Devotional 3-23-11

John 4:37 'For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.'"

Sowing in the gospel sense of the word is a frustrating work for the modern mind. We are willing to invest ourselves in the work of the gospel, but very often we expect and even demand to reap the harvest as well. It is akin to doing acts of kindness for someone and then pressuring them to come to church with you. It is not uncommon as I work in the hospital to hear of patients who need to be listened to or comforted getting preached to and evangelized instead. We can be so eager for a return on our investments these days that we forget that reaping and harvesting are seasons apart. Indeed some preach that we ought to be eager. But we can imagine that harvesting impatiently does violence to the crop itself.

It may not seem the best way to grow your church by next week, but that is not the purpose of sowing or reaping. To sow is to place in the heart of an individual by some act or word of compassion or dignity that meets their hunger (whether of body or spirit) in a way that conflicts with the expectation of coldness and hate that is easy to develop about the world. If we would busy ourselves with generous sowing and stop wringing our hands waiting for the harvest, I can imagine that the people of the world would begin to accumulate enough experiences of love and lift that they would in their spirits begin to suspect that the core message of the gospel is true – That Jesus is Lord, that the world and its darkness do not overcome his love. That sort of understanding and experience must be given time to grow. We cannot reap and sow in the same season.

Do you realize that I and my family did not arrive at Johnson Memorial by any seed that a member had sown? Rather a friendship older than my knowing between Jack and my grandmother has led us all to be together in service to God. Jack did not say, years ago, “this friendship with this woman will add a family to my congregation in a few decades.” He could not have anticipated it anymore than a group of Jewish disciple anticipated a flock of Samaritans coming to see their teacher!

It is natural, when we labor at anything, to want to see the fruits of that labor. But I am reminded of the illustration of the barges that travel our fine river. I have always loved to watch the waves they create and to hear them lap the shore. But these waves do not reach the shore until the barge has passed on by. The ducks play upon them and the boats bob about. But the barge captain never gets to see this. If he were to try to stop his progress in order to watch for the waves, the barge would never create them and he would never arrive at his destination. Often we must sow our acts of loving kindness and respect and pass on. At times we have the chance to sow into a given life multiple times. But be resolved to do your part and carry on. It does not belong to us to demand a harvest or to demand it at the time we desire. But God must be given time to nurture that seed in the field of that heart. The Holy Spirit shall make of it what she desires. And don’t worry, at just the right time, one of your fellows will be there to harvest whatever God may cause to grow. With this in mind we must sow liberally, even radically, and seek no more than this. And should we ever reap, we dare not be so careless as to imagine that we have won anyone to Christ on our own.

Joe Hill