June 14, 2020

P2A 2020: Matthew 9:35-10:8[9-23]

I don’t want to jinx it, but unless something goes wrong, this will be the last Sunday that
I’ll be leading worship from my dining room. We aren’t yet able to safely return to worshiping
together in person in the sanctuary, but next week we will at least record and livestream the
service from the church building. So instead of sitting in front of this empty yellow wall for
which I have not yet found artwork, I’ll be standing behind the lectern, which will be decorated
with green paraments that signify growth in this season after Pentecost. After Advent
expectation, Christmas incarnation, Epiphany enlightenment, Lenten discipline, and Easter joy,
this long season after Pentecost calls us to respond to the Spirit’s empowerment by growing in
our own discipleship and gathering the least, lost, and lowly with us into God’s ongoing story of
hope, love, and restoration. Jesus tells the disciples, “ask the Lord of the harvest to send out
laborers into his harvest” and then he sends the disciples to go do that work. Perhaps it was this
passage Pope Francis thought of when he famously explained, “You pray for the hungry. Then
you feed them. That’s how prayer works.” We ought not to ask God to make something happen
if we aren’t prepared to be the hands by which that work is done.

In this passage Matthew calls the twelve first “disciples” then “apostles” and although we
tend to use the terms interchangeably, they really mean two different things. A “disciple” is one
who disciplines oneself to follow the example of a teacher. An “apostle” is one who is sent out
in the mission of taking that teaching to others. So Jesus gives the disciples the ability to do
what he has been doing and then instructs them to go do that with and for the people of Israel.
He gives them the authority to cast out unclean spirits and tells them to cure the sick, raise the
dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. It is not only that they can now behave more like
Jesus, doing what he does, but that by these signs they can show other people what God intends
life to be like. The kingdom of heaven, that is, life the way God intends for life to be, looks like
curing illness because God desires health instead of illness; it looks like raising the dead
because God desires life instead of death; it looks like cleansing lepers because God desires
inclusion instead of exclusion; it looks like casting out demons because God gives freedom
from instead of bondage to the evils of the world. It’s not only that these are good and helpful
things the disciples can do for people, it’s that through these acts of healing and restoration, the
apostles are teaching people about the nature of their good and grace-filled God.

But notice how the power of God becomes active in this story, how the will of God is
made known: God, through Jesus, acts first, then the disciples do what Jesus does, then they
share that with those in their own communities, and then, much later in the story, Jesus sends
them beyond their own community into the whole world. In this particular passage, Jesus tells
the apostles not to head into Gentile territory, but remember that in last week’s reading, which
was the very end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus expands their mission, sending them to make
disciples of all nations. And this progression is a good reminder to us of what we are called to
be and to do as disciples: first we sit at the feet of Jesus and learn what we are supposed to be
about; then—before we try to tell others what to do—we ourselves practice living out God’s
characteristics of justice, mercy, forgiveness, healing, and servant-love; then after we have
recreated our own community to be more and more Christ-like, then and only then do we get to
try to teach others what it means to be about God’s business in the world. We don’t get to call
others into godly living before we have begun the struggle of answering that call ourselves.
The lectionary gave us the choice between stopping at verse 8 and going the rest of the
way through. I thought it was worth us taking the extra time to be reminded that the message of
God’s healing love and bountiful grace is not always well-received in this world. Jesus warns
his disciples that they’ll be handed over to councils and dragged before the governors for doing
what he sent them to do—even though what he has instructed them to do is to bring healing,
wholeness, restoration, and life to the people—all good things! But just as Jesus himself would
be killed for changing the world for the better, his disciples—then and now—can expect to meet
some serious resistance as we work to make this world better reflect the light and love of God.
It is human nature to resist change, even change for the good, change that brings health and
harmony, justice and life. But this is the good work to which we have been called, as God
invites us to help restore the very good creation God made—both the natural world and the
human community—gifts that our greed, indifference, fear, arrogance, and hate have been
tearing apart since the beginning.

We have work to do, in ourselves, with each other, and for the sake of the whole world.
It’s difficult work, but it’s good work, and it is the mission for which God called together the
church. God has equipped and empowered us for our life-long task of disciplining ourselves to
be more like Jesus and sharing the message of God’s steadfast lovingkindness to a world that
very much needs to hear that good news. Let us pray for the Lord to send laborers into the
harvest, and then let’s get up and go do that work.