Loving God, you call us to come to you and be healed, and then you send us out as messengers of Christ.  Help us to see clearly the gifts that you have given us and how we can be part of your mission in the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
 

    At the National Convention last week in Vancouver, we heard the story of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Frederickton, NB.  Five years ago, St. Matthew’s was a small, struggling congregation in an aging building with no pastor.  The congregation, however, made the decision to tear down the church building and build some affordable housing units on the same site.  Because of government funding that was available in order to build low income housing, the congregation ended up paying very little (or perhaps even nothing) toward the construction costs.

    The congregation now manages a four storey, 45 unit, low income housing building in the middle of Frederickton.  St. Matthew’s worships in a common area in the building.  Apparently the government grants allowed for a common area, but would not allow a chapel or a church within the building.  St. Matthew’s is now a growing congregation, and many of the residents of the building also join in the Sunday worship.

    Another story was told about Birch Hills Lutheran Church in Saskatchewan.  Birch Hills is also a small congregation in an area with a declining population.  A few years ago, the congregation was reeling from a split that saw nearly half of the congregation leave.  Those who remained wanted to find a way to be in mission for others, and they decided that one thing that they did very well was farming.  Thus began a project where the congregation rented two quarters of land in order to plant a crop together.  They did fund raising in order to be able to afford to do the seeding and worked together with other members of the community.

    Because of grants from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), whatever they contributed to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank would be multiplied.  In the past 5 years, the congregation has raised $100,000 in grain, which has become $500,000 distributed internationally through Canadian Lutheran World Relief.  It appears that small groups of people can do great things!  Yet, isn’t it easy to just throw up our hands in despair and lament that things aren’t like they used to be, and find all the reasons why we can’t do anything?

    The disciples could have easily given up in today’s gospel.  They were sent out, basically as transients.  They were all lower class, uneducated men – certainly not going to be noted for their skill in preaching or teaching.  They were sent out, carrying nothing, and expecting to rely on the hospitality of each community.  Truthfully, the only thing that these men carried with them was the authority that had been given to them by Jesus.

    It is entirely likely that reactions to the disciples were much the same as the reception that Jesus got in his hometown of Nazareth.  Especially those of the upper class and of the religious elite would have been offended by the audacity of these disciples to claim that God could ever work or speak through them.  So, some would be offended, but some, too, took what the disciples said to heart and changed their minds, turning away from their sinfulness in order to live under God’s grace.  Some, too, would come to the disciples for healing and would be freed from the demons that were haunting them.

    Wouldn’t it have been easy for the disciples to find every excuse in the book not to go and do what Jesus said?  “I’m just a fisherman.  I’m just a tax collector.  I’m just an illiterate and uneducated man.  I’m just an ordinary person.  I’m just a learner.  I’m just an average, run of the mill Joe.”  Instead, the disciples answer Jesus’ call to go and share the good news, and even to be the good news for the people in the surrounding villages.  And it is the authority and the power given to them by Jesus that allows them to do this.  And how many of you would have been happy to go and do the same?

    Here’s another question for you: How many of you think of mission and evangelism as things that other people do?  Quite frankly, you wouldn’t be alone if you said “yes.”  What if I were to tell you that mission is living out your baptism every day?  Mission is living as if Jesus is alive, and not dead.  So, we’re not talking about a program.  We’re not talking about going to people and saying, “we’re going to change you to become like us.”  Instead, we’re talking about being the good news of God in our world today.

    Just as with the disciples, our excuses really don’t hold any water.  “I’m just one person.  I’m just a mechanic, or farmer, or housewife, or secretary, or welder, or retired.  I’m just a person in the pew.  I don’t know the Bible very well.  My faith isn’t strong enough.”  God knows exactly who you are and what you have to offer.  And God pours out the Holy Spirit on you in baptism, and claims you as his own child, and forgives you, and empowers you, and makes his home in your heart.  And then God calls you to be the person that God intended you to be – fully alive, free from the power of sin and death, and living in the love of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

    Evangelism is not something that you go out and do, or that somebody else goes out and does.  Rather, evangelism is how you live your life.  Evangelism is showing by how you live that Jesus is alive, and that God loves you and everybody else, and that you have the life and the love of God within you.  And if this sounds too difficult, simply allow the Holy Spirit to be at work both within you and through you.

    Now, lest you be worried about your ability to be a messenger of Jesus Christ and to be the good news in your daily life, keep in mind that God has a long history of recruiting mediocre messengers.  Moses, we are told, was not a very good speaker (Ex. 4:10), and Paul as well, if we are to believe his letters (2 Cor. 10:10).  The disciples certainly were not standard messenger material, and even Jesus was looked down on simply because he was a carpenter – a lower class occupation in those days.  Yet, God delights in working through people who might not be very highly regarded by worldly standards.

    God also delights in living in you and in me, healing our hurts, forgiving our sins, and filling our hearts with the love and peace that come from faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus would have happily done the same for the people of Nazareth, but they didn’t bother to come to him to seek healing and new life.

    Today, may we be among those who come to Jesus and receive his healing love.  Then, may we also be among those who live as signs of hope in our world, being the good news, even as we are sent out as messengers of Christ.  Amen.

Lectionary 14 (B)                                Mark 6:1-13
July 5, 2009
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2009 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved