Let's Start at the Very Beginning, A Very Good Place to Start

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday June 15, 2008, the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Genesis 18:1-15
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
Romans 5:1-8
Matthew 9:30-10:8

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

“Let’s start at the very beginning; a very good place to start; when you read you begin with A, B, C; when you sing you begin with do, re mi.” This is the very beginning (a very good place to start) of the song “Do, Re, Mi” from “The Sound of Music.”[1] Sage advice in any situation, and a model for our gospel reading this morning.

The wonder of the beginning of this passage is the way it starts with a recap of Jesus’ ministry to date. It’s like watching the tube and hearing the phrase “previously on …”

Jesus went all about the cities and villages and teaching in their synagogues. Jesus is not traveling willy-nilly through the countryside. He is traveling with a purpose; he is going to cities with Jewish populations. He is going to synagogues to teach. He is not in the city square or in the marketplace speaking to the world, not yet. He is in the synagogues speaking with the people of God.

Remember, this is Matthew’s gospel, the gospel written to the nation of Israel. It makes sense that Jesus brings his message to the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob first; after all, it’s his community, these are his people. He’s starting at the beginning, with his people, God’s chosen people.

He goes and teaches in the synagogues. He brings the proclamation of the good news of the kingdom. He shares again and again the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. He shares again and again his grace healing disease and sickness. He restores people to their families and to right relationship with the Lord God.

He sees the people as sheep, harassed and helpless, distressed and dispirited. Without a shepherd, they are a people scattered, hungry for leadership. And Jesus has compassion for them. He cares for them more than they could ever hope or imagine. This is when he calls to his disciples “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

In this one swift motion, Jesus goes from describing the people of God as a listless flock of sheep, to a bountiful crop ready to be collected. This is not an image of sheep to the slaughter; it is the picture of the people of God being called to worship. It is an image of the inbreaking of the kingdom Jesus promises his people. It is a look what is happening at that moment, happening in this moment, and still to happen in the future.

Jesus then makes a specific request of the disciples. He charges, he calls them to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out the laborers. He doesn’t tell the synagogue to go out and grab a scythe and start bringing in the crop. He tells the people to pray that the Lord to send out laborers.

This is an important turn; it isn’t a request to ask the Lord “what are you going to do with me?” It’s a solemn prayer that the Lord do what the Lord will do. This isn’t the prayer of Monty Hall and “Let’s Make a Deal” screaming “Pick me! Pick me!” This is the Lord’s Prayer, “thy will be done.” This is the call from Isaiah 6 asking “Is it I Lord?” Jesus doesn’t ask us to begin by giving directions; we are to pray to receive direction and to follow.

This is when Jesus makes the important distinction between disciples and apostles. In the gospel, most of the time when we read the word disciple, it points to any adherent of a particular movement or leader.[2] Even in the gospels, “disciple” probably doesn’t point just to the twelve unless the text specifically says so. So in the verse where Jesus tells the disciples to pray, he surely is calling on the twelve, but he also includes the multitude in the synagogue. Now, Jesus summons his twelve disciples and sends them out as apostles. After all, that is what “apostle” means, the one who is sent out.

He sends them out giving them authority, his authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and sickness. He sends them out to proclaim the good news saying the kingdom is at hand, the kingdom has come near. This is where starting our reading where we did was beneficial. We begin our reading with Jesus going out and about proclaiming the gospel and healing every kind of disease and sickness. Then he commissions, he ordains the twelve to do the same work giving them the same authority.

He calls and commissions the apostles. He doesn’t call just anybody; on second thought, yes he does. Jesus calls very ordinary people. He calls Simon and James and John who are partners in a fishing business with Simon’s father. John would become known as the beloved disciple and Simon would become known as Peter, the rock upon which the church is built.

Matthew the Roman collaborator was called to go out as was Simon the Cananaean, or as he was more commonly known the Zealot. Of course, this list wouldn’t be complete without Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.[3] He too was sent to tell the people of God that the kingdom is at hand.

The only qualification they share is that they are following Jesus. They not are called out because they are special. What makes them special is the one who called them out. He calls together people who probably would not share a meal together much less a mission if it were not for the one who calls them. They were very ordinary men, being called to do extraordinary things with the only authority that makes it possible.

Qualifications are an element of our Old Testament reading this morning too. It begs the question “What makes Abraham and Sarah so special?” Why are they selected to violate the rules of biology and bear children long after their tender years have passed them? We might assume it was because they followed the hospitality codes of the day, providing food and drink to weary travelers. As much as both of these statements are true, scripture makes no connection between the two. These are just as likely to be completely unrelated events as they are cause and effect.

But Abraham and Sarah can claim only one special status, they were chosen. They were chosen to go to from their homes. They were chosen to see the Lord appear at the Oaks of Mamre. They were chosen to entertain visitors. They were chosen to learn through experience that there is nothing too wonderful for the Lord.

The twelve were chosen, and this is what makes them special. They were ordinary work-a-day guys with day jobs and families. They had no special nature that caused them to be chosen. There was no glow. We need to remember this.

They were the twelve, no better or worse than any other human being. Yet while one of them was certainly willing to perform one of the most horrific acts of betrayal recorded in history, others became the first leaders of the church.

Returning to the reading, once chosen, they were given their commission. The commission gives them their call, their authority, and the power to fulfill his instructions. They were given what they needed to do the work of the Lord, including one additional instruction, they were also given limitations.

It seems odd to talk about the limitations, but their commission only went so far. They were told not to go among the Gentiles and they were told not to go to the cities of the Samaritans. In the end there are some reasons for this we can glean from history. The first, again, the Gospel of Matthew was the missive to the nation of Israel. It is only logical that the twelve would not send the Good News to the Gentiles, not yet.

Since the twelve were all practicing Jews, it would have further been unlikely that they would even want to go to the Gentiles. In Acts when Peter finally goes to the home of Cornelius and eats, it is only after a vision from the Lord repeats itself three times telling him to go and eat.[4]

Also in Acts, we learn of a third reason Jesus expressly limits the twelve from going to the Gentiles and Samaritans. Jesus sends another; this mission field belongs to Saul of Tarsus, the one who becomes the Apostle Paul.[5] The mission to the Gentiles and Samaritans wasn’t the work of the twelve because it belonged to someone else, someone who would come later. And as the Pharisee of Pharisees, Paul was more unlikely to go to the Gentiles than any of the other twelve apostles.

So it is only one more indication of the sovereignty of the Lord that the one who would be sent is the most unlikely one of them all.

So let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Let us begin by remembering, knowing the Lord Jesus. We need to come together and share the joy of knowing who he is and what he has done. As the people of God we further need to see the people he sees, and see them, see us as both the scattered sheep looking for a shepherd and as the harvest ready to be gathered to the house of the Lord.

We need to begin by praying for those who will bring in the harvest. We need to pray for the people and organizations of the church that do missionary work both works of proclamation and works of service in the nation and around the world. Pray for the groups that have signed what is known as the Dallas Covenant, a group of Presbyterian Mission organizations from all political stripes of the church who have come together to do the work of mission in the church.[6]

Pray too for the nominating committee. It is their job to discern who will be called to shepherd this part of the body of Christ; to lead the church, local and universal, into the future. It will be their job to search from among us to discern who will be called to continue God’s work in the world. And as we pray, don’t be shy to pray “Is it I Lord?”

The last information Jesus gives the disciples before they are sent is that they received their call, their Christian vocation without payment and so they must give without payment. Honestly, I don’t like this translation because of our economic mindset toward payment.

Other translations say “freely you have received, freely give.”[7] And as they have freely received the freely given gift of grace through Jesus Christ our Lord, this is the message the apostles take with them. It is the message we have received and we take with us. Whether into the soul, the session, or the world, this is the word we are called to take with us.

As we have freely received, remember to pray for those who will be sent into the harvest. And also remember the Lord takes pleasure in having us respond, “I will go Lord, if you lead me.”

[1] Rogers and Hammerstein
[2] Disciple, Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible
[3] Random thought that doesn’t belong in this sermon: Often in the church and in church work you hear about individuals or even congregations with way too much conflict being called “clergy killers.” Every pastor wants to avoid the clergy killing congregation. Strangely, Jesus called a “clergy killer” to be one of his apostles. Honestly, I don’t know what this means, but I believe it must be considered—clergy killers exist and Jesus knows it better than any of us ever will. And no, I am fortunate—I have not met a clergy killer in my present posting.
[4] Acts 10:1-33
[5] Acts 9:1-18
[6] For more information about the Dallas Covenant, check out http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2008/08450.htm, retrieved June 14, 2008.
[7] New International Version, New American Standard Bible, New Living Translation among others.