Sermon for LWML Fall Rally: "The Lord of the Harvest"

 + LWML Fall Rally – November 1^st, 2025 +

Luke 10:2

Zion Lutheran Church

Tacoma, WA

 

 

In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.

 

 

The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.

 

This image, of a field and harvest, is hard for us to imagine. We’re far more removed from fields than our forefathers were. And even further than Jesus and his disciples.

 

Today…fields are paved. Covered in warehouses and subdivisions and freeways. But here in Luke 10, the Lord of the harvest calls us back to the fields. 

 

But every now and then we get glimpses of this. In the backyard of the parsonage I lived in down in CA, there was a large – old by CA standards - avocado tree. And every spring, without fail it produced an abundance of avocados. I didn’t plant it. I didn’t water it. I didn’t make it grow. And yet…That harvest was plentiful and the laborers were definitely few…in fact, one.

 

From the trees and fields we learn this important truth: a harvest only happens because someone else has done the work. Laborers can only go into a field to pick and reap and gather because someone else has planted, watered, and tended the harvest.

 

So it is as the Lord of the harvest sends out his 72 disciples into towns, like the animals coming into the ark, two-by-two. Jesus sends his disciples out to preach his peace and his presence. That the Lord who promised Noah that While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease – is the same Lord who comes with healing, and holiness and righteousness and rules and reigns as King of the cross and the grave and a new creation. 

 

And to switch metaphors for a moment, from the field to the classroom. Listen to the verbs that Jesus does for his disciples. He appoints. Sends. Blesses. Speaks. Teaches. Gives his Word.

 

This is what the people in those towns and villages needed most. A preacher. And the Lord’s proclamation: the Kingdom of God has come near to you. Jesus sends them as he did John the Baptist. To proclaim. To preach. To point. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

 

This is what you and I need too. Preachers who will proclaim and point and pardon. To be sure, like the prophets of old, they will point out our sins. They will salt the fields of our hearts so that all the weeds and thorns and rotten fruit we produce will die. But then they will plant a new seed, a living seed…the enlivening, quickening, sustaining, Word of God. Pardon for your sins. Peace in the blood of Jesus. Light and life in the Lord of the harvest who himself, like a seed, was buried in the ground for three days. And then rose from the earth for you.

 

It is for us, just as it was for Jesus’ disciples. Everything in life and faith depends on him. Jesus is the Good and Gracious Sower of his word. The Planter of his peace, watered and nourished by his blood that soaks the very ground we walk on. Jesus is the Lord of the harvest who is holy and by his dying and rising, declares you holy in him.

 

And this Lord of the harvest is also the King who reigns. Who is the Kingdom of God in the flesh. And this King and faithful farmer plants his kingdom for you here today in His Word that spoke creation into being and declares you are forgiven all your sin. In the water that he gathered from the sky and the wells of the deep to baptize you. In the countless grains and grapes he grew and gathered so that he could place his body and blood onto your lips and into your mouths.

 

And this same Lord who sent out the 72 disciples, also sends each of us – not always in the same way as he did for them. We have different callings. Different stations in life. Vocations given to each of us by the victorious Lamb. Pastor. People. Men and women. Husband. Wife. Father. Mother. Brother. Sister. Servants of Christ in all the vocations he has given us to live in. in all the corners of his vineyard he has sent us out to serve in. Whether it’s in Tacoma or Olympia. Milton or Federal Way. Chehalis or Graham. 

 

This is how our Lord continues to work for us and through us. We are his masks. His laborers. As you gather those mites, the Lord who gathers you to his goodness also sees to it that his Gospel goes forth. As you call on those for whom you care for in your congregation, the Lord who called you to faith in him remains faithful. And the Lord who planted and sowed his Word of life and faith into your hearts and minds is faithful. He sustains. Guards. Tends. And nourishes you until the great harvest of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. 

 

Yes, the harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few. Pray. But fear not. Fret not. The steadfast love of the Lord of the harvest never fails. For he is faithful.

 

In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.