The Harvest is the Lord's

It is very easy to become discouraged, not only in the Christan life, but especially in the ministry of mission. In my own experience the resources have seemed too few, and the harvest too great. Walking around my home town I have sometimes felt the burden of all these souls who do not know Christ and are separated from the Orthodox Church. It can be an unbearable burden if we seek to carry it all alone, I mean apart from God. Indeed there is a sense that such a missionary burden can be a matter of pride. There are times in my life as an Orthodox Christian when I have hoped to organise the vast crowds of non-Orthodox into the Church and have assumed that merely organising some activity would be all that was ever required. More than that, it has been all to easy to fall into the trap of believing that if only resources were available then every missionary goal would be achieved.

I have had to learn several necessary lessons. I have learned that the ministry of mission is not accomplished in the first place by organisation, but by prayer and fasting. Indeed this season of Lent is an appropriate occasion to reflect on the period of fasting which our Lord engaged in before his own public ministry, and to consider that the period of the Apostles Fast also reminds us that their own spirit-filled ministry required prayer and fasting. St Paul and St Barnabas were set apart for their missionary ministry after prayer and fasting, and they themselves set apart presbyters in the Churches with prayer and fasting. Organising activities can be exciting, but the spiritual substance of any activity depends on prayer and fasting. With such spiritual activity anything is possible, but without it nothing lasting can be achieved.

I have also had to learn that the burden of the unreached is not mine, it belongs to the Lord, who loves these thousands and millions much more than I could ever do. Indeed he knows each one by name, knows all their circumstances, and is always seeking their salvation.

Matthew 9:37-38 teaches us, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. 

These verses show us that the harvest is the Lord's and not ours. It is He who will decide where and when it is to be brought in. These are His fields and not our own. We should feel a burden for the whole harvest, but it should not overwhelm us because it belongs to the Lord and not to any one of us. We are responsible for those things which God has given us to do. This is a liberating teaching. It allows us to be both prayerfully responsible and also to allow God to work out His will according to His own purposes. What is required of us is obedience. The harvest is the Lord's.

But of course this does not mean that we cannot fail to be obedient. It does not mean that we cannot fail to support those labourers whom God is sending into the fields. It is possible for us to be disobedient. There is both a need for obedient labourers, but also for obedience in praying for and supporting those who are labouring. The harvest is the Lord's but He allows us the grace to share with Him in bringing it in. Whether we are called to bring in much or little all that is asked of us is obedience.