I preached this sermon on the RCL readings for the second Sunday of Pentecost (lectionary 11) at Trinity Lutheran Church.
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We’ve now entered the time after Pentecost, often referred
to as “the long green season.” Our green paraments point to the focus in many
of our readings on growth – the growth of the Church, with a big C, and
individually our growth in discipleship. The growth that takes place in us and
in the Church happens only as a result of God’s nurture and care. By the
presence of the Spirit, we are nourished, experience pruning, and produce
fruit, for the sake of our neighbors.
After hearing most recently about Jesus’ death and
resurrection and the birth of the Church, the lectionary now brings us back to
the earliest days of Jesus’ ministry. Along with his twelve disciples, or
students, Jesus traveled through “all the cities and villages, teaching in
their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the dominion of heaven, and
curing every disease and every sickness.”
Along the way, after observing Jesus and learning from him,
the disciples, or “students,” became the apostles, or “sent ones.” Called by
Jesus, they were commissioned, equipped, and sent out to proclaim the good
news, that the dominion of heaven has come near.
For whom was this “good news”? Though God welcomes all of us
into the reign or dominion of God, the nearness of God’s presence, God’s
justice, and God’s mercy is particularly good news for the oppressed, the sick,
the poor, the abused – basically everyone who is marginalized and disadvantaged
and endangered by the reign or dominion of the world as it stands now.
The world as it stands now is a dangerous place for many
groups of people. Violence, war, poverty, racism – each day’s newspaper seems
like a barrage of stories about the sin and evil that surround us.
Just this week we remember anniversaries of terrible
tragedies inflicted on vulnerable groups of people. We remember and mourn the 9
lives taken at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, shot
and killed because of the color of their skin by a young white man who was
baptized and confirmed at an ELCA church.
We remember and mourn the 49 lives taken and the 58 wounded
at the shooting inside Pulse, a nightclub for LGBTQ+ people in Orlando, Florida.
We remember and mourn the death of Philando Castile, an
African-American man killed during a traffic stop in St. Paul, Minnesota, who
will not receive justice because the officer who unnecessarily used deadly
force on him was acquitted on Friday.
What are we to do in the face of such sin and evil? How do
we respond to the overwhelming weight of the anger, grief, and confusion that
surround us? What is God doing? It certainly doesn’t seem like the reign or
dominion of God is near.
In our reading from the Gospel of Matthew, we hear that
Jesus had compassion for the crowds, in their desperation and need. He said to
his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore
ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers for the harvesting.” Filled
with compassion when faced with crowds and crowds of people harassed and
helpless, Jesus says, “pray.” Pray that God will send laborers, pray that God will
send compassionate people to do the work of addressing the needs in their
midst.
So the disciples pray, and in praying find that they become
the answer to their own prayer. They pray that God will send laborers for the
harvest, and behold! They are those laborers! Trained and equipped, bestowed
with authority, Jesus sends them out to find the lost sheep of the house of
Israel and share with them the good news of the nearness of the dominion of
God.
The same is true for us. God calls us, equips us, and speaks
through us so that our hands and feet might be the answers to the prayers on
our lips.
When we pray that the
sin and evil of racism and white supremacy be removed from our nation; when we
pray for safety and welcome for refugees; when we pray for the hungry to be fed;
when we pray for the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are gay,
lesbian, bisexual, and transgender to be cherished and valued; when we pray for
the families and communities devastated by the opioid epidemic; when we pray
for release for those trapped in cycles of poverty; we should not be surprised
when God works through us to turn our prayer into action.
Empowered by the very Spirit of God, we are the ones who must use our privilege to speak out when
we see this sin demonstrated in our midst; to listen to the stories of those whose
voices have been silenced for too long; to call for action and invite our
neighbors to participate alongside us; to demand justice in the work of our
legislators and government; to work together, participating in God’s desire to
dismantle systems of injustice and oppression that are so very far from God’s
dominion and vision for all creation.
It is God who accomplishes this work, and we are the
laborers. Do not be afraid! Jesus’ words to the twelve apostles are also words
for us: “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking
through you.”
And so we are gathered each week in worship in order to be
equipped and sent out, again and again. Reminded of God’s great love for us, we
are forgiven and nourished. From the table of grace we are sent out of this
place together to use our hands and feet and voices as answers to the prayers
that still linger in our ears.
And we have! Our prayers for the hungry begin to be answered
when we collect canned goods and other non-perishable food items for Community
ministries, and when we give money to ELCA World Hunger. Our prayers for
vulnerable children and people in poverty begin to be answered through our
collection and distribution of school clothes, backpacks and school supplies, Christmas
gifts and baby items, making meals through our partnership with the Circles
program here in Connellsville, and through our financial support of ministries
in our synod like Glade Run, Bethesda Lutheran Services, Lutherlyn, Camp Agape,
and Lutheran Social Services. Our prayers for the sick and lonely begin to be
answered when we visit, call, and send cards and encouragement, and through our
monetary gifts to agencies like Lutheran Senior Life.
And, there are always opportunities to do more – to reach
more hungry and hurting people, to do more advocacy work, to try something new,
to listen to what God may be calling us to pray for and to do.
It is not easy work. It is not without discomfort,
rejection, and hurt. But we are sent knowing that God goes ahead of us and with
us. We go because the need is too great to ignore, and because the good news of
the nearness of God is too wonderful and powerful to keep to ourselves. Thanks
be to God. Amen.
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