Christians are tempted to despair and then to mistake that despair for wisdom. In Luke 10, Jesus appoints seventy disciples and sends them ahead of Him with a word of confidence: “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few.” Fr. Steve Macias preaches on the Christian calling to labor in hope, from the Garden of Eden to the New Jerusalem, and calls the Church to put away the romance of despair and get to work.
Preacher: Fr. Steve Macias
Occasion: Feast of St. Luke the Apostle on the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity
Scripture: Luke 10:1–20
Three Things from This Passage
- The harvest is plentiful. Put away the romance of despair and the poverty of imagination that assumes nothing good can be done. God is generous, and we are made in His image to produce what blesses our neighbor.
- The laborers are few. Man was placed in a garden to work it and keep it, and Scripture ends in a city. The work of the home, the shop, the school, and the parish is part of building what lasts.
- The kingdom has come near. Like Augustine’s Christians in a falling Rome, we labor with confidence, because the King reigns and the future belongs to Christ.
We cannot go back to the past, and we are not called to be curators of the ruins. God has placed us in this time, in this place, among these neighbors, with these children. Every Sunday we hear His Word, receive His grace at His holy Table, and are sent out: from worship to work, from the altar to the harvest field. The harvest is plentiful. The King is reigning. The future belongs to Christ.
Join us for worship at Saint Paul’s Anglican Church, 101 N El Monte Ave., Los Altos, on Sundays at 10:30 AM, with a fellowship meal after the service. Plan your visit.
