Readings:
Exodus 19:2-8a, Matthew 9:25 – 10:23
We pray: may the words of my mouth and the meditations
of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God our rock and our
sustainer. Amen.
Saturday afternoon,
sun shining outside, sermon to be written before going out in the evening. Blank! Procrastination. Still blank. Oh good
- phone call! Oops long phone call.
Panic. Still blank.
Back to
basics. Question – for me this time. How
has God’s word spoken in these scripture readings today? What shouts out, what challenges, where do we
find hope and assurance?
And two things
come forward to think about – one is the gap between the vision of God as lived
out by Jesus and the ability of the people who follow to live that vision. And secondly, a troublesome concept, the fact
that they were to speak and minister to their own, not look beyond.
Our readings for
today are the stories, hundreds of years apart, of two peoples on the brink of
new beginnings, called to a path of faith and action in the name of God. The exodus of the Hebrew people and the
commissioning of the disciples by Jesus.
The call of God is on all their lives and they are asked to go and share
the good news, in the assurance that God is with them. For the people in the Sinai the task was to
be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation, to keep the covenant – ‘as the Lord
has spoken so we will do’ was their reply.
The disciples too
were being asked to not only proclaim the good news but to accompany that by
healing, casting out demons, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers. To remember that no distance is to great, no
audience too sceptical, no disease too severe for Jesus. All that he had done – they were to do.
And while they may
have been apprehensive, daunted even,
they were also ready for it – for they had captured his vision – the
harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few – the people were sheep without
a shepherd, harassed and helpless. So
they were prepared to go share the good news that the kingdom of heaven has
come near in the person of Jesus.
Jesus was
confident of their being able to do this and I am sure that they would have
been empowered by that and their understanding of the vision of the kingdom
lived out in the life of Jesus so far.
But then - more
instructions follow – take no payment, no money, no backpack. Do not tarry where there is no harvest but
move on. Poverty, no place to call home.
That makes it harder.
Then to what may
well have been the tipping point for many: you will be harassed, persecuted,
flogged, betrayed, put to death – and in the end you will not necessarily
succeed in your task.
You can almost see
the vision slipping away - suddenly they are tipped from empowerment to
inadequacy – to an enormous gulf between the mission of Christ and their
ability to succeed in that mission. Being as bold as Jesus, attempting
miracles, choosing poverty, persecution….
The initial
euphoria fading fast – it’s simply too much to expect. How could they possibly achieve even a part
of what they were sent out to do?
And I wonder if
this is a pattern we can apply to ourselves – we are inspired by the vision of
a world reconciled with God and each other yet we struggle to find our place in
that world because the vision seems too large and too hard and too impossible.
Then there is the
instruction to go to the houses of Jews only – no gentiles, no Samaritans. And every instinct we have shouts out –
that’s wrong. And then every experience
we have of scripture replies that we need to dig deeper to discover the wisdom
and truth that we know is there. And I
find it in the understanding that before the people of God are able to share
the good news in the world, we need to be strong in faith, able to know the
strength of God in our lives, trust in the one who has confidence in us and be
able to know and articulate what it is that we believe and therefore live it.
Imagine this as a
conversation:
Hi how are you?
Great, good to see you – its been a while.
I know – hey, help
me with something here. I heard you go
to that church up the hill. I wouldn’t
have thought you would subscribe to that mumbo jumbo – after all you are a
pretty intelligent person – how can you possibly believe in this ‘God’ stuff?
Well….I just do!
We could all think
of multiple occasions when we have been cornered or challenged in our beliefs,
no less by our own selves. Unless we
talk and share and question with each other and with God, we can continue to be
tongue tied, unable to share the vision we know in our hearts. And we don’t
have to be experts with words – it is in our everyday living that we show our
commitment to the coming of the kingdom – so don’t let us be hampered by our
half heartedness and our inability to show the world the transforming power of
Jesus.
So I don’t see
this part of the passage as being exclusive but rather as a time of empowerment
for the body of Christ so that we can then go out and share the good news –
and, to bring us back round to too much being asked of us, we can then step
beyond our limited vision and instead be grounded in the impossible vision of
Jesus Christ – for the healing of the world, the sending out of the shepherds
to the hapless flock, the ability to deal with hardship and possible failure –
in the end our vision is not big enough.
The thing is, the
more we step out beyond our expectations in faith, the more we see the
impossible as possible, the more we explore scripture, talk, discuss, support
and encourage each other and live our lives in the way of Christ, the more we feel confident to share the good
news in an authentic and transforming way. Maybe the lack of vision on my part
as I began this sermon was a case in point, yes?
I want to take
this thinking and apply it to a practical issue that is in front of us here in
the Southern Presbytery. Most of you
know that I have become increasingly involved in roles within Presbytery and I
have to say, at times I despair. Not in
the people who are stepping out in faith in so many ways, not in the many wonderful
stories of hope and grace but in the habits and structures and processes that
are literally bleeding us dry.
Buildings and
money have become much too important. Power and control is causing division and
siloed thinking in both the larger bodies and in congregations. People sit on committees which take up all
their energy and time. Burnout, fear,
isolation is taking its toll. Leadership
is hurt, congregations are hurt, Jesus weeps.
Our vision is I
believe, too small. We are immersed in
the minutae and overwhelmed by the load – and so we find it difficult to live
into the impossible possibilities that Jesus sends us out to. The heart of mission has become subservient
to our need to shore up our structures and habits and processes.
And yet as a good
Presbyterian, I recognise that our polity is important, that our processes have
purpose and a strong wisdom – but I can’t help feeling that they have somehow
lost their way, gotten out of touch with the reality of being the people of God
in this place. We have to peel back the
layers of time and interpretation and somehow find the values that fire our
hearts and our passions in the name of Christ.
So are we up for
making hard decisions about the buildings when they are draining the life out
of the mission of the people that are the church? Are we willing to live within our income and
put our reserves where they are most needed?
Are we going to
trust each other and care for each other, each one of us rather than leave it
to the committees? Are we going to stop
hurting each other and begin healing instead?
Don’t get me wrong
– we are being the body of Christ in this place, this region, all the
time, but oh we could be so much more if
we but stepped out in faith into God’s vision – a reconciled and hope filled
world where all people are loved and healed.
When Jesus saw the
crowds he had compassion for them for they were harassed and helpless – let us
make compassion our byword – for each other and all whom we encounter. For all
are part of God’s story. Amen.
Margaret Garland
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