GO Sermon for June 15, 2008
Scripture: Matthew 9:35-10:8
In the Gospel of Matthew for the last few Sundays we have been hearing about the many miracles of healing that Jesus performed. Today we make a slight transition as Jesus goes out and about in all the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. He also kept on curing every disease and sickness. What he encountered were all kinds of people in great need; Matthew’s words describing these people are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” He quickly realized he was going to need some help.
Let me tell you a story. One day I was walking in the neighborhood of my old city, a rather poor area, when I came upon a lemonade stand with several children sitting behind the box that held the lemonade with a homemade sign, “Lemonade 10 cents”. I decided to stop and refresh myself. The kids were excited that they had a customer. One boy came over and asked if I wanted to buy a cup of lemonade. As I assured him that was just what I wanted, he went back and brought me a cup of lemonade that his partner had poured. I gave him a quarter and started drinking while he went back to get change. By the time he brought back my change, I was almost finished drinking. He gave me the change and then asked if I were finished drinking. “Almost”, I said. “Why?” He then said, "That's the only cup we have, and we need it to stay in business."
Now I’m sure that you would agree that it's difficult to operate a lemonade stand if you only have one cup . (Adapted from an illustration in e-Sermons.) We sometimes make that same mistake in the church. By that I mean expecting the pastor to be the only one that goes out to share the Good News. In our gospel reading, Jesus looked at all the harassed and helpless people and said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. He then calls his 12 disciples and gives them the authority to do all that he has been doing. He calls them to GO. He doesn’t preface his instructions with professional sounding words such as, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” Oh, No! He just calls to them and gives it to them straight: “Go, proclaim the good news, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” Wow! What a job description! I can imagine that they must have felt some anxiety. This was to be their first solo mission without their leader. Yet if Jesus authorizes his apostles to do these things, it means he will be working through them, giving them the necessary power.
As I started to reflect on these instructions, it made me think about what is church all about today. Our faith talks about the priesthood of all believers; we have some set aside, ordained, to be leaders and teachers, yet all are being called to help out. We are all called to teach, to share the good news, and to bring healing to our broken world. In our modern day we don’t talk about cleansing lepers or casting out demons or raising the dead; however, I believe those tasks are still being asked of us with a slightly different vocabulary. We are certainly called to minister to the outcast—last Sunday’s sermon was all about Jesus being sent to those that were on the margins or were excluded” by the “proper folks”: the lepers was sort of a code word for all those seen as unclean or sinners such as the hemorrhaging woman, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the Samaritans. Moving right along, are we called to cast out demons? What about rewording this concept to speaking truth to evil—going out with the armor of God, to stand up for those who are being treated unfairly, where injustice reigns? The church is certainly called to do something about systemic evil, the powers and principalities who are institutionalized in ways that cause suffering and injustice; for example, those not having enough money to pay for doctors or healthcare and therefore, suffer with illness and die in much greater numbers than those of us who can obtain medical services. And that leads us to death. Raise up the dead? Although we know some people who are pronounced medically dead do survive, most of us no matter how hard we try, probably can’t bring people back from physical death but what about emotional and social death? How many people do you know or have you known over the years that seem so depressed, so isolated, so lifeless that we may have described them as appearing half-dead? That group of people certainly needs some attention, some care. So it seems to me, in one form or another, all of Jesus’ instructions to his disciples still hold, still apply to us.
One of the most important characteristic of the church that comes to me as I observe Jesus’ words and actions is that the church has to be about movement. The church is not following Jesus if we just stay static, “preserve-our-level-of-comfort-and-let-them-come-to-us spirituality. (From S.A.M.U.E.L.—UCC online preaching help for 6-15) Here it comes again: we must go out and share what we have, our gifts from God, with those that have not known about the “good news” nor been touched by God’s love. The helpless and harassed evoked Jesus’ compassion. He knew that he could not do it all himself, that he needed help. It’s very much the same for me as the pastor of this church. I can’t do it all by myself; I need you, God needs you to go out into the world. I know how uncomfortable most of you are with the word evangelist. This church is much more like St. Francis, who said: “Go out and preach the gospel and when necessary use words”. I had heard that expression; however, I only learned the background of this statement this past week. Let me share it with you: According to legend, one day St. Francis “informed his brethren that he planned to go into the nearby village on a preaching mission. He invited a novice to go along. On their way, they passed an injured man and Francis promptly stopped, saw to the poor fellow's needs and arranged medical care for him. They went on and soon passed a homeless man who was near starvation. Again, Francis stopped his journey and ministered to the hungry, homeless man. So it went, all through the day: people in need, Francis lovingly caring for them as best he could until the sun was low in the sky. He told his novice friend it was time for them to return, now, to the monastery for evening prayers. But the young man said, "Father, you said we were coming to town to preach to the people." Francis smiled. Then he said, "My friend, that's what we've been doing all day." E. Carver McGriff, Relationship Evangelism,Times of Refreshing, CSS Publishing Company.)
This is wonderful, faithful evangelism, ministering to people in their need, not worrying about numerical growth, just sharing God’s love in a concrete fashion. Yet there are times when we need to use words. Even St. Francis would admit to that, “when necessary use words.” I want to share how joyous I am to have Jesus as my guide and comforter when I reach out to others, especially those that seem to have something lacking in their life, those that are lonely, those that are dealing with one or more serious problems. In our Gospel reading, Jesus saw all these folks that seemed like sheep without a shepherd and knew he had to enlist his disciples to minister to them. Apostle means those sent. God is calling the people in our church to be apostles, to go out with compassion and tender care. The particular way and the particular people we are being called to vary. There’s one thing that I’m sure of and that is we are not called to just sit still, but to be on the move as Jesus and his apostles were, to be open to those that we meet along the way. I’m very aware that today’s sermon sounds a lot like last weeks sermon. Most preachers will admit that they probably have only 3 or 4 sermons, different words certainly, different illustrations, but only a few important messages. This is certainly my “Go” sermon, Go out into the world and share the good news with others. Go! Follow Jesus’ words and actions. Amen!
In the Gospel of Matthew for the last few Sundays we have been hearing about the many miracles of healing that Jesus performed. Today we make a slight transition as Jesus goes out and about in all the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. He also kept on curing every disease and sickness. What he encountered were all kinds of people in great need; Matthew’s words describing these people are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” He quickly realized he was going to need some help.
Let me tell you a story. One day I was walking in the neighborhood of my old city, a rather poor area, when I came upon a lemonade stand with several children sitting behind the box that held the lemonade with a homemade sign, “Lemonade 10 cents”. I decided to stop and refresh myself. The kids were excited that they had a customer. One boy came over and asked if I wanted to buy a cup of lemonade. As I assured him that was just what I wanted, he went back and brought me a cup of lemonade that his partner had poured. I gave him a quarter and started drinking while he went back to get change. By the time he brought back my change, I was almost finished drinking. He gave me the change and then asked if I were finished drinking. “Almost”, I said. “Why?” He then said, "That's the only cup we have, and we need it to stay in business."
Now I’m sure that you would agree that it's difficult to operate a lemonade stand if you only have one cup . (Adapted from an illustration in e-Sermons.) We sometimes make that same mistake in the church. By that I mean expecting the pastor to be the only one that goes out to share the Good News. In our gospel reading, Jesus looked at all the harassed and helpless people and said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. He then calls his 12 disciples and gives them the authority to do all that he has been doing. He calls them to GO. He doesn’t preface his instructions with professional sounding words such as, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” Oh, No! He just calls to them and gives it to them straight: “Go, proclaim the good news, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” Wow! What a job description! I can imagine that they must have felt some anxiety. This was to be their first solo mission without their leader. Yet if Jesus authorizes his apostles to do these things, it means he will be working through them, giving them the necessary power.
As I started to reflect on these instructions, it made me think about what is church all about today. Our faith talks about the priesthood of all believers; we have some set aside, ordained, to be leaders and teachers, yet all are being called to help out. We are all called to teach, to share the good news, and to bring healing to our broken world. In our modern day we don’t talk about cleansing lepers or casting out demons or raising the dead; however, I believe those tasks are still being asked of us with a slightly different vocabulary. We are certainly called to minister to the outcast—last Sunday’s sermon was all about Jesus being sent to those that were on the margins or were excluded” by the “proper folks”: the lepers was sort of a code word for all those seen as unclean or sinners such as the hemorrhaging woman, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the Samaritans. Moving right along, are we called to cast out demons? What about rewording this concept to speaking truth to evil—going out with the armor of God, to stand up for those who are being treated unfairly, where injustice reigns? The church is certainly called to do something about systemic evil, the powers and principalities who are institutionalized in ways that cause suffering and injustice; for example, those not having enough money to pay for doctors or healthcare and therefore, suffer with illness and die in much greater numbers than those of us who can obtain medical services. And that leads us to death. Raise up the dead? Although we know some people who are pronounced medically dead do survive, most of us no matter how hard we try, probably can’t bring people back from physical death but what about emotional and social death? How many people do you know or have you known over the years that seem so depressed, so isolated, so lifeless that we may have described them as appearing half-dead? That group of people certainly needs some attention, some care. So it seems to me, in one form or another, all of Jesus’ instructions to his disciples still hold, still apply to us.
One of the most important characteristic of the church that comes to me as I observe Jesus’ words and actions is that the church has to be about movement. The church is not following Jesus if we just stay static, “preserve-our-level-of-comfort-and-let-them-come-to-us spirituality. (From S.A.M.U.E.L.—UCC online preaching help for 6-15) Here it comes again: we must go out and share what we have, our gifts from God, with those that have not known about the “good news” nor been touched by God’s love. The helpless and harassed evoked Jesus’ compassion. He knew that he could not do it all himself, that he needed help. It’s very much the same for me as the pastor of this church. I can’t do it all by myself; I need you, God needs you to go out into the world. I know how uncomfortable most of you are with the word evangelist. This church is much more like St. Francis, who said: “Go out and preach the gospel and when necessary use words”. I had heard that expression; however, I only learned the background of this statement this past week. Let me share it with you: According to legend, one day St. Francis “informed his brethren that he planned to go into the nearby village on a preaching mission. He invited a novice to go along. On their way, they passed an injured man and Francis promptly stopped, saw to the poor fellow's needs and arranged medical care for him. They went on and soon passed a homeless man who was near starvation. Again, Francis stopped his journey and ministered to the hungry, homeless man. So it went, all through the day: people in need, Francis lovingly caring for them as best he could until the sun was low in the sky. He told his novice friend it was time for them to return, now, to the monastery for evening prayers. But the young man said, "Father, you said we were coming to town to preach to the people." Francis smiled. Then he said, "My friend, that's what we've been doing all day." E. Carver McGriff, Relationship Evangelism,Times of Refreshing, CSS Publishing Company.)
This is wonderful, faithful evangelism, ministering to people in their need, not worrying about numerical growth, just sharing God’s love in a concrete fashion. Yet there are times when we need to use words. Even St. Francis would admit to that, “when necessary use words.” I want to share how joyous I am to have Jesus as my guide and comforter when I reach out to others, especially those that seem to have something lacking in their life, those that are lonely, those that are dealing with one or more serious problems. In our Gospel reading, Jesus saw all these folks that seemed like sheep without a shepherd and knew he had to enlist his disciples to minister to them. Apostle means those sent. God is calling the people in our church to be apostles, to go out with compassion and tender care. The particular way and the particular people we are being called to vary. There’s one thing that I’m sure of and that is we are not called to just sit still, but to be on the move as Jesus and his apostles were, to be open to those that we meet along the way. I’m very aware that today’s sermon sounds a lot like last weeks sermon. Most preachers will admit that they probably have only 3 or 4 sermons, different words certainly, different illustrations, but only a few important messages. This is certainly my “Go” sermon, Go out into the world and share the good news with others. Go! Follow Jesus’ words and actions. Amen!
posted by Sermons given at Deering Community Church @ 7:16 AM
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