From our Rector – ” Harvest”

Rector’s Reflection – June 11, 2026 – “Harvest”

Jesus said to his disciples, “The size of the harvest is bigger than you can imagine, but there are few workers. Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers for his harvest.” He called his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to throw them out and to heal every disease and every sickness.

– Matthew 9:37-10:1, Common English Bible

What are we supposed to do as disciples of Christ?

This is a very common question, and it is one that we are always asking ourselves at all levels of church engagement. From acolytes asking when best to do the handwashing at the altar during the Eucharist to altar guild members asking where best to place the chalice and paten on the altar; from building and grounds asking about the placement of mulch and weeding of gardens to volunteers asking how best to apportion and use the many rooms in the church. These are all legitimate and very real questions, and I don’t doubt that the disciples were asking similar logistic questions of Jesus. In fact we know that their questions ranged from how to feed the vast crowds that would attend their gatherings to which among them had the highest authority among them.

Jesus certainly answered their questions, sometimes with action (in praying and passing baskets that miraculously were made full as they were passed among the crowd) and sometimes with instruction (“The first shall be last and the last shall be first.”) He was also very clear in asserting what they were supposed to be doing in their ministry to others, as we read in his commissioning of the disciples in this Sunday’s gospel. First, he gives them authority, which means everything from power of oversight to legitimacy of testimony and witness. He says that what they do and say matters.

Then he gives them the specifics of this outreach ministry: use that authority to help rid others of unclean spirits, casting them out, and healing illness where you find it. If I were one of the twelve, I may have raised an eyebrow at that. It would certainly have been easier to use authority to teach others as Jesus was teaching, about the presence of God’s kingdom in the here and now, about the importance of loving one another, about God’s desire for us to change our hearts for worship and not our clothes.

But Jesus surprises them – go out and heal. Find where there is pain and suffering and allay it; find where there is hunger and homelessness and provide food and shelter; find where there is anger and aggression and intolerance and prejudice and replace it with peace and forgiveness and acceptance. No small order, but this is what Jesus asked for them to do. It is also what he asks of us. He doesn’t ask us to increase our average Sunday attendance at our services; he asks us to challenge and fortify ourselves in those services so that we are able to go out and do the work we are given to do.

There is not a congregation in the Episcopal Church that doesn’t long for a larger, more diverse membership. In each place I have been blessed to serve, I have been asked, “Can you grow our congregation?” As I shared last week in my sermon, my answer has always been that I will do my best to grow the faith of those in the church, and hopefully their faith will be a curiosity to their friends and family and neighbors, so that they will be drawn to the church and find there a haven of welcome, blessing, and ministry. So far, this has been true everywhere I have served, and I have no doubt the same will be true at Saint Mark’s.

We laborers may be few in number, but we have been given our job description by Jesus. Together, let’s be the healing face, hands, and heart of God in our community.

Peace in Christ,

Father Shawn