Church of the Good Shepherd

June 15, 2008
The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)
Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7; Psalm 116:1, 10-17; Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)

Last week, I was invited, as I often am, to meet with a leadership group in a parish to explore mission. This particular evening I attended a vestry meeting of a struggling parish that is trying to rebuild after a challenging couple of years, including difficult leadership changes and a declining membership. As we went around the room briefly describing our history and our views on mission, it became clear to me that these folks already had a true heart for mission, but they were overwhelmed with just trying to hold things together.  They were saddened but resigned to believing that mission would just have to wait. 

I wanted to share with them my deeply held belief that the work of the church, the very essence of who we are and why we are, is to join in Missio Dei, the mission of God.  In preparation for this meeting, I turned to one of my favorite sites, Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, for some concrete resources to offer them.  In particular, I was looking for a compilation of scriptural passages concerning mission.  I found there a link to Mission scripture: passages with themes of Justice and Peace.  It was twenty-two pages long!  The list began with the beginning books of the Hebrew Scriptures and continued through the Revelation to John.  The Bible is infused with the imperative to mission.  Among the many well loved passages listed there was our reading this morning from the Gospel of Matthew.  Jesus has been traveling around the country, teaching and performing miracles, feeding the hungry and healing the sick.  As he ministered to crowds of people, he told his disciples of the enormity of the task at hand, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” 

Having already invited his disciples to follow him, forming them by word, example and inspiration, he gave them the authority to carry on the work he was sent to do, and he sent them out into the crowds.  And they were transformed, no longer merely followers.  The disciples became apostles, sent to preach the word of God and to invite the people into the Missio Dei, the mission of God.  And so there is no mistake.  Once again, as he has before and will again, he describes the work that they, that we, are meant to do as the church.  “The kingdom of heaven has come near,” he says, and this is what it looks like – in first century Jerusalem: “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.”  In the twenty-first century, it is maybe not so different: feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, care for the homeless.  “Strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.” 

Again and again we are given our passions, the talents and gifts that inform our ministries, and we are sent out in service.  At times the project before us will be so big and so complicated as to nearly overwhelm us.  And the work will be hard.  How many laborers dig in and emerge with clean hands?  And we will not always be welcome.  Not every ear will be ready to hear the gospel just yet.  Jesus implores us not to lose heart, but rather, to shake off the dust and move one, to go where the doors are open, to stay faithful to the mission, and let God worry about the rest.  He tells us not to worry about worldly things.  He counters all our protestations, “I don’t have anything to offer.  How will I know what to do?” 

If we read scripture carefully, he tells us all we need to know.  “How will I know what to say?”  He assures us of his abiding presence; in the muck and the mire; in those places we are afraid to go; he will be there.  This is not our mission; it is not our agenda.  It is the mission of God and we are his instruments, and he will be there and he will speak through us.  But, you know, it’s hard to know sometimes what is authentic, what is of God, what is the truth of the gospels, and how can we be sure that our own needs are not mixed up in, or even getting in the way of the message.  How will we know when our will, our plan is aligned with the will of God?  It’s an important question, and one I think we must continually ask ourselves, must continually pray about, as we live into this mission calling. 

God gave his only son for us, and he didn’t die to save the righteous.  “The unexamined life is not worth living, "Socrates said.  And it’s true.  We are human and we have egos and sometimes even when we are pretty sure we are right, it’s a good idea to step back, to look at ourselves and our motivations in the light of Christ.  How do we do that? How are we to learn to be “as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves?”  The gospel gives us some insight into this, I think.  It’s easy to miss among the words of naming and commissioning and sending forth. But before all that, this is written: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” 

Compassion!  The motivation of Jesus as he addressed the crowd, as he gathered the disciples, as he sent them forth into the world, was compassion.  Not judgment, not frustration (though that would have been understandable), not a litany of faults!  Some say that those faults we find most bothersome in others are often a reflection of the things we most fear and feel shame for in ourselves.  Compassion looks past the fear and the shame into the deepest recesses of our hearts.  Compassion is our shared experience of the love, the care that God feels for each of us and for all of creation. 

God knows us.  He listens to the yearnings of our hearts and he hears us.  And he uses us to be his hands and his heart in the world.  Mission starts in the compassionate heart of God, and we are called to be imitators of Christ.  So if we can find compassion in what motivates us, as the basis our daily interactions with each other, at the heart of who we are and why we are, I think that’s a good test.  Compassion calms us, centers us, instills us with patience.  Compassion breeds hope.  And hope is both necessary for, and the gift, of faith.  Imagine what we can accomplish when we are assured of compassion, when we are filled with hope.  Hope energizes; imagination and creativity are set free; possibility abounds.

Amen.