No Experience Necessary
Matthew 9:35-38, 10:1-8
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart

We choose to follow Jesus ... only to discover that we are the ones chosen.  We aren't just called ... we are sent.  Jesus doesn't just gather us to him ...... Jesus gives us work to do.

This is a fundamental lesson of Christian discipleship ... we are healed, sustained, nurtured ... and charged with great responsibility.

Centuries ago Martin Luther voiced the two great themes of Christian vocation ... "the freedom of the Christian", and "the bondage of the will."  The liberation of life and the letting go of ego. Nothing is required of us to receive the gift of God‚s love ... it's already here. It's already here.  It‚s already here. But, in beautiful irony, the more we are filled and freed by that love, the more we are bound ... to the suffering of others.  As we open to God‚s love, we are drawn into God's work in the world.  If we love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, we will be bound to love our neighbor as ourselves.

According to Matthew, Jesus sent his first disciples out with instructions that sound puzzling to us.  He said, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Mt. 10:5)

The early followers of Jesus debated ... and fought ... intensely over the question of whether Jesus‚ mission extended beyond the Jewish people to the Gentiles, the Samaritans ... to ... outsiders.

For Matthew, it was the people of Israel whose need cried out for the savior. Matthew portrayed Jesus ... the anointed one ... sending his followers out to heal, exorcise, and organize among their own people.
 

But others proclaimed a broader mission.  The seeds were planted in the ground Jesus himself walked ... in his teaching, his scandalous choice of conversation partners and dinner companions.  There would be no exclusion.  The "good news" of redemption, and release, and wholeness, and justice, and healing, was intended for all.  And all means all.

According to Matthew‚  "When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." That's not only a first century political/cultural statement ... it's a 21st century political/cultural statement. Compassion is the starting point for ministry and human relations in all social locations.
 

Whether teaching, or healing, Jesus crossed boundaries, defied constraints, to reach all those who needed good news.

It's not enough for those of us in the church to gather and worship and sing and pray and tend to our personal salvation, spiritual formation, or community celebrations!  We are formed into and transformed by Christ‚s compassion for all.  And all means all. Our lives are changed to change the world in an amazing grace-filled inward outward journey.  Personal and social transformation often begins at points of human suffering.  

In that flawed but fabulous Internet resource Wikipedia, I read an interesting historical note regarding the observance of Father's Day in the United States.  It seems the first Father's Day celebrations were held 100 years ago ... and one of the first was held July 5th, 1908 in Fairmont, West Virginia:  it was at a church service at Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church.  Grace Golden Clayton suggested the service to her pastor. She was inspired to celebrate fathers after a deadly mine explosion nearby killed 361 men, many of them fathers and recent immigrants to the United States from Italy.

Compassion for those who suffer was the hinge ... the turning point ... the starting point ... for calling and sending disciples of Jesus ... and it still is.  

We don't have to be perfect... or good... or feel holy...to follow Jesus. That has never been the case.  Praise God.  In our Gospel text, the only two descriptions of any of the twelve named disciples were that one disciple was a tax collector, a Roman collaborator, and that another betrayed Jesus.  Hardly great qualifications for discipleship.

Frederick Buechner writes these words about the first disciples, "The sole qualification seems to have been the willingness to rise to their feet when Jesus said, 'follow me.'"  That's it. That's the only requirement.

According to Matthew, Jesus said, "the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers..."

There's work to be done ... restoring, reconciling, healing, confronting demons and powers and principalities ... a whole lot of work.  Jesus calls us and empowers us out of compassion-- to preach and heal and raise and cleanse and cast out and live into God's kindom right here and now.   Matthew's gospel tells us that the disciples were sent, but it does not indicate that they actually went anywhere! I like that about this version of the story.  They were sent right where they were.  There are members of this congregation who do not often leave their homes, who are not able to leave their homes, and yet their prayers, love, commitment, and prophetic witness are powerful. Right here and now we are called to preach and heal and raise and cleanse and cast out and live into God‚s kindom.

William Sloane Coffin wrote, "I believe that God is calling each and every one of us to show up, ... to help one another build a more just and generous society at home and a genuine, viable global community that hates war and holds nature in reverence.  Our calling today arises from the world‚s pain, and calls us to alleviate that pain by sharing it."

I rejoice in this community of faith ... where people continue to be willing to show up ... to be vulnerable ... to weep, laugh, question ... to work together... to discern where our capacities ... even our limitations ... might be instruments of God‚s healing in the world.

I rejoice in the combination of strong opinion, caring confrontation, and risk-taking effort ... that it takes to create and sustain a loving and serving community.
 

As the words of June Jordan, echoed by Alice Walker, sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock remind us, "We are the ones we've been waiting for."

If we're waiting for some one to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, we're the ones we're waiting for.  If we're waiting for God to bring in the Kindom of shalom, we don't need to look "out there" for a kindom that is in our midst.

If Jesus were posting the position of disciple on Craig's list today, I am convinced he would include the phrase ... "no experience necessary."  For the God is always doing something new ... and who's to say just what combination of gift and limitation and courage and doubt and willingness will be just exactly what is required.

Jesus says "follow me."  And all that is required is to be willing to stand up and step out in faith. We are the ones God‚s waiting for.  Amen.