Year A
Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Compassion for the Harvest
“So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. The people all answered as one saying: Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” That seems a wonderful reply. Yet, it’s not quite so simple. As the story continues, it becomes quite clear that this was a promise that was beyond their, or anyone’s ability to keep and perhaps one day all humanity will be able to answer this call from God as one. Yet, in the meantime what we can be sure of and what all the texts today proclaim is that our God is a God we can put our hope in and God keeps God’s promises. The basis of our hope in God is not found in our abilities but is found in the character and intentions of God. A God who is moved by and provides for human need, not because help is deserved or earned but because of the “grace in which we stand” as Paul reminds us today and we are also reminded of what our response to God’s grace should look like.
How well do we listen to God’s call? How well do we act on what we hear? Do we really believe that God calls, empowers and sustains us? Let me tell you a story about a man named Jorge Munoz nicknamed the Angel of Queens. He was driving a school bus one day by the corner of Roosevelt Ave and 73 Street in Queens, NY, an area that is under the shadow of the elevated train. The underpass was populated with scores of hungry folks, looking for work, mostly immigrants to the US like himself. When he saw them, he remembered some of his friends in the food service industry telling him about all of the food wasted each day that they could not use or sell.
Jorge saw both the hunger and the food. Connecting the two became his passion. Starting a few days a week with bag lunches, made after work in his home kitchen, he began serving meals from the back of a truck to everyone who wanted one. In 2010, Jorge received the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Obama for his service to his neighbor. By 2011, he had served over 100,000 meals for no compensation. He said, “I know these people are waiting for me….you have to see their smile, man. That’s the way I get paid.” Eduardo, one of the regulars said, “I thank God for touching this man’s heart.” And as of 2020, he was still cooking hot meals for day laborers looking for work.
When I was in seminary a group of us would take over the seminary kitchen on Friday mornings and make dozens of burritos to pass out to the homeless in downtown Austin. Several of us recently put together a meal to serve to over 50 of the homeless here in Vidalia. This ministry had to be shut down for now. But what we do know is that this population is growing in our area. I cannot keep enough food in our pantry. I have never been hungry expect on purpose to lose weight but in our world many are going hungry. The reality of this is not to make us feel guilty for not being hungry but to raise our awareness that having compassion for those in need should be a priority as it was for Jesus. The Holy Spirit is still seeking her harassed, helpless sheep though us, God’s contemporary disciples. God empowers us to see and to help all whom God sends us to see!
Ever since chapter 7 in the gospel of Matthew with the completion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been extremely focused on his mission and has seen all who were “troubled and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.” He preaches and performs many healings, attracting large crowds. These stories of Jesus healing people sometimes unexpected people in unexpected ways, always speaks to us of God’s grace and love. He acts out God’s compassion and saving action for humanity. And he realizes that there was more to do than any one man –even he- could do. So he explains to the disciples that the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.
And for the first time in Matthew we get the full list of the twelve disciples-a list that includes Matthew working for the Romans as a tax collector and Simon the Cananaean, who is a zealot committed to the overthrow of the Romans and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. He commissions and empowers his disciples to carry out his ministry, the ministry of God’s kingdom and sends them out into the harvest. The harvest will be complete when many hands join in the task. Yet, from all indications, we have not gained on this task. Daily we read and see the signs that the world is still in need of those who will proclaim, heal, teach and serve for the kingdom of God. Mission is a challenge, but it is urgent!
Karl Barth, perhaps one of the most famous Christian theologian of the last century said, If the church is to be the church, it must be all about mission he wrote: “The church is either a missionary church or it is no church at all.” Being a missionary church doesn’t mean we all have to travel to faraway places. It’s wonderful if we are able to go off to foreign lands but at the core of Jesus’ charge to the disciples is to start “where we are.” You and I are to be missionaries right here in this community doing mission the way Jesus wants it done and the gospel makes it clear that God’s way of mission is to have compassion, to help the poor and the hurting.
This is to be done freely from the heart much like Jorge did with his passing out food to people in NYC or like the group of us who gathered to cook for the homeless here in Vidalia or like those who provide food for our pantry. Jesus talks about giving away freely he says, just as you received from God without payment, give without payment. The love of God begets love. St. Augustine, in his view, put it this way. Life is best seen as a wayside inn, Christians are people who are never captive to money and the world, because like travelers in an inn use tables, cups, and couches for the purpose of not remaining but of leaving them behind, that is the way we are to regard the things of this world. Now, we know this is not easy to do and thankfully we can be a work in progress, always striving and failing but knowing God’s promise of forgiveness.
“Therefore, Paul reminds us today, we have peace with God though our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” It is through the saving work of Jesus by faith we are made right with God. This is why grace is so amazing and why we can be about the work of Jesus in this world. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts” through the Holy Spirit and this love so permeates our very being that we can be certain of the hope of salvation. With the gift of salvation by grace, from a God who gives all the goods we could ever want without payment, we can’t help but get focused on Jesus and be overwhelmed by God’s love.
When we do get inspired by God’s love, our focus is on Jesus’ mission and seeking opportunities for mission right here in our community, and out in the streets, jails and hospitals and possibly in foreign lands. There is work to be done for the kingdom. If not now, when? If not us, then who? It’s not easy work as Jesus warns his disciples but it is rewarding. “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.” This is the promise we can place our hope in today and forever. “And the people all answered as one: Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” On eagles wings this priestly kingdom, holy nation is sent out into the harvest!