For What Purpose? – sermon on June 18, 2017
Matthew 9:35-10:23 Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”
Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness. Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel’s lost sheep. Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received! Don’t take any money in your money belts – no gold, silver, or even copper coins. Don’t carry a traveler’s bag with a change of clothes and sandals or even a walking stick. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve to be fed.
Whenever you enter a city or village, search for a worthy person and stay in his home until you leave town. When you enter the home, give it your blessing. If it turns out to be a worthy home, let your blessing stand; if it is not, take back the blessing. If any household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its dust from your feet as you leave. I tell you the truth, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off than such a town on the judgment day.
Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me. When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking – it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one town, flee to the next. I tell you the truth, the Son of Man will return before you have reached all the towns of Israel.”
Sermon: For What Purpose? by Rev. Doreen Oughton
This past weekend I attended the first ever Tri-Conference Annual Meeting, in which the Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island conferences of the UCC voted to proceed with a plan to form a new conference joining the three. In explaining the rationale, the leaders noted the changes in the Church since the UCC was formed in 1957. The decline in membership and churches is consistent with trends in most denominations, and they want to be proactive in changing with the times, being more efficient with resources. Yes, more and more people say they have no religious affiliation, even though they may believe in God. They identify as spiritual but not religious. Many have valid criticisms of organized religion.
At the Festival of Homiletics I attended last month, Brian McLaren, who has written many books about church revitalization, after serving many years as a pastor, talked about how he has become less friendly on planes over the years, feeling in some ways like the presidential press secretary – having to explain the inexplicable and defend the indefensible. But he said one day the flight was less crowded than usual, and that empty middle seat made him feel a little more open, so he shared some conversational niceties with the man on the other side of the empty seat. Having answered the question about his job by simply saying he was a writer, he was just about to put on his headphones and turn away, when the guy asked what he wrote about. He said he’d been a pastor for many years and now wrote books about the Christian faith and about churches, and the guy mumbled something like, oh I’m not interested in any of that, not into organized religion, and started to put his headphones on. McLaren asked if he might just ask a few questions, and they ended up having a good conversation. Picking up on the phrase “organized religion,” McLaren wondered if the problem people had with religion was that it was organized. Probably not, right? If religion was less organized, it’s not likely that it would be more appealing, is it? McLaren asked if maybe the problem was that it was organized for the wrong purposes, and the man agreed enthusiastically. He asked what the right purposes would be, and the man answered, “I’m not sure, except that I know it is not to protect pedophiles or to make the televangelists rich.” You have to wonder, given a chance, would Jesus want to save organized religion in America in its current form? Or even as it was in its heyday in the late 1950’s and early 60’s? Is and was the Christian religion organized for the right purposes?
You know, Jesus had some serious problems with his religion also. He criticized its leaders as hypocrites, as people who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. He calls them out for how they tithe mint, dill and cumin, but neglect justice, mercy and faithfulness. He talks about how they want the places of honor at banquets, and crave affirmation, wanting to be respected in the marketplaces. He overturned the tables of the Temple money changers, and talked about how the Temple would be demolished. But he didn’t opt out. He would go off to the desert to pray, sure, but he didn’t stay there. He didn’t open up a bread and fish market, or a little wine bistro, spending time in nature, watching the sunset or hanging out with his friends pondering the big questions of life. He didn’t sell out and he didn’t give up. He had concerns about the integrity of the religious institution he was part of, and with the political situation as it was -occupation by Rome and growing unrest among the Israelites – he likely feared for its survival as well. Jesus was clear about his purpose. He did not come to make organized religion great again. He did not come to get more people to join the Temple and to tithe. Instead he came to model a new way of life that could outlast the organized religion of his day. He began to organize people of faith for the right religious purposes.
This morning’s reading begins with a surge of compassion. Jesus is modeling this new way of life – teaching and healing. He sees crowds everywhere he goes, crowds of people yearning for what he has to offer, people confused and helpless. When he says how the harvest is great, I believe he is not thinking of exploiting these lost souls, bringing them to the synagogue simply to fill the pews and pledge their money. He is thinking of the fruit they may bear when they are saved from aimlessness and confusion – when they realize they have value and purpose. Sure, they might join the synagogue, but more importantly, they will bless their families and communities through acts of love and mercy, the same love and mercy that saved them. The harvest is great, but the workers are few. Jesus needed help in bringing his way of life to all who needed it. So he sends out his closest followers – the 12 apostles. He organizes them and instructs them. He tells them they are not to do this for profit, but to give freely. He authorizes them to cast out demons, heal diseases, even raise the dead, and to proclaim the kingdom at hand. He coaches them on how to deal with rejection, how to get their basic needs for food and shelter met. He cautions them to be as wise as serpents and to do no harm, to be as gentle as doves. He cautions them that they will be harassed, even physically attacked or arrested, and assures them that even then God will speak through them, will work through them. He sends them out so that they know that they can make a difference, and the message they are to give others is that they too can make a difference.
So what might this reading mean for us? Do we know that we can make a difference, and that we can let others know that they can too? How do Jesus’, and others’, critiques of religion apply here at FCC? Remember that Jesus calls out the religious leaders, not the followers. Brian McLaren noted, in that auditorium full of mainline Protestant clergy, that there were probably not many getting rich, but didn’t most of us seek affirmation and respect? Weren’t we driven at least in part by a desire to be liked, to get compliments on our sermons, to avoid offending and upsetting people? He wondered how often we got caught up in trivialities at the church, fretting about crowd numbers, comparing ourselves to other churches and church leaders, maybe concerning ourselves too much with people knowing the correct doctrine, or how things used to be. And certainly there are many ministers and churches that fall right into step with the worldly values that scripture tells us God abhors – a focus on material success and security and exclusionary practices, a primary focus on self-preservation. It could be that suspicion and even disdain for organized religion is the best gift organized religion could receive. It could be that it causes us to wonder and consider honestly what we are organized for, and then realign ourselves with Godly purposes.
And what then, are Godly purposes? We need to look to Jesus. Healing, mercy, reaching out to those on the margins, affirming the worth and value of every person. He speaks of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, freeing the captive. I would say he is concerned with the common good, with the well-being of everyone, not just a select few. In this reading he sends his apostles only to the house of Israel, but his heart is opened to the gentiles later in his ministry as he is touched by the persistence and the faith of the non-Jews who seek him out. There’s that compassion again. Jesus bases his ministry on the principles he learned in the Hebrew scripture, the things he learned from the great prophets that came before him – to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Like that ancient Temple in Jerusalem, we are vulnerable also. We don’t know what will happen to organized religion in the future, what “church” will look like. But no matter what happens, we still have this way of Jesus we can follow. I declare that there will still be gatherings of faithful people where they can sing and pray and give thanks, where they can support each other and remind each other of the very real difference each one can make. We can start or continue to organize for Godly purposes. We can partner up with allies of every faith – Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, even the SBNR’s and atheists who want to save the planet, work for peace, and stand for the dignity of every person. We can wonder together about God’s ideas of justice, and whether we share the same ideas. If not, why not, and are we willing to be transformed? The way forward for this church and so many others is not clear. But I believe it will become more clear when we decide that we want to be organized for God’s purposes, and not our own. We make the path by walking it. May it be so.
