The calling of the 12 is a height of a pattern established well before today’s reading… Miracle, call. Miracle, call. Miracle, call.
Jesus cleanses a Leper, makes well a paralyzed man, and heals the sick
—then calls an unnamed disciple to follow him.
Similarly, he makes wind and sea to cease its chaos, and stills, too, the inner chaos of two poor possessed souls by performing an exorcism
—then he calls Matthew.
Likewise, there is the flurry of healings we read last week— which culminate in today’s calling of the 12, after Jesus prays:
“Lord of the Harvest,
your harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few,
please send out laborers
into your harvest.”
Prayer
Yes,
Jesus teaches in thought provoking parables,
proclaims Gospel—good news, for the people,
and follows that good news up with curing and healing.
He sees this crowd of people
—the harassed and the helpless
—and has compassion on them…
is moved,
yes, moved in the guts,
in the depths of himself
—by their plight…
and by his own limitations…
—part of God becoming flesh,
is accepting the limitations of the body…
Jesus can’t be everywhere, in 1st century Palestine…
There is a scene in the rock opera Jesus Christ Super Star that touches this point,
this moment of pity and compassion
—where Norman Jewison’s version of Jesus is overwhelmed by a sea of
lepers, the sick, the poor,
all asking him to touch them,
they wash over Jesus
and he shouts to his Father in Heaven, and to the crowd:
“There are too many of you…
there is too little of me!”
In Matthew’s account, Jesus prays to his Father,
“Lord of the Harvest,
your harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few,
please send out laborers
into your harvest.”
God answer’s his prayer,
with 12 disciples who become Apostles
—those who are sent out.
God answers his prayers,
and so Jesus authorizes these disciples to go out and do as he did…
Go to the lost
and remind them of God’s closeness
and graciously heal the hurting
—restore the lost.
Go out lightly,
with nothing to offer
save what Jesus first gave you
—the peace of his presence.
Receive the hospitality of those you minister to…
Be ready for dangers and disappointments
—vulnerable, just as Christ accepted the vulnerability of being human.
“Lord of the Harvest,
your harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few,
please send out laborers
into your harvest.”
Hear a second time what is being prayed by our Lord:
The house that is burning is salvageable,
but there aren’t many good firefighters,
so ask the captain of the fire station
to send more firefighters into the rubble.
The need is great,
the workers are few,
the world needs to hear and to know Gospel.
“Lord of the Harvest,
your harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few,
please send out laborers
into your harvest.”
Hear yet again what is being said:
Janet, our council president, and I have been reviewing the congregation’s rolls in preparation to clean them
—after all,
our claim that we have 490 members seems…
to stretch the facts…
on initial review, we seem to be much closer to 130…
Now, that means there are 360 members
who we’ve lost somewhere along the line
—that number represents a bunch of folk
who are separated from the fellowship of their baptism…
At least some of them,
are folk who are
harassed, harried, and hurt
—in some cases by the church itself…
who may need to hear words of
repentance or reconciliation or restoration.
Imagine Jesus authorizing all of us to reach out to our siblings,
separated in so many different ways
—and offering them peace.
“Lord of the Harvest,
your harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few,
please send out laborers
into your harvest.”
Or, perhaps even that last example feels a little too pie in the sky…
well, in the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about ministry here at Spruce Run
—what we’re up to as a congregation.
(I think this happens with most pastors sometime after Pentecost
—you finally have at least a few minutes to catch your breath and look around and ask,
“What just happened these last 7 months…
the mad rush from Advent to the end of the Easter Season?”)
And I think I can describe it in three words:
—Grace, Love, Gospel…
or maybe three actions:
receive, rejoice, reach out…
-We’ve received God’s grace in worship and faith formation
—Lenten vespers and weekly Sunday School
-We’ve loved one another… rejoiced together in times of fellowship
—shared meals and shared moments...
-We’ve spread the Good news, reaching out with the Gospel
—through acts of service, outreach, and evangelism.
When we receive, rejoice, and reach out
—we’re embodying
“The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.”
We’re part of God’s answer to Jesus’ prayer!
“Lord of the Harvest,
your harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few,
please send out laborers into your harvest.”
As I said, Matthew establishes a pattern
—Miracle, Call. Miracle, Call. Miracle, Call…
-Jesus goes out to make God’s good presence known,
-then Jesus sent out 12 two by two,
the good news present in 6 separate places…
-and then the 70 are sent
—Gospel in 35 places!
Calling in the lost sheep of Israel…
And then, there is one more miracle
—Jesus’ resurrection.
And the call expands exponentially!
The call is given new life when the risen Christ comes and says:
“Go and make disciples of all nations…
remember, I am with you always,
to the end of the age.”
“Lord of the Harvest,
your harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few,
please send out laborers
into your harvest.”
Amen.
