Farming for the
Harvest
By Rev Steven R
Mitchell
Mountain View
United, Aurora, CO 6/29/2014
Based on Matthew
9:35-38 and 10:40-42
I
hope all of you who were not present in last week’s worship have had the
opportunity to read what Bob Jordan shared in his discussion titled: Hot Buttons, Hot Topics, and What Would
Jesus Do? Bob gave an excellent
summation of how “social justice” topics can stir the heart and many times
divide a group of folks. Bob took on the
challenging saying by Jesus, “Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth.
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Relatives will turn against relatives, and friends
against friends.”
As Bob pointed out, Jesus was not actively seeking to split families and
friends, but rather was making a statement about what would happen when one takes
to heart the message of God’s idea of justice.
These words were a build up to Jesus sending out his disciples among the
many small villages in the region.
Jesus then takes these negatives and ends
his discussion with the positives that come with sharing God’s message; the
promise of rewards! 41 Whoever
welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever
welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous
person’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even
a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I
tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” When reading
this text, it is easy to think about the concept of “hospitality”, which is a
key theme in this morning’s reading.
Much of the time, however, we tend to think of “hospitality” as a one directional
street. We too often think as the person
who is giving hospitality as the one who is “giving” the gift or reward. Think about how much you give to those you
invite people into your home for dinner.
You are gracious, warm, providing fine food, and good conversation. What is it that you feel after your guests
have left for the evening? Yes, you are
probably tired, but are you not left with a warm glow from the evening? What is it that gives you that warm
glow? It’s not just from your putting
yourself out to make someone feel good.
The warm glow comes because of what your guests have brought with them
to the table, themselves. In truth, the
giver also is the receiver.
It is the same for our congregation each
Sunday. Every person who walks through
these doors are not just receiving from the larger group, but the larger group
is receiving from each person. From the
strongest person in the building to the most fragile in this room, when we
receive one another for who we are, we are in turn being given a most precious
gift – the essence of one another. We
practice our diversity in part by making a special point each Sunday to
recognize the children in our midst, with a “children’s time.” We are not just giving time to the children
but our hearts are mysteriously warmed by their participation in worship
through this time. By making room for
them, we receive also.
If the end of Chapter 10 gives us the
promise of rewards, then what are these rewards for? Good behavior? Being nice to everyone we meet? For coming to Worship a minimum number of
times per year? Is it for speaking out
for Social Justice? As a church we
should continually be asking “What is the
purpose of Mountain View?” Chapter
nine gives us some very solid ground work about how Jesus saw his purpose,
which helps us in answering our question of purpose.
Through the first eight chapters in
Matthews Gospel we read how Jesus sets up his style of ministry as He wonders
the countryside teaching and healing, then in Chapter nine, he returns to his
home town. While there some friends of a
paralyzed man bring him to Jesus. Jesus
does the unforgivable; he forgives the man of his sins. Immediately Jesus is challenged by some of
the teachers of the law about the blasphemy of forgiving sins. Jesus decides to take it one step further by
healing the man of his paralysis. Jesus
doesn’t stay in his home town but moves on and becomes acquainted with Matthew
the tax collector. Jesus once again
breaks the rules and eats supper with him and all of his sinful friends. Again, Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees
about associating with sinners. Jesus
responds by saying, “learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a] For
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
If being harassed
by the establishment wasn’t enough, a couple of disciples from Jesus’ mentor, John
the Baptizer, come asking Jesus why he doesn’t fast like John and other righteous
people, in accordance to the law of Moses?
All three of these
encounters focus on doctrinal issues.
As Bob so artfully stated last week about the votes at this year’s
Presbyter gathering allowing same-sex marriages in its churches, and the immediate
call by some to withhold monies from their Presbyteries if these actions are
allowed in their Presbyteries are examples of the father against father, mother
against daughter. Or of the defrocking
of a Methodist minister for not promising to not perform same-sex weddings in
the future after he had officiated such a ceremony between his son and his
son-in-law. Several weeks ago I was
invited by Dawn Skeritt to listen to a lecture at St Andrews Methodist Church
in Highlands Ranch, where the speaker was pastor of the largest United
Methodist Church in North America, asking for people to come to the table with
open hearts as they examine scripture with new eyes about the teachings of
human sexuality and not dig in their heals which is leading to a denominational
schism. It’s the same old question of
“mercy” over “sacrifice.”
Jesus keeps on
traveling around the countryside, preaching the good news, and raising from
death a little girl, healing a woman who had been bleeding for years, giving
site to a blind man and speech to a mute.
And scripture says, “36 When
he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and
helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is
plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the
Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
There is more in
worshiping God than just coming to church.
Jesus tells his disciples that anyone who welcomes those he sends out,
are welcoming him. Anyone who welcomes
Jesus, also welcomes the one who sent him, God!
Jesus was not stationary in his ministry. Jesus went from village to village, talking
about God and healing the sick. Churches
in their exuberance to provide a place where God can be praised and worshiped
have become complacent in expecting the sick and the hungry to come to a
building, to us. Jesus’ example and call
to his disciples was to go out into the villages and not just speak the word of
love and forgiveness, but to heal the sick, to show mercy and not worry about
whether what you are doing is doctrinally correct or put in more modern
understanding is legal or not legal! Why
do we become so emotionally charged about someone whose only crime has been to
enter this country improperly or has stayed longer than legally permitted and
living a productive life? Isn’t it more “God
giving” by helping to keep a family together than tearing them apart because of
a law that is out of step with human rights?
Shouldn’t we be more concerned with the rights of two people in love and
wishing to make a life commitment to one another, instead of arguing whether or
not the plumbing fits correctly?
As a body of faith,
we have been asked by Jesus to go out into the villages and share the love of
God, by word and by deed, not to sit around waiting for them to come to us. This morning, you have the opportunity to do
just that. You are being asked to take
just 5 brochures with you as you leave today and place them in public spaces,
such as reception rooms, on public transportation vehicles, in your local
grocery store, any place that you can think of, where someone might pick it up
and read about what we have to offer as a faith community. This does not require you to have any face to
face encounters with anyone, but it is a small step in going out into our
village and sharing.
We say we are not a
people who stand on doctrine, but rather a people of mercy. There is a whole world outside these doors
that do not experience mercy very often; don’t you think they deserve the chance
to find a place where they too can receive mercy, love and support? Through our invitation to receive these
gifts, we too become more enriched by what they bring with them. God has created a great harvest, let us go
out into the world and become the workers.
Amen
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