A Harvest of Righteousness

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This weekend, we’re celebrating a Harvest Festival. Thanksgiving is a celebration of the food and all the good things that grew on the farms, gardens, and fields around us. Many people celebrate the harvest by sharing a big meal with family and friends. Sitting at a table loaded with good food lets us savour the smell & taste & beauty of the food God provides. We’re reminded to marvel at how God makes food grow.
B/c I live on Plank Line, I drive past the Harvest of Hope growing project often. Crosspoint partnered with Mt Elgin United Church to grow corn. The generosity of the participants is awesome. We use the field rent-free. Inputs and fieldwork are all donated. Then, the proceeds of the crop are donated to the Canadian Foodbank and matched by the federal gov’t 4:1 so food is provided where it’s needed around the world.
In May, when the fields are prepared and seeds are planted, there’s not much to see: just neatly cultivated dirt. By June 3, there are signs of life. Three weeks later, the change doesn’t seem significant, by mid-August, the plants are huge: 10’ tall and filling the space b/t plants and b/t the rows.
This is what it looked like on Friday. In 5 months, the empty field was crowded with plants, filling the width and breadth of the field up to 10-12 ft tall. Empty to full in 5 months!
It takes a lot of work: preparing fields, setting up and repairing equipment, planting, spraying, and eventually harvesting, drying, and shipping. Farmers work hard. But it is God who does the heavy lifting. He provides moisture, sunshine and the miracle of life to make plants grow.
You plant a relatively small amount compared to the harvest. On average:
2 bushels of wheat/acre → 120 bushels/acre
1 bushel of beans/acre → 60 bushels/acre
4/10ths of a bushel of corn/acre → a massive 550 bushels/acre
Wheat & beans: on average, each seed produces 60 kernels.
Corn: each seed produces 550!
These are averages, depending on sunshine, rain, and whether you have pests, disease, hail, or a host of other difficulties.
Paul’s observation is correct. You can’t expect a good yield if you skimp on the seed, or skimp on the fertilizer, or skimp on the weed and pest management.
Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. II Corinthians 9:6 (NIV)
In his 2nd letter to Chr. in Corinth, the Apostle Paul marvels at a similar harvest: not of food; a harvest of righteousness. To reap a harvest of righteousness is a miracle b/c there’s not that much righteousness to work with in people. It’s pretty slim pickings despite the fact that God created humankind good, righteous, and altogether holy.
Our natural inclination to righteousness and love was lost when our first parents rebelled against God and disobeyed his instructions to trust him and follow his directions. Most people still do nice things for others, but God’s standard for goodness is very high. HC Q&A 91 defines good works:
Q. What are good works?
A. Only those which are:
done out of true faith,
conform to God’s law,
and are done for God’s glory;
and not those based on our own opinion or human tradition.
It’s intimidating to measure my efforts against this standard.
Does my obedience arise out of true faith, conform to God’s law, done for God’s glory . . . or is selfish ambition or pride mixed in, tainting the goodness of my efforts?
When we offer our service to God, he’s so majestic, righteous, and holy that he deserves our best. He’s looking for a prefect offering. A gift w/o blemish; a harvest w/o rot or mold or spoilage.
Jesus also uses agriculture imagery to talk about a harvest of righteousness in the gospel of John ch. 15.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. John 15:1–2 (NIV)
The unfruitful parts that are cut off the vine “are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” It’s an ominous picture of the judgement of God on sin and wrongdoing. If you are unfruitful, you’re cut off from Jesus, cut off from the source of life and righteousness.
But God takes no pleasure in dismissing the people he created to be like him and to be with him. God loves the world! So he sent his one and only Son to take the punishment for sin. Jesus is both human and divine. He’s the perfect person to atone for the sin of all humankind.
That’s why Jesus went to the cross. The blood Jesus shed on the cross atones for all your wrong-doing; all your sin. But Jesus’ death is not the end of the story.
Jesus rose from the grave, victorious over sin and death. In the previous letter to Corinthians, Paul assures them:
Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. I Corinthians 15:20(NIV)
If Jesus is the firstfruits, more will follow: second-fruits, third-fruits . . . It’s our reassurance in the face of death. By faith in Jesus, we will be raised to life.
We were reminded of that at yesterday’s funeral. Gus Sonneveld has life in Christ. He will be raised with Christ.
But we don’t face our renewed life alone. God has poured out his HS so that we will live fruitful lives, both now and for all eternity. W/ the help of the HS, our goodness, faithfulness, and self-control increase. This is the harvest of righteousness that Paul is looking for among the Chr. in Corinth.
Being made righteous calls for pruning. With love, our heavenly Father gently prunes the branches that are connected to Jesus, the true vine, to make them even more fruitful. The pruning isn’t always pleasant. Often it hurts. But the gardener’s goal is to increase the yield.
The goal is to produce the fruit of the Spirit:
love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22–23a(NIV)
When you see this fruit of the Spirit growing in your life, you’re invited to marvel and give thanks. Marvel at how God grafted you into Jesus Christ, pruned away the unhealthy growth and fostered a bumper crop of righteousness.
It’s one of the things the elders and deacons celebrated at our retreat last month: we saw how Crosspoint has grown and flourished over the past year, over the past 5 years. We have seen people added to our congregation and we’ve seen people grow in righteousness. We celebrate and give thanks to God!
Like farmers, members of Crosspoint have worked hard but God deserves the thanks and the praise for the harvest of righteousness among us.
Unlike beans or corn, a harvest of righteousness is hard to measure:
What does a bushel of goodness or joy look like?
What does bunker of self-control look like?
But if God’s harvest of righteousness is comparable to growing wheat or beans, God can expect to harvest 60X more righteousness in you.
Can you imagine if the harvest of righteousness in you was comparable to beans or wheat? 60X more righteousness?
Or imagine righteousness compared to corn, what would Crosspoint look like w/ 550X as much righteousness?
Let me clarify: not self-righteousness, but genuine holiness.
In his 2nd letter, Paul measures the harvest of righteousness in Corinth by their service to other believers. He’s writing them about a collection of money he is gathering from Chr. in Macedonia and Greece. Paul and his colleagues are gathering the money to support the Chr. in Judah and Jerusalem. The Judean church is struggling b/c of persecution and famine. They’re having a hard time, so churches on the far side of the Mediterranean are invited to give them financial support.
Some crops produce a byproduct along with the crop. Wheat and oats don’t just produce grain (product); farmers also bale the straw for bedding (byproduct). Paul describes something similar with the Corinthians’ service to the Chr. in Jerusalem:
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people (product) but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God (byproduct). II Corinthians 9:12(NIV)
This is the harvest of righteousness Paul is looking to cultivate among Christians: good works and thanksgiving to God.
All of it comes from God:
And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. II Corinthians 9:8(NIV)
You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. II Corinthians 9:11(NIV)
The harvest of righteousness that you see in yourself, even your gratitude to God are a gift – evidence of God’s work in your life.
Thanks be to God!
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