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The following message is preached by Reverend Dr. Bruce Wheeler Thielman. His sermon is entitled "Bringing in the Sheaves." Let us continue in worship by giving attention to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded in the Gospel according to Luke, the 10th chapter.

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After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him two by two into every town and place where he himself was about to come. And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.

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Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and salute no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house.' And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall

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return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.

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Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you, heal the sick in it, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you.'

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Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, it shall be more tolerable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

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For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?

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You shall be brought down to Hades. He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your

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name." And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.

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Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his word. Pray with me.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. When we get to heaven, I have the feeling that we're going to be surprised to find some people there whom we did not expect to see there. And if we go up to them and ask them how it is that they happen to be there, I think they

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will reply, "Just like you, I was invited." All of us who come to know the kingdom of heaven will be there because we have been invited. We may have been invited by our parents, by some minister or Sunday school teacher from

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years before, perhaps by our brothers or sisters or grandparents or a college roommate, perhaps by some business associate. But all of us who are in the kingdom of heaven will be there because the gates of heaven have been opened to us by Jesus and someone has sung the song of that to us and invited

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us to give ourselves to Jesus and to know the joy of heaven. And we will have responded to that song. All of us will be there because we have been invited. And all of us who are disciples of Jesus are called to be agents of invitation.

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We are to be involved in the inviting of others. In the passage of scripture, which I just shared in your hearing, Jesus gives instructions to those whom he sends out into the world to invite others to him and to the kingdom. And Jesus says at the very beginning of his instructions, "I need more laborers for the

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harvest. I need more people to be inviting." Robert Fulgham, who's attracting quite a bit of attention to himself right now because he has two bestsellers on the New York Times bestseller list at the same time, in the first

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of those books, which is entitled "All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," he says that when asked what he really wants for Christmas, his answer is that he would like to be five years old again. Or he says it once more, "I would like to be a child again."

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That's not an unusual wish for Christmas. Many want to be freed of all of the blunders of their past lives. Many would like to be able to forget all of the wrongs that have been part of their experience. Many would like to be able to wipe the slate clean so that the things which they have done

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and ought not to have done and the things which they did not do and should have done will all have been forgotten. There are many who would like to go to that place which the poet describes as the land of beginning again.

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Well, when someone extends to these people the invitation to become a disciple of Jesus, one is offering to people the very opportunity for which so many seek, the opportunity to be born anew, to become children again, to be rid of all the ruinous memories of their past and to have incredibly high hopes for the future.

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What gift could it be more fun to give to people at Christmas than the gift of becoming new again, becoming a child once more? That kind of gift is a joy to give and also a joy to receive. You know, folklore students in our country have a brand of story which they refer to

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as urban legends. Now urban legends are stories which are told from one end of America to the other and which are told as if they were true when in fact they have no historical basis whatever. Some of these stories are so well known, often told by people who say, "Well, a friend of

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mine knew a fellow who told him about." These stories have become so well known that to mention them gets a stir of recognition in people. For example, the story has crossed the country many, many times about the woman who tried

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to dry her cat by putting it in her microwave oven. Or then there's the story about the Kentucky fried rat, the person who went to a Kentucky fried chicken restaurant when they got home and opened the box, it was a rat. There's a variation on that about an individual who was drinking a Coke and found a dead mouse

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in it. Those stories have no truth, but they've been repeated so often that people believe them. Or how about this one? Folks who bought little alligators down in Florida, then brought them up here and got

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tired of them, flushed them down the commode and now these full-grown alligators are inhabiting the sewers of northern cities. Those are urban legends. Now one of the most well known, and I have myself traced this story to at least 127 different

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points, concerns what is called the vanishing hitchhiker. It's a story about a person who's driving along the road and he sees someone hitchhiking and he stops and he picks up this young man who is very handsome and has long golden hair and deep set blue eyes.

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And the young man always gets into the backseat of the car and he says very little except where he's going. And when they get to the place near the destination, the young man begins to speak about Jesus. And when the driver of the car turns to look at him or looks in the rear view mirror at

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him, he discovers that the hitchhiker has vanished. Now no one has ever been able to encounter the people to whom that actually happened, but the story is told again and again. And it's not a true story.

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For the privilege of witness is not given by God to vanishing phantom hitchhikers. The privilege of inviting people into the glory of God through the knowledge of his son, that privilege, that joy is given to us who are his disciples. It's a beautiful thing to see someone's life turned around because of the song that you've

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been singing. It's a beautiful thing to be an agent of invitation. Of course, when you suggest this to some people, they are immediately terrified. Oh, they say, I could never do such a thing.

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I could never extend an invitation like that. That might be all right for some people, but not for me. And it's precisely because Jesus knew that some would respond this way that we have this passage in Luke chapter 10, where Jesus explains what it is to be an effective agent of invitation.

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Basically, Jesus in this extended passage lays down three principles for expediting your inviting. And the first principle is this. He says, be personal and not programmed.

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You ever been watching a football game and seeing somebody behind the goalpost or on the sideline behind one of the benches holding up a large piece of cardboard, which has a Bible verse written on it? Not the words, just like John 3, 16.

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Now, I suppose the idea is that someone sees that sign and immediately lunges for a Bible and reads that verse and is instantly saved. I really doubt very much that that happens. I don't think that most people at football games are carrying Bibles.

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And those who are watching football games over television at home are not going to go for the Bible because what they really want to see is the linebacker smash the quarterback. Only people who would respond to that, it seems to me, are Christians who are already amongst those who are saved.

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Incidentally, I've had some fun recently trying to think of some verses that I would hold up if I was behind the goalpost. And I wouldn't hold up just the numbers. I'd hold up the whole verse.

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And I think it would be fun if you could tie them into the commercials. I mean, can you imagine holding up a sign that said, "1 Timothy 5, 23, take a little wine for your stomach's sake," and then cut to a commercial for Bartles and James? Or how about "Titus 3, 15?

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Everyone who is with me sends greetings," and then immediately cut to a promo by Hallmark Cards? Or how about this one, "Exodus 23, verse 22, I will be an adversary to your adversaries." And then there'd be Joel Hyatt talking about Hyatt Legal Services.

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And I can't resist one more. How about 1 Corinthians 11, 15, "If a woman has long hair, it is her glory." And then there would be Vidal Sassoon talking about hair. Now, the point is that signs held up behind goalposts or tracts left in telephone booths

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or Christmas treats wrapped in Bible verses, those are not effective forms of evangelism. In fact, they may be very deleterious in their effect. Some people are so turned off by them that it is very hard to reach them in another way. Jesus says, "Go into people's homes.

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Minister to your friends. When you are invited to dinner, bring up the conversation in some way related to the good time that you're sharing there. Be open with those who are open to you."

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This he describes as exciting, personal, and not programmed invitation. His second basic principle is to be passionate and not pusillanimous. Remember his words, "He who hears you hears me. And he who does not hear you does not hear me or him who sent me."

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Jesus is saying, "What you're doing here has eternal implications. And that means you go at it with everything that you've got. You don't just quit." I heard about a lady who called a service station.

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And she said to the attendant, "I've only been driving for two weeks and I can't get my car started. I think the carburetor is flooded." And he said, "Why do you think the carburetor is flooded?"

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She said, "Because my car is at the bottom of our swimming pool." Well, there are times when in witness we're going to be at the bottom of the pool. Jesus says in his instructions, "I send you out as sheep among wolves." But when we're at the bottom of the pool, it's not to be because of any act of cowardice

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on our part. It's because we've been willing to put some risk into our religion. Jesus expects us on occasions to fail. He says in this very passage, "And when you do not succeed, when people will not listen

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to you, when they will not receive you, shake the dust of that place off your feet and go on to another place." It does not come as a surprise to him that we do not succeed in every invitation we extend. But this, he says, is all the more reason why we should go at it with everything we've

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got, with passion and enthusiasm. One of my friends in the ministry, a man who's been with the Lord now for a good number of years, was Dr. John David Tate, who was the pastor of a great church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Market Square Church.

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John Tate was a bold and a passionate man. We were attending a meeting in Chicago, and we were staying at the Palmer House. And he was involved in one part of the meeting, and the part of the meeting that I was in had already adjourned.

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And I was standing there in the lobby, and there was a big sign advertising that there was a Peruvian woman by the name of Yima Sumac who was singing in the Empire Room there at the hotel. And she was supposed to be quite remarkable.

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She had a vocal range of eight octaves. Now, I thought that'd be interesting to hear. And since John David wasn't there, I decided to go to the Empire Room to hear the woman sing.

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And as I walked in, I walked up to the Mater Dei's desk, and I said, "One." And he said, "One." I said, "One." He said, "One."

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This is our biggest show tonight. This place is absolutely packed. We have a first magnitude star here. I mean, we don't have room for anybody.

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There's no room for one more person in here. You'll have to come back for a later show. And I turned, and I walked away. I went to the other end of the lobby.

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The Empire Room was on the first floor of the Palmer House. And my friend John David's meeting had just adjourned, and he came out, and he said, "Did you hear about this Peruvian girl that's singing in the Empire Room? Let's go and listen to her."

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I didn't say a word. I said, "Let's go." So we went. John David walked in, walked right past the Mater Dei's desk, and about 35 feet into the

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midst of the tables. And then he said, "Two." And the Mater Dei, who was running up from the back, said, "Two." And John David said, "You heard me.

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Two, and hurry up. The show's about to start." And the Mater Dei said, "But you've got to understand." "I don't want to stand here and talk about it," John David said.

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"Two." Well, the Mater Dei didn't want to pursue the matter any further, so he referred it to a busboy who didn't know the rules of the game. So he went immediately and got a little table and rolled it out, and there the two of us

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sat in the first row to listen to Yema Shumet. I can't tell you a thing about her performance, because the whole time that I was sitting there, I was thinking about myself and about John David. You see, John David went to see the show, and I just went to see how business was.

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That's the difference between being passionate and being pusillanimous. Jesus says, "Be aggressive." And then he says, "Be positive and not pejorative." Will Rogers put that this way, "You can't start an oven with snowballs.

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Don't expect to be able to win people with a cold shoulder or some icy interrogation or some frosty attitude." Look at Jesus. He is the model of warmth and of humor and of caring and sensitivity.

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Lawrence Wilson, who's an expert on management, recently conducted a study of lower-level managers, and he asked them what they thought led top executives to become top executives. And the three things they identified were a desire for power, a desire for control, and a desire for status.

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Then he asked those same lower-level managers, "What are the characteristics that you admire the most in an executive, in a leader?" And they replied, "Interested in improving the abilities of his employees, enthusiastic and a pleasure to be with, and one who seeks to serve those who work under him."

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I thought that was remarkable, an incredible inconsistency. On the one hand, they said, "The thing that makes a good leader is a desire for power and control and status." And on the other hand, they said, "The things that they found most admirable in a leader

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are the desire to help people, to enthuse people, and to serve people." Incidentally, they asked those same junior-level executives, "If you had enough money that you didn't have to work anymore, would you continue working or not?" Seventy percent of them said they would continue working, but not where they were working.

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And when they asked them, "Well, where would you like to work?" They replied, "I would like to work someplace where I can help somebody." Now, Jesus, you see, is the model of helping somebody. He's the model of service.

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He's the model of enthusiasm. He's the model of warmth and caring and helping. He is the perfect administrator. And when we go out to others, we are to follow his model.

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George Bernard Shaw says, "Nothing happens to me. I happen to other people." Well, we are supposed to be happenings in the lives of other people, remembering the presence of Christ with us.

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We're to help as he would help and to bring good cheer as he would bring good cheer and service he would serve. Expediting your inviting means to be personal and not programmed, not signs but sensitivity. It's to be passionate, not pusillanimous.

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Most people who worry about going too far haven't really started yet. And it means, well, it means being positive and not pejorative. You can't start ovens with snowballs. The result of this kind of inviting, this expeditious inviting, the result of this is

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exciting, which brings us to our text for this morning. The psalmist says, "He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come again with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him." What the psalmist is saying is sometimes when you go out to serve, to use Jesus' words,

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when you go as a sheep into the midst of wolves, you're going to go weeping. It's going to be difficult. It's going to be hard. There is a price to be paid.

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But if you go personally and you go passionately and you go positively, then you're going to return filled with great joy, bringing your sheaves with you. That passage always reminds me of the first verse of the 11th chapter of Ecclesiastes. Many of you know that verse, "Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it will

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return to you sevenfold." The picture there is of a farmer who goes out with his seed corn, all he has left, and the floods are in and the waters are high and his fields are covered with water. And he stands there and he throws the seed out onto the water.

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He's casting his bread upon the waters. It looks like a foolish thing to do. It looks like a helpless, hopeless, profitless thing to do, throwing the seed into the water. But you see what happens is the seed becomes heavy with the water and it settles to the

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bottom. And as the floodwaters recede, they suck that seed down into the soil. And eventually the sun comes out. And that seed in that rich soil carried there by the flood takes root.

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It germinates. And the harvest is great. Seven times that which was sown. Well, just so, when we go out inviting, there are times when it seems just like we're throwing

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our seed on the water, useless, hopeless, nothing to be gained. But if we allow God's Spirit to take that seed down into a life and then have the son of that Spirit rise above that life, then the harvest comes. Remember that old Baptist chorus?

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Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadow, fearing neither clouds nor winter's chilling breeze. By and by the harvest and the labor ended. We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.

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We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves. That's echoing the scriptures. The psalmist says, you shall come home singing shouts of joy. The preacher who wrote Ecclesiastes says, your bread will be returned to you seven times,

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cause for rejoicing. And Jesus says at the end of this instruction for inviting disciples in Luke 10, he concludes with the words, rejoice for your names are written in heaven. Three times over, joy, joy, joy.

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And that is exciting. We've been talking in these Advent weeks about the joy star, how to know joy in our lives. The first and most basic point of that star is to have Christ in your heart so that his light illumines your path and brings pleasure to your soul.

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The second point is to know the splendor of service so that even that which is inconspicuous in you becomes significant in the life of your experience as a servant of Jesus Christ. And you know the applause of men and of angels. The third point is the luster of prayer, to realize the scintillating truth that Jesus

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is praying for us and that we can boldly pray in his name. And then there is this fourth point in the star, the exciting, rejoicing ministry of inviting people, bringing in the sheaves. I've reached the point in my ministry now where sometimes people say to me, now that

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I've been at it for over 30 years, if you had it to do over, would you enter the ministry? That's not an easy question. I understand the question to me not would I go back and go into the ministry again 30 years ago, but if I was young today and know about the ministry what I know now, would

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I go into the ministry as a young man today and invest my life in it? There are many things that would discourage me from doing that. The quality of those going into our seminaries, their intellectual abilities, and many times their spiritual depth is very, very low.

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And that would give me pause. The baleful influence of some preaching and some denominations that hold out spiritual pap instead of scriptural truth and so lead tens of thousands into an easy and essentially meaningless gospel.

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That turns you off. And then, knowing what I know now to think of going into the ministry as a young man leads me to think of the way in which most congregations have trivialized the ministry. So that they see the pastor as a kind of general manager for the church whose other task is

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to go out and hold people's hands when they're sick so that members of the congregation won't have to do that. And then, of course, there is something present today which I never experienced 30 years ago. People in the church who have no call to the ministry, who have no call, special gift of

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the spirit for the interpretation of scripture, who have never gone to seminary or never really seriously studied with discipline and intense effort the word of God written, standing up and expounding their opinions and expecting their opinions to be heard just as the opinions of those who have been called and trained to do what they do.

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It's a hard thing to be called and to spend 30 years working on that call and then have someone who has never been specially called to interpret the word and who has spent no time in study not hesitate for a moment to claim prominence of wisdom above and beyond your own.

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Knowing those things gives me long and serious pause. I think about those folks whom I believe, whom I like to think, whom I hope I might have been used by God to save. And when I think of that, all the doubts disappear.

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Yes, even with the state of the ministry today, I'd go into it. I'd go into it with all the enthusiasm that I ever had just for the joy, the incredible joy of bringing in the sheaves. Let us pray.

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Our Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast made us agents of invitation in the world. Help us to sing our songs sweetly so that those who hear will respond. May we know the excitement of being used by Thee and may we see the excitement of Thy coming spirit in the lives of those who come to Thee.

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And if in Thy providence this morning there are those who hear these words and who have not yet responded to the invitation, O God, sow, sow the seed that it will bring forth sevenfold. May they understand this to be the grandest Christmas of all their lives when those who

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hear can become children again, rid of every ruinous memory, open to every glorious hope, all made possible by that Christ who invites and invites and invites and invites. We pray it through Him and for His glory. Amen.

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