So God Made a Farmer

Unbelievable! So God Made a Farmer Isaiah 35 Matthew 11:2-11 James 5:7-10

Isaiah 35 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Matthew 11:2-11 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell 2 you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? Despite the fact the world has been spinning along for millions of years, we tend to think of our lifetime as the measure of when all things should be made right, all injustices corrected, all misconceptions corrected? With our short-sightedness and self-centeredness, you would think that the unfolding of God’s plan for creation had been waiting for us to arrive on the scene in order to come to fruition. We forget that in God’s time, our personal lifetime is one of many—a small trickle in an ever-flowing stream that was moving through history before we joined it and will continue long after we have left it.

Yet it is in our nature to yearn for resolution—to long for everything to be right. Now. Today. The prophecy from Isaiah speaks to this yearning. We long to live into the promise. It is this hope that keeps us moving forward. But the time line is considerably longer than most of us can comprehend, or at least longer than we want to contemplate.

Don’t you know that the Jews receiving these words from Isaiah for the first time longed for these same things? They were recently returned from exile and the forced labor that came with it. The homeland to which they returned was anything but a verdant desert sprinkled with crocus blooms. It was a devastated 3 land in need of much work! The work of rebuilding required strong hands and stout hearts and no small amount of patience.

So, 2500 years ago, the prophet Isaiah offered his words of hope about better times, and the people were encouraged. They were able to get up and work toward a future they could envision but might never see.

Five hundred years after that, Jesus came with the same vision of the future

 A future that included a better way of understanding among people— blindness removed.

 A future that included weak bodies and weak courage transformed into productive activity—the lame walking and leaping like deer.

 A future that included an expanding common good—not just for an elite few, but for everyone, everyday; good news for those who are poor and left out!

And yet, 2000 years later, we are still waiting for the fulfillment of the promise, are we not?

 We work for peace  We seek justice for all  We toil for the common good  We strive to achieve a balance in our ecosystem so everything and everyone does well.

If we look only to our own lifetime, the progress seems slow to non-existent.

But changes of this level span centuries, not just years. We may want quick results and easy fixes, but experience teaches us we are not going to get them. 4

God has a different grasp of time than we do. Some things only make sense when seen through God’s hour glass, not ours. James 5:7-10 serves as a corrective for our short-sightedness.

James 5:7-10 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Video Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRDaPEaDJ7E

The patient, long-suffering life of the farmer serves to remind us that any significant change, any struggle for justice or move toward progress has been going on for a very long time—longer than our lifetime, longer than our grandparents’ generations, longer than anybody can even remember. Things take

SO LONG! It would be very easy to get discouraged. But Jesus prompts us to ask,

“What would the farmer say?”

The farmer would say, “Suit up and show up regardless of whether it is convenient.” If the cattle are hungry, it doesn’t matter that it’s icy outside and it is nice and toasty in the house. Get up and feed the cattle. Put on your gloves and hat. Bundle up the best you can. You can come inside and warm up later. 5

The cattle are hungry now. Feed them. “Suit up and show up regardless of whether it is convenient.”

The farmer would say, “Pay attention to the timing and the conditions.”

You can’t cut the hay until it is mature. Even after it’s cut, you still have to wait-- to leave it alone for a few days to cure. Don’t rush it. Then too know when it is ready to be baled, you have to catch the window of optimal humidity. You might have to get up a few times during the night to feel it, rub it between your fingers in order to find that short window of opportunity. But when the time is right, alert the workers, get them out of bed and get the baler going. It will be too late by morning. “Pay attention to the timing and the conditions.”

The farmer would say, “Protect the weak and nurture the young. Go out of your way to take care of those who need help.” Anyone who has lived on a farm knows lambs are always born in a snowstorm. It must be a rule! Sometimes the mother ewe does not know what to do and she rejects the lamb. So . . . pick it up.

Bring it to the barn, or if the barn is too cold, put it in a basket and set it by the fireplace in the house. Be prepared with coke bottles and nipples. Feed the lamb. You can clean up the mess later. “Protect the weak and nurture the young.

Go out of your way to take care of those who need help.” 6

The farmer would say, “Don’t let setbacks get you down.” That spring rain won’t always come on time. The pouring rain that came after the seeds had already sprouted and withered into nothingness will not help you this year. But there will be a spring next year . . . and a summer, a fall and a winter. There are crops you can plant then too. So when disappointment comes, allow yourself a day of being out of sorts—a day when you throw the shovel down angrily and shake your fist at heaven. But tomorrow, get up and claim your heritage. The sun still shines. You still have breath. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.

So, in the face of a perceived disaster, plow the ground and plant again. “Don’t let setbacks get you down.”

By the time Jesus launched his ministry bringing in the kingdom of God, the

Jewish world had seen many self-proclaimed saviors come and go. Everyone wanted a messiah and there were plenty of people willing to give it a whirl. So many traveling rabbis had proclaimed the coming of the Lord that even John the

Baptist had to verify. “Are you the one, or shall we look for another?” And in answer, Jesus pointed to the signs that could be seen by all. Look. Watch.

Notice. “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”

And yet, 2000 years later, there is still no shortage of people who cannot see what 7 is right in front of them—people are still blind. We are surrounded by people who have ears but do not hear. Society is full of people who are immobilized by factors beyond their control and cannot walk their way out of bondage, lamely or otherwise. People still suffer from diseases of the body and the spirit and the mind, and are in need of resurrection. The poor—why they proliferate, even as we would wish for poverty and hunger to be eradicated.

 After all we’ve done  After Jesus proclaimed the nearness of the kingdom  After all of our longing and praying and doing

There is still so much work to be done! Does it really matter what we do? Are we making any difference? Are we really bringing the kingdom in or are we just spinning our wheels?

There is a lot that farmers know. That’s why Jesus used them as an example. There’s a lot or carry-over from farmer-wisdom to life-wisdom. Just listen to some of the things the farmer knows:

 They know about times and seasons. They know about waiting and mid- wifing new life into being. They know that you can’t rush things— everything and everyone has their own time to come into flower, and rushing things only makes it more likely you will mess it up.

 Farmers know you can’t over-work the soil. You’ve got to put back in if you want to take a crop out. 8

 The farmer knows probably better than anyone how very much we can’t control. Weather, seasons, bole weevils and aphids—all totally out of our control.

 And the farmer knows—because he or she lives so close to the earth, literally—that you can have a degree from Texas A&M and 30 years worth of farming experience and all the best farming equipment that money can buy, but you cannot, on your own, make one seed sprout or one plant yield a head of grain. There’s something that is more mystery than science about farming, and a wise farmer learns pretty early on to spend as little time as possible trying to control the mystery and as much time as possible appreciating it.

Farmers know to labor early and late, to tend to all the issues under their control, to optimize the conditions in which God can work and then to be at peace knowing they have done all they can. And then they wait. And trust. And hope.

And get up from failure and try again. And never, ever lose hope. Things take time I don’t mean just crops either. Justice and equality and the elimination of ignorance and poverty and hunger take time. Sometimes the redemption of creation takes more time than we’ve got in our one lifetime. But plow anyway.

Crops (and justice) sometimes get wiped out in a storm. But plant the crop anyway. If not this year, then next, a harvest will come. Sometimes the fields yield a short crop and sometimes a bumper crop and there won’t be enough workers or trucks or storage bins. Fertilize anyway. We never have been in 9 charge of the yield. We are in charge of tending the ground . . . today. God provides the harvest, and in due time will bring it in.

When we are discouraged and frustrated, weary of the endless work that comes with bringing in the kingdom of God on earth, about to give up hope, God sends us the farmer. God sends the farmer to remind us--don’t give up hope.

 Labor while you can  Be faithful to the task at hand  Be prepared for set-backs  And wait for it.

That blossoming desert may not be happening in your lifetime or in your children’s or grandchildren’s lifetimes. It most definitely is not coming to pass on your time-table. But cling to hope. Do not give up on the joy that comes with being God’s partner in bringing about the harvest. In good time, God will redeem all of creation and the beauty and justice and equality we have longed for will spring forth like water from an artesian well. Wait for it, for it is coming.

Freedom is coming. Justice is coming. Jesus is coming. Alleluia and amen!