Read Psalm 65

 

            It was early in the twentieth century.  Leslie Wheeler was managing an experimental farm in the Dakotas for the McCormick Company (later International Harvester).  The wheat fields were ready for harvest.  All of the newest equipment was lined up and the work crews were ready to begin the next morning.  That evening a vicious hail-storm stripped all of the grain from the stalks.  That next day there was no crop to harvest.  Had the work begun even one day earlier, even a partial harvest would have been completed.  And, the workers would have known too the capabilities of the equipment designed for that service.

 

            Today, wheat fields across the Midwest and Plains states are white, ready for harvest.  The “cereal” grains of oats and barley will soon be ready too.  And when do you and I think of the harvest and Thanksgiving but late in the fall, late in November.  But the harvest has begun, the fields are ready.  And even before the harvest has begun in our area, the store shelves are full to overflowing with bread, produce, dairy products, and grocery items that meet every dietary need and desire.  We have all and more than we need or desire even before we make the shopping list and enter the store.  Before the wheat is harvested is there bread and Wheaties?  Before the oats are harvested are there Cheerios and Quaker Oats?  Before the barley is harvested is there still the Lutheran Beverage?” 

 

            “Praise awaits you, O God in Zion, to you our vows will be fulfilled.”  Today all believers are in silent waiting for God who not only fills our earthly needs today, but has also already fulfilled our eternal needs.  We wait his coming.  We look eagerly and impatiently for his answer to our prayers.  Yet today is the day to praise God because he has already done everything for us.  We pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” knowing that God has already provided all that we need to support this body and life.  Just as we know our daily bread is already provided for, God has provided our eternal bread of life.

 

            When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions.  [v. 3]  Paul writes this message also, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   [Romans 5:8]  We are unworthy of God’s grace and access to his holy presence, but he has forgiven all of your sins by the sheer act of undeserved grace that all believers in Jesus may boldly enter and dwell in the courts of Zion.  When Christ died, the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom, allowing all to see and enter the most holy place.  That was to tell all believers that through Christ, there is no more sacrifice, the job is complete and all have direct access to the father through the son.

 

            It is because God first loved us.  [1 John 4:19]   He calls us and brings us near to him as a shepherd calls his sheep and gathers them in.  There we find the green pastures, the quiet waters, the overflowing cup of salvation, and deliverance from death and all other evil.  [Psalm 23] 

 

            Psalm 65 continues with a beautiful description of the power of God’s creation, his creating hand in all things we see and have.  He depicts his power calming the stormy waves, pointing to Christ in the boat with the disciples and Jesus in our boats of turmoil today.  We see the beauty of the cycle of the crops from plowing to the rains that replenish the earth and provide the most bountiful of crops.  Even in the severe drought of 1988, farmers hesitant to try to harvest found many fields that produced modest yields ¼ or less of normal years.   Although not much by normal standards, think also that without rain, there was still a crop of grain that still fed millions upon millions of people.  The harvest may be plentiful or slight, but there is a harvest. 

           

            God has always provided, provides today, and will to the end of time.  God provided the sacrifice for Abraham and Isaac on the mountain that day.  God provided the sacrifice for all people on Calvary.  As Isaiah speaks, God harvests with his word.  It never returns empty as did the equipment in the Dakotas.  It always accomplishes what it is sent forth to do.

 

            You and I live in the harvest fields today.  The fields are ripe and waiting.  The equipment is unique, simple word, simple water with that word, and simple bread and wine with that word.  That word is the bread of life.  That word is the spring of water that one will never thirst again.  That word is God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ who gave his body and blood to save you.

 

            When you and I, the harvest workers, send that word out to the ears of people, that word never returns empty.  That word brought you to saving faith in the arms of your Lord and Savior.  That word will bring those whom you tell to faith in that same Lord and Savior.  Without that word, the crops will be susceptible to Satan and all of his forces. 

 

            Harvest fields.  Harvest thanksgiving.  All are one at the same time.  All are won knowing the blood of Jesus alone saves what no other work, sacrifice, or god can do.

 

            That is why today we can also shout for joy and sing praise to God who awaits you in Zion.

 

            Amen