Ripe for Harvest

158 • R IPE FOR H ARVEST

B. The poor are a receptive field for the Gospel.

The counterpoint to the New Testament teaching about the spiritual hardness of the wealthy is the teaching that the poor are the spiritually open. It is assumed throughout the Gospels that the poor are the natural examples of godliness. For example: • The Poor Widow’s Offering, Mark 12.41-44 • The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, Luke 16.19-31 • The Widow who is Denied Justice, Luke 18.1-8 • The Guests at the Wedding Feast, Luke 14.16-24

And as you might expect, the direct propositional statements of Jesus completely reinforce what the stories imply to us.

Luke 4.18-19 – The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, [19] to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Luke 6.20 – And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

C. “Working with the grain of the universe.”

Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder speaks about following the commands of the New Testament even when it runs counter to popular wisdom or does not appear on the surface to be achieving the results that we expect or desire. Yoder speaks about seeing the bigger picture behind the day-to-day battles and failures. He says that when we take the teachings of the New Testament seriously, we are “working with the grain of the universe.”

~ Stanley Hauerwas. “Remembering John Howard Yoder.” First Things 82 (April 1998): p. 15-16.

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When your teams take the Gospel to the poor that is exactly what they are doing. They are “working with the grain of the universe.” Your fields are receptive, they are “ripe for harvest.”

Key Church Planter Virtue: Open thankfulness that the team’s mission is in a spiritually receptive field.