Watch Bishop Ward’s latest video above. Read the transcript below.
“We give thanks for God’s bountiful harvest. This is the season of ingathering, the season of reaping. How grateful we are to be invited by God to be a part of the glorious harvest.
God promises that enough seed will fall into fertile ground that there will be a great harvest; thirty-fold, sixty-fold, a hundredfold. Sometimes the seeds we sow fall on stoney ground, sometimes they are choked by the weeds as they begin to grow and sometimes birds carry the seed away before they can take root.
But the parable which Jesus gave to us is a parable of great promise. We know that the harvest will be bountiful. What we see is not all there is. God is bringing forth harvest from our efforts and so we are encouraged. God invites us to be fruitful in our ministry and we are fruitful not because of our great wisdom, our great energy or even our great vision.
The work that we do in Christ’s ministry is fruitful because of the promise of God. It is God who sends gentle rains upon the earth. It is God who makes the sun shine upon our efforts. And it is God who brings forth healthy plants and finally a bountiful harvest.
So in this season of fall, as we see the fields ripe for harvest, let us take that scene as a sign, as a spiritual promise, that God is bringing forth a great harvest through the work and witness of the United Methodist Church. Be encouraged, fling seeds and watch for God’s great ingathering.”