Outside the Box 6-18-23
Outside the Box
Ex 19:2-8; Matthew 9:35-10:8
Ex 19:2-8
They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.” So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. The people all answered as one: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
Matthew 9:35-10:8
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
Prayer – Lord Jesus, when we encounter you in all of your truthful, dynamic glory, we realize that you gather us in the church only to send us forth into the world. As we pray, sing your praises, and reflect upon your word, infuse us with your Spirit that we might gain new energy and commitment to join with you in your world-changing, life-giving mission. Reveal to us opportunities to work, help, and heal so that we might be moved from being your adoring admirers to your faithful followers – amen.
There’s a wonderful legend about St Francis, the kindly 13th century monk, who one day informed his brethren that he planned to go to the nearby village on a preaching mission. He invited a novice to go with him that day. On their way, they passed an injured man and Francis promptly stopped, saw to the poor fellow’s needs and arranged medical care for him. They went on and soon passed a homeless man who was near starvation. Again, Francis stopped his journey and ministered with the hungry, homeless man. So it went, through the day – people in need, Francis lovingly caring for them as best he could until the sun was low in the sky. He told his novice friend it was time to return, now, to the monastery for evening prayers. But the young man said, “Father, you said we were coming to town to preach to the people.” Francis smiled, then he said, “My friend, that’s what we’ve been doing all day.”
It has been some years ago and a minister colleague of mine opened a new church in a low income part of Anderson, SC, that served a homeless and on the margins kind of congregation. It was a church plant by the Methodist church and my friend Kurt worked with multiple churches in the area to help feed his congregation after worship each Sunday. One large church agreed to support the work he was doing in Southeast Anderson. Kurt also contributed to the local newspaper and one of his editorials stated that the ‘church needed to expand its views of God’s participation in the world,’ which apparently didn’t sit well with this large church who decided to discontinue their relationship with Kurt’s church. When we talked about it a few weeks later he said to me, “It saddens me that theological differences have severed a partnership toward a common mission of feeding hungry people in a community of unconditional love.” Apparently the leader of that large church was not a fan of St. Francis.
Our passage this morning is a story of Jesus commissioning his followers to carry on his work outside the four walls of their lives. He was offering to them, as he offers to us, the possibility, the potential, the call to go outside of the four walls of their/our lives and meet people where they are – to show compassion and grace to them in an unconditional way. Jesus didn’t require a seminary degree, a marketing idea, even an understanding of the Bible as a prerequisite for being sent out into the world to care for those who are like ‘sheep without a shepherd.’ For Jesus, as demonstrated by St Francis, ministry is about meeting people where they are and not worrying about numerical growth, or adding to one’s own conversion record, or winning acclaim within the denomination. Ministry is about sharing God’s love in a concrete form among God’s people. Kind of like ‘share the gospel, use words only if necessary.’
You know how it goes. Churches try to reach out to people, to attract them to the church and its ministry. We usually try to attract them by touting all of the benefits of being a member of a particular congregation. Are you concerned about the faith development of your children? Our church has a great program for children’s Christian education. Come join us. Are you fearful about the state of the world, worried, confused? Our church takes seriously the intellectual challenges of the modern world. Come join us. Clueless about the Bible and confused about your Christian beliefs? We can put you in a great Bible study group that will bring you up to speed on scripture. I can remember driving through a town not too long ago and seeing a billboard that said, “WE’VE GOT WHAT YOU WANT. COME AND GET IT!” Come and get it? The church is where you come seeking, wanting, shopping for something you want. The church exists to meet your needs, answer your questions, solve your problems, and respond to your wants.
Trouble is, there’s very little in scripture that supports the Wal-Mart image of the church. What if the church isn’t the means whereby you get what you want out of God but rather the place where God gets what God wants out of us? What if discipleship isn’t the way God meets our needs but rather we are the way God meets the needs of the world? You might say that is outside the box thinking.
Jesus had been going around Palestine doing what any good Messiah would do – teaching, healing, helping, caring for those who are least cared about. Then Jesus did something pretty outside the box – he looked at the throngs of people and in his compassion realized he couldn’t do it all by himself. So Jesus calls some disciples and bestows upon them the same healing, helping power that he has been sharing. Everyday people like Peter, James, John. He had women who were instrumental in helping out as well, Mary, Martha and Mary Magdalene which was unheard of during those times. Nothing indicated that they were a particularly gifted lot, nor is there anything about their lives or histories that would suggest that they were cut out for this kind of work but Jesus commissioned them anyhow. The disciples were just ordinary folks whom Jesus had given authority to do good for those in need. Makes you wonder if the same is true today – perhaps???
Jesus said to his closest friends, “I need your help. Go, go among those who are in need. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with skin diseases, and throw out the demons and do it all with no expectations in return.” By your work the world will know that the kingdom of heaven is near. The way you’ll know that God’s kingdom is coming near and God’s will is being done on earth will be the work of ordinary people right here and right now. I believe our gospel lesson today is reminding us, you and me, that we are called to be contemporary disciples, we are appointed to do his work in the world today – we are called to be his means of overcoming what’s wrong with the world today. That is outside the box thinking for sure.
Many people come to church looking to feel good, thinking that Jesus’ job is mainly about meeting their needs, soothing their aches and pains, answering their questions. Certainly there are times when those good things occur when we encounter Jesus. But Jesus’ typical way of doing good for us is by sending us out to do good for someone else.
The good Lord knows that we all have wants and needs. But sometimes our greatest needs aren’t the ones we know. For instance, I can imagine many of us think we need less stress in our lives, while the good Lord believes what we need most is doing something good with our lives. Many folks come to church hoping to receive some gift, some answer, some hope only to walk away with a homework assignment – go out and meet someone in their need and attend to it.
All too often I think the church makes a big mistake when it presents the gospel as the solution to all your problems. “Just give it to Jesus” – “Let go and let God” – “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle” – “Just believe this and your life will be just fine.” All of that is a load of . . . well you know what I’m thinking. Churches that sell that form of theology are simply doing a disservice to what it means to be a person of faith. Unfortunately the church has been more interested in preserving the church and consequently has mostly failed to be disciple makers who are called to serve the world. St Francis’ work was not about building churches and running services in the churches. St Francis taught his disciples while walking from place to place and finding ways to serve, to observe, and to love the world right in front of them. That was and is outside of the box.
On the basis of our gospel passage this morning I would say that being a follower of Jesus isn’t when you squint your eyes and proclaim, “I believe, I believe all of it, even the part about the miracles.” Or, “I’ve been searching for more meaning in my life and now I’ve found what I was looking for.” Or, “Follow this theology, believe that you are a protector of the message and no other message is true.” No, I believe that a follower of Jesus is someone who has been found by Jesus, who is assigned a job by Jesus, who realizes their greatest need is not to have their needs met, their aches and pains soothed, but rather to join in Jesus’ mission in the world to show compassion, to share grace and to care for the least of these. I can imagine that would surprise a lot of preachers and their churches.
Someone far smarter than me once said, “the church doesn’t have a mission, but rather God’s mission has a church.” Somewhere, somehow that got turned upside down. God could accomplish all of God’s purposes without us, but for whatever reason God has chosen to use ordinary people like you and me to join alongside of God and participate in that mission with a simple, “come and follow me.” There are people we encounter each and every day who are looking for some glimpse of God’s kingdom in the world right here and right now. As St Francis said, “Preach the gospel always, use words if necessary.” So go forth, outside the four wall box we tend to live in, and be caring and compassionate disciples in actions and deeds, and use words if you have to – thanks be to God – amen.