The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.                                                       Matthew 9:38

How often do we ask the Lord of the Harvest to do this? I’m not going to call for a show of hands to see who has or who has not asked this of the Lord. I’ll just speak for myself. Every morning as a pray the Daily Office I ask for that very thing to happen. The ‘harvest” in question is described clearly in the Acts of the Apostles (2:44-47), which reads:

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

“The Lord added to their number those were being saved.” That’s “the harvest,” which Jesus tells us is “plentiful” and for which we need “laborers.” “The harvest” is still quite plentiful these days since fewer and fewer people in the U.S. at least publicly acknowledge a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

So, we lack only one thing for this human harvest: Laborers and that’s you and me.  Jesus calls us over whatever tumult we’re currently facing and commands us to go out for the harvest.

Of course, not everyone in the Church sees the church’s mission that way. Some don’t see any compelling need to labor for the harvest. They see the mission of the Church as primarily taking care of the people in the pews.

In fact, if you look at the budgets of our congregations, as I do, you’d conclude just that. The financial priority of our congregations seems to be taking care of ourselves. Now I’m open to anyone who can prove me wrong about that, so feel free to correct me, but do it later.

So the question must be asked: Do we really see taking the Gospel of God’s undeserved grace and mercy to others as being the main thing for our congregations? Until it becomes the main thing, we’ll only be an inward-looking lot. Now I’m all for ministering to the people of our congregations as long as it results in their being formed and empowered so they’ll take the Gospel to the world around them.

If there has been one main failure of my episcopate it is that I have not emphasized that enough as the main thing. That’s not my only failure, but it’s the main one.

Being the Diocese of Georgia shouldn’t be about loving the Episcopal Church, or loving this Diocese, or loving our local congregation.

Being the Diocese of Georgia ought to be about us going out to the harvest, armed only with the grace of God and the mercies of Jesus on our hearts, in our words, and with our actions. It ought to be about loving those who have not yet heard the Good News of Jesus and the amazing grace of his cross.

If the Church’s main thing isn’t the harvest business, then it’s not being the Church of Jesus Christ.

This is my last time addressing you as the elected lay and clergy leaders of this Diocese. My fervent prayer is for our renewal in this mission as our main thing. As Jim Collins has so clearly stated: the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.

As you walk together with your new bishop, I pray that y’all will ask God to renew your passionate commitment to keep the main thing, the main thing.

What might that look like? Well, first we should own it, then we should share it, and then, most of all, we can live it.

What does it mean to own the main thing? It means understanding what the Gospel is and what it is not.

Last month, I was visiting one of our seminaries and had a chance to get into a great conversation with a seminarian there (not one sponsored by our diocese). Toward the end of our conversation, I asked him what he understood the Gospel to be. Without hesitation, he said it’s “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself.”

I replied: “excuse me, but that’s the Old Testament Law. It’s not the Gospel. The Gospel is this: ”the saying is sure and worthy of all, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost (1 Timothy 1:15).”

We must own the truth first if we’re ever going to be able to share it with others, otherwise we’re only adding to people’s burdens rather than relieving them. If we tell them that they have to love God and their neighbor if they want to follow the Gospel, then we’re only adding to their burdens. Plus we’re lying to them.

The Gospel truth is that God has pre-emptively loved us in the cross of Jesus and the only hope we’ll ever have of loving God and our neighbor is first owning and then resting in the love and forgiveness God freely gives us. As 1 John puts it: “We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).”

Once we own this Gospel truth for ourselves, then and only then are we truly in a position to share it with others.

Sharing the merciful and forgiving love of God can take many, many forms: feeding the hungry, tutoring a child, knitting warm hats for those in need, planting a tree, sitting by the bedside of a lonely elder, or telling an acquaintance just why God’s love is so amazing. As a church and as a diocese, we can create so many opportunities for our people to share God’s love with others. But we can’t share what we first haven’t owned.

Owning and then sharing God’s love leads us inextricably to living that love in the world.

In my eCrozier last week, I wrote that every person’s life is a sermon that’s constantly preaching to others. That’s true also for the church as a whole and for a diocese in particular.

That’s why I have with other lay and clergy leaders of our Diocese, formed a Resource Team for Racial Reconciliation & Healing. These leaders are ready and equipped for a very Jesus-like harvest of racial reconciliation and healing. There’s no more important harvest ministry than reconciliation and healing for America’s Original Sin of racism.

So, we’re forming the St. Anna Alexander Center for Racial Reconciliation & Healing. And we’re going to live this out and not just talk about it. Before I retire, I’m committing 3% of our diocesan endowment to begin this new Center, which will have two locations, one at Diocesan House and the other at Good Shepherd Church in Pennick. My seminary, Virginia Theological Seminary, has 1% of its endowment for this. Recently, the Diocese of New York committed 2.5% of its endowment. We’re commiting 3%. And I call on all congregations in this Diocese with endowments to commit 3% of their endowment to this work as well.

If we wonder why people, particularly young people, aren’t attracted to Christianity, then our persistent inability to repent of racism in the church is a good place to start our wondering.

I’m convinced that nothing breaks the heart of God more than our persistent inability to repent of racism in the church and then also to stand idly by while we see it growing once again in the larger culture.

As 1 John also says: “Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (1 John 4:20).

If we don’t love people who are different than we are, then the Bible says we’re “liars” if we also claim at the same time to love God. It’s as simple as that, we’re liars.

My sisters and brothers, the Lord’s “harvest” is about owning, sharing, and living the Good News of Jesus’s unmerited grace. That’s the “main thing” of the church. I plead with you to keep the main thing, the main thing.