The Shepherd's Musings

I am writing on one of the warmer days that we have experienced this year. Our summer has featured a good deal of cool, wet weather. However, today is more typical of summer’s “dog days.” The heat is on.

We sometimes say “the heat is on” to express an increased level of urgency. There is a need to get focused. A deadline is drawing near. Expectations have been expressed, preparations are not yet adequate, and completion of a task is yet in the future. We have to marshal our energies, pull it all together, and get going. The heat is on.

Some of you are preparing to restart your academic engines. The beginning of another school year is just around the corner. Labor Day’s last summer hurrah draws near, and the classroom is almost in sight. It’s time to shift gears from summer work and leisure to academic year reading and study. It’s time to marshal your intellectual energies, pull it all together, and get going. The heat is on.

In the fourth chapter of the Gospel according to John, there is the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. As Jesus’ real identity dawns upon the woman, she runs from the well back into the town of Sychar and witnesses to her fellow townsfolk concerning the man she has met at the well at midday. “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?"” The Light of the World had dawned upon her mind, calling her to marshal her energies and pull it all together. The heat was on.

Meanwhile, Jesus is speaking to his disciples who have returned from buying food. “Look around you,” he says to them, “and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.” Now, Jesus wasn’t speaking about agricultural crops but about a hungering world ripe to hear and receive the good news that he embodied and proclaimed. The time was upon them. He had been teaching them the principles of the reign of God and preparing them as reapers going into the harvest. Now the fields of ministry were before them. It was time to marshal their energies, pull it together, and get going. The heat was on.

We, today, live in a hurting world hungering for the good news of the Gospel of Christ. Jesus' call to us as the church is to feed hungry bellies and hungry souls, thirsting lips and thirsting spirits. Many of our brothers and sisters in the world do not know where to turn for encouragement and hope in their time of loss, darkness, and despair. But the Light of the World has dawned upon us. It’s time to marshal our energies, pull it together, and get going. The heat is on.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Brand Eaton

Central Pennsylvania Conference

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