Week Four

Harvest

There will be tears of sorrow and tears of laughter as we go out into the world, bearing the seed for sowing, looking to harvest, to share what we ourselves have tasted, sharing the mission. Our Gospel has always been one of scattering wide and gathering close… This final week we carry two final psalms with us, Psalm 34 and 126.

SEEDS TO SOW: What are we harvesting this year?

Read Luke 10: 1-2

The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few…

The mission is ongoing! Christ may already have defeated death and darkness but our mission is still unfolding. Sometimes it can really feel like the labourers are too few. But pray — earnestly pray!

Let’s stop now and earnestly pray for labourers to come out to the field. Let’s pray for unexpected voices to come from unexpected places — to draw others to the Kingdom.

Read Psalm 34: 1-14

Pursuing peace!

Harvests are cyclical and seasonal  — there are times of scattering wide and times of gathering close.

Our Lord listens to poor souls! We are never too small or insignificant for God. Mission Control always has our back!

Our mission is not only to tell people about the Gospel, but to live it out! To do good and actively pursue peace!

How can we be exemplars of peace today? In the supermarket? At work or at study? In the hospital? On street corners? On the global stage?

Read Psalm 126

Scattered far, brought close.

Even when everything has been scattered far and wide, our God who loves us remembers us, his missionaries on this earth, and he brings us in, holding us close. And in our arms we shall reap the harvest in those we love.

The story of the Peat Bog Psalter we have looked at this month — of a book of psalms preserved for over a thousand years underground — is a story with a long gap between the sowing and the harvesting. Archaeologists think the book might have been hastily buried to save it from raiders, where it then lay undisturbed for centuries. It took a long time to come to fruit.

This precious object, with its papyrus and vellum is now digitised and visible online and accessible all over the world. It is a testament to humanity’s faith in God and God’s faith in us.

How can this story inspire us to take the long view when it comes to mission? That seeds long buried can suddenly blossom into life, breaking the surface, as they come to the light.

What can keep us going as we sow in tears and long dearly to reap with joy?