Proper 9 - 2025
Sermon for Proper 9, Year C
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
The Rev. Andrew McLarty
The Harvest Is Plentiful
I want to start with a moment for Camp Mystic, and the victims of the flooding in Texas…
This past week, I had the honor and joy to direct the Primary Session at Camp Bratton Green, the session for the youngest campers of the summer, 6-8 years old. During the week, we actually talked about this passage, about how Jesus sends out the seventy. We talked about how we all have different interests and skills that we use during the day, but in the end, we all share a part of Jesus so we are all unified as one team. We are all a part of God.
But what I am most proud of is the staff of teenagers, college-age young adults, and adults who came together to make this session happen. They were an incredible staff (and I have seen a hundred camp staffs over the years). And each year, as a director, I always feel the pinch each spring of selecting enough staff. It always feels like the “harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.”
Probably the best part was the first-time counselors (Primary session is the first opportunity most 16yo have an opportunity to staff). Like sending out sheep amongst wolves, they walked into a camp they were familiar with, but in a role and under a set of responsibilities that they may have never encountered — all to build and maintain a fun, safe, and memorable week for kids who likely have never spent any length of time away from family. They get to see the beginning of a potentially life-long love of camp and a community that will mean more to them than any other community they carry into adulthood.
Jesus sends out seventy disciples, two by two, into the towns and villages ahead of him. He doesn’t send them with elaborate instructions or heavy provisions. Instead, he tells them something striking: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
At first glance, this might sound like a warning—a call to recruit more workers before it’s too late. But I think Jesus is saying something far more hopeful. The harvest isn’t failing. The fields aren’t barren. God’s work in the world is abundant, ripe, ready. The only thing missing is us—people willing to step into the work.
Jesus tells the seventy to carry no purse, no bag, no sandals. In other words, travel light. Depend not on your own resources, but on the hospitality of others and the provision of God.
How often do we overprepare, overthink, and overburden ourselves before stepping out in faith? We want guarantees, safety nets, and perfect conditions. But Jesus sends his disciples with nothing but a message of peace and a willingness to serve. Their vulnerability becomes their strength—because it forces them to rely on God rather than themselves.
When they enter a home, they say, Peace to this house. If they are welcomed, they stay. If not, they move on, shaking the dust from their feet. There’s no coercion, no guilt, no lingering resentment. At all times, they offer peace, whether it is received or rejected.
This is a hard lesson for us. We want everyone to accept the good news. We take rejection personally. But Jesus frees his disciples—and us—from that burden. Our job is not to control outcomes but to faithfully offer what we have been given. The rest is in God’s hands.
Today, we are the ones being sent. The harvest is still plentiful. The need for laborers is still great. And the same instructions apply: Travel unburdened (don’t overthink). Trust deeply (crush doubt). Offer peace (not anxiety). Leave the rest to God.
We may not cast out demons or heal the sick in dramatic ways, but every act of love, every word of grace, every moment of presence in someone’s life is part of the harvest. And through it all, we carry this assurance: Our worth is not in what we achieve, but in whose we are.
So go forth, be it an office or a ropes course, a school or a craft shack, a home or a cabin,—not in fear, not in pride, but in the quiet confidence that God goes with you. And that is enough.
Amen.
