LIFE GIVING ACTIONS
Psalm 100
Matthew 9:35-10:8
           
When I read the passage from Matthew’s Gospel that is our text for today, I feel overwhelmed.  It even seems like Jesus is overwhelmed.  Jesus uses the image of the harvest season to convey that there are many needs and too few people to meet the needs.  Once Jesus showed empathy toward people, it is as if the number of people in need multiplied exponentially.  
           
There were those who wanted Jesus to do the spectacular.  Throughout his ministry there were people who tried to get Jesus to be the miracle man.  But the portrayal of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel is not of one given to the spectacular but rather of one concerned for the hurt that God’s people were experiencing.  It was into this circle of empathy and caring for others that Jesus invited disciples to join him as partners.    
           
Jesus looks on a multitude of human needs (9:36). There's a lot of work to be done. They are lost and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd was the metaphor Jesus used to describe the situation. This is surely meant to be an allusion to Israel's hope that there would one day be a Messiah who would gather all people together as servants of God. Matthew wants to show Jesus as the embodiment of that messianic expectation.
           
But then Jesus makes an interesting move. Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few" (9:37). So he calls again to him twelve of his followers who were later known as the apostles and gives them the same power over human misery and weakness that he himself has shown.  He sends out ordinary, for all we know, untrained people, empowering them to do his work in the world. What a challenge!
           

Many years ago William Willimon wrote a book about burnout. He interviewed dozens of pastors who had called it quits. A major reason they gave for their ceasing to be pastors was failure. The failure of the church to be the church just finally wore them down. Take an organization, the church - which is charged by Jesus with helping to redeem the world, preach the gospel to everyone everywhere, and to be signs of the reign of God. There is bound to be much failure. Jesus has set our sights so high.
           
It's amazing that the one called the Son of God, the Prince of Peace turns to ordinary folk like the twelve disciples, like us, and gives us his work to do. It is also rather intimidating. This is just not the way you’d think a Messiah would do things.  It’s a strange concept this idea of messiah work being collaborative work.  Messiah work is not work that Jesus does alone.  It is work that we are invited to do in partnership with God and others.   
           
This is one of the most outrageous, challenging things about Jesus - he picks ordinary people like us to do this world-changing work that he says needs to be done. In my experience, lots of people think the world of Jesus, admire him, see him as a great teacher, and even see him as the Son of God. But then comes the problem with Jesus - us. People may believe in Jesus but they have difficulty believing that Jesus believes in us! They like Jesus, but they don't particularly care for those whom Jesus loves - the church, his contemporary twelve disciples. If Jesus is so great and wonderful, how come he picks common people like us to do this work? That's what they want to know.
           
Of course, from the point of view of the church, this is true testimony to Jesus’ greatness. He is so great, so serenely confident in his mission that he is able to enlist folk like us to do the very same work that he himself does.
           
Can you believe it? You can believe in Jesus but can you believe that God believes so much in you? We are the only body that the Risen Christ has, the only plan God has to get back what belongs to God. The great challenge and sometimes Christ's greatest gift to those of us in the church is to see the church as Jesus sees it, warts and all, and yet these are the very people that are invited to do this overwhelming ministry that the world needs.  
          
  It's all too easy to see all of the flaws of the church, all of the disabilities of contemporary disciples. Our infidelities as a church are well known. And I love the way the New Testament doesn't mind showing the weaknesses, stupidity, and infidelity of Jesus' first disciples.
           
What's a challenge is to see the church as Jesus sees it, as he trusted, empowered, and enlisted co-workers in the reign of God.  Jesus, in today's Gospel, says that all this human need arrayed before us is really like a vast, wonderful field awaiting harvest. What's needed are harvesters, those who help Jesus do what he wants done. There is a wonderful story told that Jesus was approached about his plan for ministry.  He said he had invited disciples to carry out his ministry in his behalf.  And the questioner asked, “What if they fail?  What other plan do you have?”  “I have no other plan,” Jesus said. 
           
The remarkable thing is not only that he called ordinary people to do this work but also that twelve responded who became known as apostles and about ten times that many known as disciples. People came forth empowered to work with Christ, which makes it all the more remarkable that we are sitting where we are this morning. Jesus needs helpers, assistants. So he continues to call, and looking at you this morning, I see that good people continue to answer the call, to say, "Yes, use me in your work.” Here we are in church, awaiting our assignment from God through the life of Jesus and expecting God to empower us to do what Jesus did. It's rather amazing.
           
Have you ever tried to drive to a location where you’ve been before but your previous trip had been as a passenger?  You’ve never driven there before.  I’ve done that and I’ve had great difficulty recognizing many parts of the road. But there is all the difference in the world between sitting in a car while someone else makes the decisions about which road to take and doing it yourself. I got lost - just five miles from my own home - and had to backtrack and ask someone for directions, as though I were a stranger in the area.
           
Up until this moment in his ministry, Jesus' disciples have been like passengers in a car with Jesus doing the driving. They have been astonished at what they've seen, but he's made all the decisions, handled all the tricky moments, steered them through the towns and villages, taken the criticisms, and come out in front. Now he's telling them to go out and do it themselves. It doesn't take much imagination to see how they would feel. You want us to do what? By ourselves?
           
Matthew takes this opportunity to give us a list of the twelve, calling them for the first time "apostles," that is, people who are "sent out," as Jesus was now sending them, and would later send all those who witnessed his resurrection. The number twelve is itself of course full of meaning as anyone in Jesus' world would recognize; at the heart of what Jesus was up to was his belief that through his work God was at last renewing and restoring Israel, which traditionally had been based upon the twelve tribes. But now the twelve were not just to be a sign that God was restoring Israel; they were to be part of the means by which God was doing so.
           
The instructions Jesus gave his followers - which must have made them even more nervous than we can imagine - give us a clear idea of what that fulfillment looks like. It doesn't look like the kinds of movement and missions Jesus' contemporaries were used to. They aren't to swagger around giving it out that they are the chosen servants of the coming king. They are to be healers, restorers, people who will bring life and hope to others, not grand status to themselves. They are to be scrupulous about avoiding any suggestion that they are on the take, out for money. They mustn't even take cash or provisions with them, or carry the sort of bag that beggars would normally have. They must expect that those who hear and receive their message will feed them; but the Gospel itself, the all-important message, is free. (Matthew for Everyone - Part One, Tom Wright, Chapters 1-15, Westminster-John Knox Press, 2004, pp. 111-113.)
           
We are on a mission. The word mission means "to be sent." We are not here because we were searching for deeper meaning in life and stumbled on Jesus. Not here because we did a study of all the world's great religions and decided that Christianity made the most sense. We are here because we got a call and the voice at the other end said, "Guess where you're going? You’re going out to share the good news of God’s love and grace.  You’re going out to wrap your arms around people for God’s sake." We are here to engage in life giving actions.  We are to empathize with those in need.  Their needs have weighed them down and rendered them dead.  We are to give ourselves freely to them with no strings attached and watch the resurrection that unconditional love brings.  We are here on messiah business and we are here to do messiah work.  Through our care for people and our engagement with them because of our love for them we are going to heal the sick and raise the dead.  These things have happened to us and now they can happen through us for others. 
           
William Willimon whom I mentioned at the outset is now a Bishop in the Methodist Church serving in the Alabama Conference.  He tells a powerful story about one day in his ministry.
           
Willimon said, “On my worst day as a bishop, a grueling eight-hour marathon of nine appointments with complaining clergy all begging me to move them to Birmingham, when I finally dragged myself before my assistant in order to go home, my heart sank when she said, ‘You've got one more appointment.’"
           
In despair Willimon invited two older women into his office.
           
"We've come to Birmingham from Cullman to tell you about our ministry," one said. "Gladys's grandson was busted, DUI. We went over to the youth prison camp to visit him. Sad to say, we had never been there before. We were appalled by the conditions.  Those young men were packed in there like animals. We got to know them. Are you aware that only ten percent of them can read? An illiterate 19-year-old and we wonder why he's in prison!"
           
"Well, we began reading classes," the other woman said. "Sarah taught school before she retired. Then that led to a Bible study group in the evening. We're up to three Bible study groups a week. Two friends of ours who can't get out bake cookies for the boys. We've also enlisted two wonderful nurses who help educate the about venereal disease. Some of them said those cookies are the first gift they've ever received."
           
"And you want the Conference to take responsibility for this ministry?" Willimon asked with bureaucratic indifference.
           

"No, we don't want to mess it up," Sarah responded.
           
"You need me to come up with some money for you?" Willimon persisted, icily.
           
"Don't need any money. If we need something we get it from our little church," she said.
           
"Then why have you come down here to tell me about this?" Willimon asked.
           
"Well, we know that being a bishop must be one of the most depressing jobs in the church - too many things that we are not doing that Jesus expects us to do. So Gladys thought it would be nice if we came down here to tell you to take heart. Something's going right up in Cullman."
           
That afternoon, the presence of Almighty God was located, incarnate, and Willimon was blindsided by the undeniable fidelity of the people of God. He said he felt he really was not worthy to be there. But perhaps what he should have thought was, "Without the fidelity of folk like these women, he couldn't be here."
           
I heard about a person who visited at a large church.  It was a beautiful building, similar to this one, with a beautiful and inspiring entrance into the church. Walking in, the minister looked down at a beautifully carved granite plaque that had been placed in the sidewalk leading into the front door. The sign said, "Servants Entrance." What a powerful commentary!
           
When we walk in here through the “Servants Entrance” we are walking in to answer God’s call to minister together. We are walking in to engage in life giving actions.   When we walk in here, we’re walking in here to be nourished and nurtured so we can go out and do the work God has called us to do.