and serve you to the glory of God the Father. Amen.