Tilling the Soil

Somehow it aligned that I was preaching on Thanksgiving Sunday about Genesis 2 and Adam being asked to till and keep the soil in the garden of Eden. The garden was an absolute paradise and Adam’s first job description was to tend it, quickly followed by the short-lived task of naming the animals.

Where I live fall fairs and farmers’ markets are bursting to overflowing with produce in every colour of the rainbow and all kinds of baking and preserves made from the fruit of the earth. My city is surrounded by shrinking farmland as houses expand further and further out. The richest soil in the world is being covered by asphalt and concrete never to be used for its intended purpose. The fight is on to balance the need for homes for our exploding population with the need for nature to flourish and sustain all living things unimpeded.

We are so blessed by the work of farmers who year in and year out cultivate and plant, tend and nurture, and ultimately harvest and prepare crops for market. At the museum where I work I had a chance encounter with a volunteer who tends our gardens, and heard much about the work involved in pulling out weeds and invasive plants and digging around tree roots and also how more volunteers were needed. It all takes so much effort and yet it nurtures our souls and bodies to tend the dirt. It quite literally grounds us and is a gift reconnecting us to Eden and God’s good creation.

Thinking about this and looking out at a small congregation this past Sunday, I raised the same comment Jesus made in Matthew 9:37 - the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. There is rich soil all around us in the people not so different from who Jesus saw that day - those He felt compassion for who were harassed and helpless and needing a shepherd. At a certain point, those in our pews need to transition from sheep who have found the Shepherd to sheep leading others to the Shepherd. Jesus challenges the disciples to pray and ask for labourers to be sent out into the Lord’s harvest.

As many churchgoers return to “normal” eagerly, even as the pandemic continues, in general numbers are down in congregations, and sometimes by quite a large margin. Yes, in some cases people just got out of the habit or got too comfortable with watching online in their pjs. But I also wonder if we have raised a church with followers who either were relied on too heavily and not doing as much has been a welcome relief, or who were relied on too little and assumed to not be qualified enough to be labourers in the harvest. In Presbyterian circles our nickname of the “chosen frozen” can even extend within our congregations with only certain people being the ones to do specific tasks because they just always have and know how it’s done.

And yet we’re supposed to be praying for more labourers to bring in the harvest. Adam wasn’t left alone for long. God saw that he needed a companion so he wasn’t working by himself. We need more labourers to do the cultivating, planting, tending and reaping with us out in the fields. Because people are rarely going to choose to come into our buildings on a Sunday morning of their own volition. Like Jesus and the disciples, we need to be out in our communities seeing the needs and sharing Good News that will bring life and healing to people. We need to be praying for labourers with vision to go and draw people to the living water God offers.

Are we praying for labourers? Are we ready to use the people who offer to help and to equip them for ministry that is impactful and far-reaching? Are we tending the soil in our own lives and hearts and souls so we are constantly growing? Are we truly willing to see the harvest Jesus intends rather than staying with the tried and true, the sheep already in the fold?

May our thanks for God’s goodness and provision rise, not only for our current communities and blessings but for the vision God has for us to grow as we till the soil and do the good work to prepare for a bountiful harvest.