July 7, 2019
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Most of you know that back in November of 2010, I started a ministry in Greensboro called ARISE at Grace. ARISE is what I call a feeding ministry and its purpose is to provide a free breakfast for anyone who is hungry. For the better part of that first year it seemed like this ministry grew and grew. Ultimately it grew to the point of feeding breakfast, every Tuesday morning, to close to 200 people, which is where I believe it still is today.
This past week I was encouraged to think about how it all started, but especially about all of the people who helped do the work. My best recollection is that our labor force, or volunteer base, when we first began was about six people. Now having six people do the necessary work to provide this breakfast worked really well the first few weeks. It worked because we had less than thirty people show up for breakfast during those first three weeks, and we offered the limited selection of coffee and muffins. As more and more people began showing up for breakfast, and our offerings expanded to eggs, bacon, French toast, Belgian waffles, pastries, coffee, fruit and juice, more and more laborers were needed. You see, prior to each Tuesday morning, someone needed to shop because we needed three-hundred thirty eggs, 17 pounds of bacon, 128 ounces of pancake syrup, 7 pounds of margarine, 12 pounds of bananas, 250 napkins, to name a few things.
Then, each and every Tuesday morning we had to setup tables and chairs. We had to prep the food so that it would be ready to cook and ready to eat when the doors opened. We had to make the coffee. Arrange the pastries. In essence we had to do all the things anyone would have to do to prepare and serve a meal to over one hundred friends. And that doesn’t even count all the work needing to be done after the meal was served. Needless to say, there was a lot of work and whenever that is the case, it is best for everyone involved to have a lot of people to show up and work too.
At some point, an interesting thing happened. Some of our new friends who had been coming to breakfast saw how much work needed to be done and offered to help. Now, it would seem logical that their offer would be accepted, but as I was reminded this past week, initially it wasn’t. The initial response from some of the people who came to volunteer was a kind and simple “no thank you” or “I believe we have everything covered” and while I wasn’t one of them, there is a part of me that understands that response. You see, I am a worker. I am a doer and because of that, there are times where I end up turning down the kind and generous offers for help that comes from others. I know I have even done it here, and I apologize if I have done it to you.
I apologize to you because my saying “no” or “I think I can handle it” prevented you from finding a place to work and share your skills. I apologize to myself, because my saying “no” or “I think I can handle it” ended up causing more work for me. And not only was that unnecessary, it leaves me tired and on a fast track to burnout. The expectation that one person will have all of the ideas, or must approve every little aspect of the work, and then must do the lions share of the work will also lead to exhaustion and burnout and I can assure no one wants to be exhausted or burned out.
******************************
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the eighty-twenty or ninety-ten concept? You know, eighty percent of the work is done by twenty percent of the people, or ninety percent of the work is done by ten percent of the people. While this concept has universal application, today I want to talk about the context of ministry because to a large extent this, I believe, is part of what Jesus is talking about when he says the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Another way of saying it is, there is a lot of work to be done, but as of this moment there aren’t a lot of people willing to do the work.
Knowing that there is a tendency for the few to do the work, Jesus tells those who are listening to pray that God will send more laborers. Jesus does not tell them that it is their responsibility to do all of the work. Now I don’t know about you, but I find Jesus’ instruction to be rather simple. Just pray that God will send more people who will help do the work. What is striking to me is the lack of specificity in his instruction. When it comes to the type of people Jesus tells them to pray would come and help them the only description he gives is people. Nowhere does Jesus say, pray for people who look like you. Nowhere does Jesus say to pray for people who think like you. Nowhere does Jesus say pray only for people who think like you. Jesus simply says, pray that God will send people to help do the work.
The thing I keep wondering is how such a simple instruction can become so convoluted. By all accounts, instruction that was meant to foster growth within ministry has done quite the opposite because we really aren’t that open to having just anyone help us. We either overtly, or covertly only want help from certain people and when we do this we are making our work exclusive instead of expansive. Each and every time we make people feel like they have to change some aspect of themselves to be included in our ministry work we are not following Jesus’ instruction.
As one theologian says, “While our contexts for ministry may have changed from that of the seventy, Jesus’ commission to his followers remains essentially the same. God is responsible for the growth of our communities. We are called to be open to this growth; to plan, organize, and work in a way that anticipates, rather than impedes, such growth; and to pray for and invite others to join us in gathering the harvest God has prepared.”[1]
*******************************
Ultimately, each and every time we pre-judge… each and every time we try first to determine who is worthy of receiving and sharing God’s Peace and Love, we are not doing God’s work and we are not following Jesus’ instruction no matter what we might be telling ourselves. Not only that, each and every time we try first to determine who is worthy to do the work of sharing God’s Peace and Love along with us, we are not doing God’s work and we are not following Jesus’ instruction. Living a life of pre-judging and pre-determining who is worthy to stand with you and do the work with you will leave you tired, maybe even to the point of exhaustion. It will also leave you burned out. I believe Jesus knew about these dangers and I believe his instruction, given to the seventy, and given to us, was meant to avoid both.
Jesus’ words during the commissioning of the seventy should be as instructive today as they were when first spoken, but it requires us to actually listen. There is work to do, but please don’t try to do it alone. And more than that, pray that God will send you more workers because you need them. And when those additional workers show up, accept them and accept their offer to help do the work because they too are God’s Beloved and just like you, they have been commissioned to share God’s Peace and Love.
************************************
Those new Tuesday morning breakfast friends only had to offer to help one more time for the offer to be gladly accepted. Not only was their offer accepted, but more and more offers to help came in from more and more diverse people and they too were accepted. The end result was a beautifully diverse group of forty or so people sharing the workload for this large community meal – a community meal that allowed for an even more diverse group to experience the peace and love of God.
Yes, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers don’t have to be, nor should they be few. It is up to us to make sure of that.
[PRAYER]
Amen!
[1] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4104
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Most of you know that back in November of 2010, I started a ministry in Greensboro called ARISE at Grace. ARISE is what I call a feeding ministry and its purpose is to provide a free breakfast for anyone who is hungry. For the better part of that first year it seemed like this ministry grew and grew. Ultimately it grew to the point of feeding breakfast, every Tuesday morning, to close to 200 people, which is where I believe it still is today.
This past week I was encouraged to think about how it all started, but especially about all of the people who helped do the work. My best recollection is that our labor force, or volunteer base, when we first began was about six people. Now having six people do the necessary work to provide this breakfast worked really well the first few weeks. It worked because we had less than thirty people show up for breakfast during those first three weeks, and we offered the limited selection of coffee and muffins. As more and more people began showing up for breakfast, and our offerings expanded to eggs, bacon, French toast, Belgian waffles, pastries, coffee, fruit and juice, more and more laborers were needed. You see, prior to each Tuesday morning, someone needed to shop because we needed three-hundred thirty eggs, 17 pounds of bacon, 128 ounces of pancake syrup, 7 pounds of margarine, 12 pounds of bananas, 250 napkins, to name a few things.
Then, each and every Tuesday morning we had to setup tables and chairs. We had to prep the food so that it would be ready to cook and ready to eat when the doors opened. We had to make the coffee. Arrange the pastries. In essence we had to do all the things anyone would have to do to prepare and serve a meal to over one hundred friends. And that doesn’t even count all the work needing to be done after the meal was served. Needless to say, there was a lot of work and whenever that is the case, it is best for everyone involved to have a lot of people to show up and work too.
At some point, an interesting thing happened. Some of our new friends who had been coming to breakfast saw how much work needed to be done and offered to help. Now, it would seem logical that their offer would be accepted, but as I was reminded this past week, initially it wasn’t. The initial response from some of the people who came to volunteer was a kind and simple “no thank you” or “I believe we have everything covered” and while I wasn’t one of them, there is a part of me that understands that response. You see, I am a worker. I am a doer and because of that, there are times where I end up turning down the kind and generous offers for help that comes from others. I know I have even done it here, and I apologize if I have done it to you.
I apologize to you because my saying “no” or “I think I can handle it” prevented you from finding a place to work and share your skills. I apologize to myself, because my saying “no” or “I think I can handle it” ended up causing more work for me. And not only was that unnecessary, it leaves me tired and on a fast track to burnout. The expectation that one person will have all of the ideas, or must approve every little aspect of the work, and then must do the lions share of the work will also lead to exhaustion and burnout and I can assure no one wants to be exhausted or burned out.
******************************
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the eighty-twenty or ninety-ten concept? You know, eighty percent of the work is done by twenty percent of the people, or ninety percent of the work is done by ten percent of the people. While this concept has universal application, today I want to talk about the context of ministry because to a large extent this, I believe, is part of what Jesus is talking about when he says the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Another way of saying it is, there is a lot of work to be done, but as of this moment there aren’t a lot of people willing to do the work.
Knowing that there is a tendency for the few to do the work, Jesus tells those who are listening to pray that God will send more laborers. Jesus does not tell them that it is their responsibility to do all of the work. Now I don’t know about you, but I find Jesus’ instruction to be rather simple. Just pray that God will send more people who will help do the work. What is striking to me is the lack of specificity in his instruction. When it comes to the type of people Jesus tells them to pray would come and help them the only description he gives is people. Nowhere does Jesus say, pray for people who look like you. Nowhere does Jesus say to pray for people who think like you. Nowhere does Jesus say pray only for people who think like you. Jesus simply says, pray that God will send people to help do the work.
The thing I keep wondering is how such a simple instruction can become so convoluted. By all accounts, instruction that was meant to foster growth within ministry has done quite the opposite because we really aren’t that open to having just anyone help us. We either overtly, or covertly only want help from certain people and when we do this we are making our work exclusive instead of expansive. Each and every time we make people feel like they have to change some aspect of themselves to be included in our ministry work we are not following Jesus’ instruction.
As one theologian says, “While our contexts for ministry may have changed from that of the seventy, Jesus’ commission to his followers remains essentially the same. God is responsible for the growth of our communities. We are called to be open to this growth; to plan, organize, and work in a way that anticipates, rather than impedes, such growth; and to pray for and invite others to join us in gathering the harvest God has prepared.”[1]
*******************************
Ultimately, each and every time we pre-judge… each and every time we try first to determine who is worthy of receiving and sharing God’s Peace and Love, we are not doing God’s work and we are not following Jesus’ instruction no matter what we might be telling ourselves. Not only that, each and every time we try first to determine who is worthy to do the work of sharing God’s Peace and Love along with us, we are not doing God’s work and we are not following Jesus’ instruction. Living a life of pre-judging and pre-determining who is worthy to stand with you and do the work with you will leave you tired, maybe even to the point of exhaustion. It will also leave you burned out. I believe Jesus knew about these dangers and I believe his instruction, given to the seventy, and given to us, was meant to avoid both.
Jesus’ words during the commissioning of the seventy should be as instructive today as they were when first spoken, but it requires us to actually listen. There is work to do, but please don’t try to do it alone. And more than that, pray that God will send you more workers because you need them. And when those additional workers show up, accept them and accept their offer to help do the work because they too are God’s Beloved and just like you, they have been commissioned to share God’s Peace and Love.
************************************
Those new Tuesday morning breakfast friends only had to offer to help one more time for the offer to be gladly accepted. Not only was their offer accepted, but more and more offers to help came in from more and more diverse people and they too were accepted. The end result was a beautifully diverse group of forty or so people sharing the workload for this large community meal – a community meal that allowed for an even more diverse group to experience the peace and love of God.
Yes, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers don’t have to be, nor should they be few. It is up to us to make sure of that.
[PRAYER]
Amen!
[1] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4104
