PROPER 6A - Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7; Psalm 126: 1, 10-17; Romans 5:1-8; Matt. 9:35-10:23 - 15 June 2008 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

Good Enough for God’s Work

 

CALLED FOR MISSION

 

Did you hear the Gospel today? Jesus is going around to different cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing all those who came to him. Jesus sees the crowd, but he also sees what the individuals in the crowd have in common. They were harassed and helpless and lost - “like sheep without a shepherd”, and his heart went out to them. His heart was breaking, in fact. On this particular day, as he took in the needs of that crowd, he was also struck with how big the job was. All these people needed him. They all needed to hear some good news. They all needed to hear of God’s love for them. They all were in desperate need of God. They all needed to hear a word of hope. They all needed healing - in one way or another. It was a harvest so great, that Jesus came up against his own limitations. Even he could never meet all these needs. Even he could not bring in this harvest all by himself.

 

You can see his process - his compassion, his thoughts, his openness to the Spirit, and his response - as we work our way through these verses in Matthew 9 and 10. After assessing the need, he then asks the disciples to pray to God - the Lord of the harvest - to send out laborers into his harvest. Evidently they did that - that night, or the next day. Perhaps the disciples saw all the needs in the crowd, too, and they couldn’t get those people out of their minds. They knew Jesus was right. Who could address all those needs? We better pray!

 

The very next line Matthew writes is this: “Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and sickness.” Then he said to the twelve, “Don’t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don’t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.” (The Message, Matthew 10:3-8)

 

He goes on to tell them to travel lightly so that they can get going quickly. “Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.” (The Message, Matthew 10:9-10)

 

One moment he is asking them to pray to God for laborers for the harvest. The next moment, he is sending them. They are commissioned to go. Overnight, they go from being disciples... students of Jesus - to apostles... those being sent out in his name, on a mission to bring the kingdom to those who most need it. One minute you are obeying your teacher’s request to pray for laborers. The next day, you are the laborers.

 

REACTING TO THE CALL

 

What do you think their reaction to being commissioned and sent out was? I think we have an idea what it might have been.

 

“Hold on just a minute, Jesus! First I need to complete my four-year EFM (Education for Ministry) course on the Bible, church history, and theology. If I can’t do that, at least send me to a residential seminary for three years. Surely we need to form a Commission on Ministry who will tell us what the prerequisites should be... what the 48 hoops are that any of us must jump through before we are ready for this kind of assignment. And if you won’t give us time for that, at least let us worship in this community, with you as our leader, for a year or two. We need to be formed by this community. Then we will be ready to go.”

 

THE HARVEST IS STILL PLENTIFUL!

 

You know what? This isn’t some abstract passage that has nothing to do with us. The harvest is still plentiful. People are just as harassed and helpless and lost - like sheep without a shepherd - as they’ve ever been in history. Our higher standard of living and our mobility and all of our technology doesn’t keep lostness from happening. Sometimes that stuff even contributes to folks’ sense of being lost.

 

Some think that the one who has the most expensive toys wins.

 

Some think that the busiest people - the ones who can cram the most into one day - win.

 

Some of them think that they have to be perfect, and they’re killing themselves trying to be.

 

Some of them think that the country with the most military power automatically wins.

 

Some of them think that if you kill others - those who they don’t believe in the right way - if you kill those folks in the name of God, you go straight to heaven.

 

And Jesus looks around and says to his Father in heaven, “Abba, my heart is breaking. Isn’t yours? So many of these people don’t know You. So many of the ones who think they do are just as lost as some of the ones who think You don’t exist. Abba, the harvest is still amazingly huge. Who can we send out into this harvest?”

 

And God responds, “They believe. Send them.” Jesus does a last-minute check, just to make sure he’s heard correctly. “You mean the ones at St. Ambrose?” “Yes, my Son. Yes, yes, yes! The ones at St. Ambrose in “The People’s Republic of Boulder” in Colorado. The 8:00 group and the 10:30 group. The ones who attend every week and the ones who don’t. The rector, the vestry and the new curate, too. Where do they come up with those names, anyway? Send them.”

 

DREAM, DREAM, DREAM

 

I had “the dream” again recently. I’ve had variations of it so many times. I’m thinking I may have this dream for the rest of my life. (Wouldn’t that be delightful?) Usually I’m taking a college or law school final exam and I haven’t attended class all semester or done any of the reading. In my most recent dream, I was on a backpacking trip, way out in the middle of nowhere, but I didn’t have any of the things you’d normally have with you - no backpack, no tent, no stove, no extra clothes. As I recall, the weather started to get bad, and I was trying to build a lean-to or something...

 

These dreams are all basically the same. What don’t you feel prepared for in your life, huh?

 

CALLED ANYWAY

 

God doesn’t just call us to meet inside these walls and say, “Yup, I’ve lived the Christian life. I’m a Christian. I attend worship. I worship God with my brothers and sisters. I read the Bible. I pray for the poor.” Ah, that Jesus would have stopped there! But he didn’t it. Yes, he wants us to be disciples - to learn, to grow, to be transformed through our committed participation in a faith community. But He also sends us out, to be apostles. He sends us out to the least and the lost, the helpless and the harassed. Bishop O’Neill keeps referring to them as those who are starving for the gospel. No matter how you describe them, they are all around us. It’s true - we don’t have to go to some far-off destination to find them. They’re everywhere, and we ought to be able to identify with them readily, because we’ve been lost, too. And, truth be told, sometimes those of us who’ve been found by God, and gotten the message, sometimes we wander off again, and get lost again.

 

But we believe that we can’t save ourselves. And we believe that Jesus came to reconcile us back to the Father. We believe that we have a mission - to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. And here’s the truth: God sends us on this mission before we think we’re ready. God sends us out, even though we question if we are enough.

 

I’ll share my little confession with you now. This has been the biggest struggle, the biggest challenge, the biggest “issue” in my life. I have never felt that I was enough. It goes back to my childhood, and I’ve never quite shaken it. I’ve spent a small fortune in therapy working on this issue. I’ve prayed about it; I’ve read the Bible over and over again and learned the truth - the deep, deep truth - that I am enough in God’s sight... that I am God’s beloved child... that I am justified and can stand before God, because God loves me, made me in his image, and is for me. All that is true - deeply true. And, of course, it’s not just a truth about me. It’s a truth about all of us.

 

We are enough. We are not perfect, but we are enough. We are declared to be enough by none other than the Son of God, and by God, the Father.

 

We still don’t feel like we’re enough at times. I still pray to God, on a regular basis, “Lord, give me peace that I’m enough. Help me to know that I am enough, that I am your beloved child!”

 

Perhaps we never feel like we’re ever quite enough. Just like we never feel totally ready for ministry and mission. But Jesus, in his wisdom, sends us out anyway. You want to know why God does it this way? You want to know why the Lord sends us out before we feel ready? I think I’ve discovered the answer. It has to do with faith in God. Sure, continuing to learn and grow and gain maturity is important. The process of growth is important - an integral part of the Christian life. But we can’t really grow, we can’t really learn all we need to learn, we can’t integrate all that we need to integrate, we can’t be transformed without taking that first step out the door. Unless we have to rely on God - and if we are going to proclaim good news and heal the sick and bring hope to the lost, we will have to trust in God to help us... unless we totally trust in God, unless we get to that point where we throw our arms toward the sky in exasperation and say, “Lord, there is no way I can pull this off without you!”, and pay attention to see what God does, we will not learn more of who God is. We will not grow in faith. We will only have more ammunition for saying, as many in our culture say, “Nobody helped me get where I am today. I did it all by myself.” Yeah, right!

 

We’re never going to feel totally ready to go out and be apostles - ones who proclaim the good news of the kingdom, ones who love others in Jesus’ name, ones who are light-bearers and salt-seasoning, ones who help others see and rejoice in God. We’re not ready. We don’t feel like we’re enough. Jesus sends us out anyway. He sends us because somehow we’ve come to believe in him, and know of his amazing love for us, and for the whole world. And he says to each one of us, “That’s good enough! Close enough for kingdom work! We don’t have time to waste! There’s a whole world out there waiting to hear the message that you have heard and responded to. There’s a whole world out there that’s hurting and lost and that needs to know of God’s love for them, just as you have come to know how much God loves you. I choose to send you. Who are you to protest? Who are you to say you can’t do it? Don’t you know that I know everything about you? Go. Get out there - now!”

 

CONCLUSION

I like how Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message. You are the only equipment that God needs, and all you need to keep going is three meals a day. Oh, yeah - and the Holy Spirit, from which comes the guidance, the power, and the strength that you need. But God has already given you the Holy Spirit. And when we get worried about what we should say, Jesus says, “Relax already! What you are to say will be given to you by the Holy Spirit.”

 

We must not get bogged down and distracted with the wrong stuff. We are the church, and each of us is called to be an apostle. Each of us has been called by God, and Jesus sends us out to a world that is harassed and helpless and lost. We must go, and tell them of the kingdom, and love them. It’s not a matter of being perfect. It’s not a matter of getting certain results. It’s enough - we’re enough - if we simply go, and are faithful to the call. You are enough. Go!