Field Day!

Will you be remembered as someone who stayed seated and complained? (Rev. Martha Fajardo, translation paraphrased)

Reverend Martha Fajardo, lead pastor of Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene's Latino Ministry, asked the above question during this past Sunday's combined-language services. It's a great question for us to contemplate today.

The easy thing to do is to stay seated and complain. The difficult thing to do is to work faithfully while exuding joy.

Working for the Lord is not easy. In Scripture, it is likened to laboring in a field. The analogy brings up images of aches and pains and exertions. The ground has to be broken up. Many, many seeds have to be planted. Young plants must be tended. Ripened fruit must be harvested. The seasons bring extremes of cold, heat, rain, snow, and ice. There may be floods or droughts. And through all these events, the work must continue.

And there is more to contend with: we have an enemy, the devil himself, who makes it even more difficult to do works of service that are pleasing to the Lord. Our enemy uses people, systems, circumstances, and trials in repeated attempts to discourage us from continuing the work. The field is vandalized. Seeds are snatched up before they can take root. What once looked like healthy wheat is later found to be poisonous tares. And through the opposition, the farmer is tasked to labor on. Staying seated is not an option.

Pastor Martha noted that, in church culture, we sometimes assume that it is only the pastors who are tasked to work the fields. That assumption is false. Every Christian has a work to do. The Spirit of God has given particular gifts to each one who names Jesus as Lord, and each one is tasked to use those gifts to build up the body of Christ. We are a community where each person may do something different, but all work in concert to farm the land. Some break up the hard ground. Some plant seeds. Others care for the fruit. It takes everyone to get the job done.

Our pastor also reminded us that, on our own, we don't have what it takes to get this job done. She said (paraphrased here), You can't. But God can. The Spirit of God is present to teach us and to help us do the work that supports God's kingdom. Pastor Martha referenced Ezekiel 11:19: God says, "I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; I will remove the hearts of stone from their flesh and I will give them a heart of flesh." A heart submitted to God is the key to working the works of God.

Are you seated, complaining?
Are you working, joyfully?
What sort of heart do you have?