Year A

Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Right Team for the Harvest

Choosing just the right team can be essential for most jobs and businesses. When I had my small business for eighteen years, it was by trial and error that I was able to put together a team of employees who stayed with me for many years. These were ladies I could trust and we enjoyed working together. We even spent time together outside of the business. I was thankful for them because each played a role in the success of my business.

Jesus too, had to pick a team and the success of his ministry in large part depended upon how the team would carry out his mission. We read for the first time in the gospel today the full list of twelve disciples-his team of laborers. Matthew one of those laborers tells us that Jesus’ ministry and mission was now shifting into high gear. Matthew reports that Jesus had gone about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and sickness. What he saw as he went about doing the work of God were people that were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

No wonder he calls his disciples and then tells them “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Jesus’ compassion for the people causes him to recognize how abundant the harvest is and to acknowledge how great the need is for laborers.  The harvest he had planned needed laborers to fulfill his mission. So he called them together and gave them “authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and sickness.” As they go, they are to proclaim the good news that “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” And they are to “cure the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse the lepers.

Now when Jesus was going about the cities and villages he made his mission and ministry look easy but things get much more difficult after he commissions his disciples to carry out his ministry. For anyone setting off on a new task these verses offer a sobering assessment of what lies ahead for those who follow in Jesus’ footsteps. Paul, in his letter to the Romans today, acknowledges the suffering and persecution disciples can expect. Yet, despite the challenges and the fact that success is sometimes questionable, and despite the difficulties that lie ahead, Christ still sends his laborers then and today out into the harvest.

Those early followers, as firsthand witnesses of what was possible with Christ, could have gone off with confidence, determination, and nerves of steel. Perhaps they were willing to shake the dust off their feet and move on and perhaps they had success curing diseases and performing miracles. But many of us today, may feel more like sheep without a shepherd as we set out to do the tasks given us by Christ. In our multicultural world we are more hesitant to approach anyone for fear of being too pushy and the prospects of curing diseases and performing miracles seem rather slim indeed.

Yet, just as the disciples were sent out to those towns in ancient Israel, the followers of Christ continue to be challenged to take our faith out into the world and get Christ’s work done. Mission is a challenge, but we can see how urgent the need is when we look at our world. Just as when Jesus looked out at the harassed and helpless people. Karl Barth, a Swiss Reformed Christian and well known theologian of the last century wrote: “The Church is either a missionary church or it is no church at all. The church if it is to be the church must be all about mission. The first reaction most of have is to think in terms of foreign missions. And yes, taking the gospel out into the far corners of the world is important.

Yet, today’s gospel lesson corrects this view of mission as not just about going off to foreign lands. The core message today is start “where you’re at.’ That’s why Jesus instructs the twelve to “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. “Start where you’re at.” Of course, we know that Jesus did not exclude a witness to the Gentiles. He sees it happening in the course of the mission to the Hebrews. And now, you and I are the Missionaries, the laborers right here in this community when we are doing mission as Jesus instructed his first disciples.

What he makes clear today about mission is it’s not just about preaching. Very little of Jesus’ instructions were about preaching and evangelism alone. It seems the special bias that God has is for the poor and the hurting, those harassed and helpless sheep. There are actually several thousand verses in the scriptures which deal with the poor and God’s response to injustice. One of every sixteen verses in the New Testament is about the poor. This is why our response to the poor, the homeless and those who are being treated with injustice, is so important. The reality right now is, our country, our world is facing once again the effects of racism and the first global economic depression of our lifetimes.

My family was hit hard these past two weeks. And Jesus’ word’s today provides us with clear evidence for why our mission must include concern for the poor, outcast and those being treated unjustly. After urging his disciples to go and “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, he talks about giving away freely to those in need he says, “You received without payment; give without payment.” Since all that you and I have is given freely by God, salvation is free, how can we not be so generous? Compassion for others, not financial gain, should always be the motivation for the work of ministry. Our work as laborers into the harvest who respect the dignity of every human being is not a burden for those caught up in God’s love in Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Human needs have no price on them. They just need to be met and it is Christ who helps us to do what we could not do on our own. It is a mystery though why Christ includes us in the team, but overall the faithful do achieve miraculous things. It could be because Christ continues to have compassion on shepherdless sheep or because prayers have been answered and enough laborers have been sent out. Perhaps it’s because we find the faith to get the job done.   Jesus seems to think we can get the job done. We have been given the authority and the gifts to “go proclaim the good news, the kingdom of heaven has come near” even if it will not be easy.