As we try to combat the spread of this invisible COVID-19 virus we have had to endure various restrictions on the way we live our lives as a society. One of the latest is the ‘Rule of Six’ – no more than 6 people to gather together at any one time.
Thankfully, our church gatherings are exempt from this rule, but it does appear that despite this there have been numerous incidents of large crowds coming together to listen to music and to just hang out with each other. As human beings we have not been made to spend our lives alone, hence God made Eve as a helper for Adam right at the beginning of time, and to this day there is an
attraction in being amongst other people.
When Jesus was travelling around in Galilee he went through the towns and the villages teaching in their synagogues and healing the sick and many people came out to hear him and see him. We read in Matthew’s gospel account When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matt 9: 36-38
Many people today are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd but the good news is that Jesus came to save the lost. If you ever do get ‘lost’ on a journey don’t you wish for someone to come along and show the way to where you want to go? Jesus described the harvest as plentiful, the helpless crowds are ripe for harvest, waiting for someone to show them the way to the Saviour but the workers are few. If you are a believer and follower of Jesus then you are one of the few, one of the workers who Jesus calls upon to go out to reach the lost.
This month we will be celebrating the Harvest Festival and although it may take a different form to previous years let us never cease to give thanks for God’s goodness to us in all that he provides to sustain our lives but let us also be willing to be among those workers who go into his fields and reach out to the crowds even where they are limited to 6 people.
Stuart Beadle
Elder
October 2020
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