A Bountiful Harvest

"The work is commanded...but the bread is God's free and gracious gift. We cannot simply take it for granted that our work provides us with bread; this is rather God's order of Grace" - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

I remember when I first came across these lines in Bonhoeffer's classic work on the community of faith. "We cannot and dare not demand food as our right." I was stopped in my tracks. We cannot demand food as our right? A day's work equals a day's wages, right? Workers in offices, factories, service industries all expect to go to work and get paid at the end of the day (or pay period). How could Bonhoeffer suggest otherwise?

I had the good fortune to grow up in an agricultural community, where farming was one of the chief occupations. Of course there were teachers, store owners, and--in our particular community--naval employees, but I wasn't blind to the farmers around me. It doesn't take long to figure out that the labor of farming is no sure thing. Few people work harder than farmers, and few people have less guarantee that their labor will bring success.

A few years ago, I read the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and it seemed like they never could bring in a good harvest. It was always something that ruined their crops--locusts, an early hailstorm, a late frost, flood, drought. Despite lots and lots of advances in modern technology to compensate for nature's attacks, food production even today is still subject to the whims of nature.

It is indeed by the grace of God that we receive our bread.

But the more we become disconnected from the farms that actually produce that bread, the more we demand wages as our right. The more we take for granted that a day's work equals a day's pay.

I've been revisiting this idea recently. As a pastor, success is elusive. How does my hard work translate into some kind of payment?

I do greatly appreciate the financial compensation for my work, of course, but even that is often on shaky ground. If someone doesn't like what I have to say and decides to quit tithing or to leave the church, then suddenly my paycheck is no longer guaranteed.

But there's a lot more to being a pastor than simply showing up to preach and getting a paycheck in return. I want to see lives transformed. I want to see our church thrive. I want to see the lives of the congregants filled with peace and joy. I want to find peace and joy in my own life.

For farmers, there is no harvest without the hard work of planting. But there also is no harvest without the grace of God that provides that elusive element of the natural world working together to provide the right conditions for a bountiful harvest.

The same is true for the church. Success requires both the hard work of planting, of digging deep and putting down roots. And it requires the grace of God granting us success for our hard work.

I am certainly not the first to make this correlation. As Paul observed in his letter to the Corinthian church, "So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."

My prayer for today:

Lord, help your people to keep planting and watering. Help us to be patient as we wait for growth. And above all, help us to be grateful for all that we receive by your mercy--for the bread that we eat, for the wages we earn, and for the fruit of your Spirit that springs forth in our lives.

Surveying the land