Sermon

Harvest, Healing, Hospitality

June 18, 2017
Matthew 9:35-10:15
Speaker:

Sometimes when I read the bible, I am inspired, moved, touched. And other times, I wonder why we are so committed to reading and re-reading this ancient text. We study the text in small pieces, disconnected from its literary context, taken out of its cultural context, and then we try to make sense of it for our own lives thousands of years later. It seems an almost impossible task. And yet we persist, day by day, week by week, trying to find a connection with this old, old story. As Christians, we have the temerity to believe that this text holds something real and relevant for us across time and culture and geography and religion. No wonder we are dependent on a mysterious mix of intellect, imagination and experience for understanding.

Today’s gospel passage contains a number of quotable, familiar phrases. One we might recognize is: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

This little farming metaphor gets quoted often by well-intentioned preachers in an attempt to help listeners understand the urgency of saving souls. I may be unique but when this is preached at me I often end up feeling guilty, inadequate, confused, even manipulated. I don’t want to presume that this has been your experience, but if it has, let’s acknowledge it. Let’s name it. And let’s see if there is another way we might hear what is going on in this passage. Let’s see if we can reclaim the text.

So – here is our dear brother Jesus. He has been traveling throughout towns and villages, teaching in synagogues, preaching the reign of God, and healing various and sundry kinds of diseases. Jesus is unusual in that he not only feels for an individual who is ill or lonely or aimless. Jesus feels compassion for the whole crowd that follows him. Matthew describes the crowds as confused and helpless. They are “sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus understands the crowds, he cares about them and he connects with them. (Given the prevalence of the shepherd metaphor in the tradition, we might wonder if this is a little jab at the religious leaders by Matthew for their own lack of effective and compassionate leadership.)

While this “harvest” metaphor gets used as a motivation to increase the numbers of souls who “believe,” it sounds like the Good News that Jesus preaches is not about belief at all. It sounds like the Good News that is being shared is not about some distant vision but about life in the body, mind and spirit, right now.

Right before this “harvest” passage, Matthew’s gospel gives us accounts of ten different people that Jesus heals. There is a person with leprosy, several people who are paralyzed, a woman with a fever, people possessed by demons, two blind men; he even brings a young girl back to life. Some of these healings happen right in front of him and some happen by faith at a distance. He even “heals” a storm that arises when he is crossing the lake. This traveling preacher’s message is more comprehensive, more integrated, than we usually allow.

What if the harvest metaphor is not about belief but about new understanding? What if Jesus and the disciples are so tired and overwhelmed by the needs of the crowds that follow them everywhere that Jesus chooses this harvest metaphor to re-frame the situation.

Some of you have no doubt have been part of strategic planning where you do a SWOT analysis, looking at the organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Maybe instead of continuing to see the distressed crowds crying out for attention as threats and liabilities, Jesus begins to see them as opportunities. Restored to health, the once overwhelmed, aimless and sick people are now productive members of the community. They are not a problem, they are a vital part of the reign of God.

Reading it this way, it appears that healing is Jesus’ m.o. He majors in wholeness. When Jesus gathers the twelve disciples, preparing to send them out, he gives them authority to expel unclean spirits and heal sickness and diseases of all kinds. This harvest is not simply about souls. This Good News is not just spiritual. It is not about converting people to Christianity. It’s not even about converting people to Judaism. It’s about healing and restoration back to the community.

So is it sheer exhaustion or is it strategy that has Jesus send the twelve out to help with the healing ministry?

If it is strategy, it is quite deliberate.  Only go to places that are Jewish, not even to the Samaritans who have similar religious origins. Jesus asks them to go and do just what he has been doing: proclaim that the Reign of God is near, heal and cure, raise the dead and expel demons. We might spend a lot of time trying to figure out the logistics of healing, life from death and exorcism but these are not the particulars that Jesus and Matthew seem concerned with. Instead the instructions are about how they travel – without money or extra clothing or anything that will make their lives easier as they are on the road. Will such a meager existence make people feel sorry for these travelers or be suspicious of them? They will find out.

Some of this strategy makes sense. Go to the places where you have a better chance of being received, amongst your own people. The disciples are new at this, just beginning their itinerancy. It is best if they go where they might be known, where they may have connections. Sort of like asking to stay with a friend of a friend or your aunt’s cousin’s nephew. But take nothing with them? If all you carry is yourself and your ability to heal, will people even open their doors?

Last summer a friend of Cecilia’s friend called. He was walking and running across the country to heal the earth, to heal himself, to heal Native American communities. He didn’t have much but he offered himself in a genuine way and that was enough. He stayed with us for a night.

A few months later I met two people at a week long Trauma Training event. They were from Colorado, had been at Standing Rock, and now needed a way from Harrisonburg, VA to DC so I gave them a ride. Then they needed a place to stay, so they spent the night. But it turned out what they really needed was a place to stay in Philadelphia since their flight to Denver left from there the next day. I called my cousin in Philly and he said “Sure, I won’t be home but they can come in and stay. I’ll tell them how to find the house key.”

We didn’t know each other, these guests and I, but we all stepped out in trust. No money ever changed hands. In fact, hospitality was offered because they had no money. My guests offered themselves in a humble way that made my own humble offerings seem almost extravagant. I began to understand in a new way what I have to give and how to learn to receive.  I am not sure any of these people would call themselves Jesus followers and yet what Jesus describes did in fact happen – I experienced a blessing of peace from them.

Jesus goes on to tell his disciples what might happen when they use this approach. They might be rejected but that’s ok, just move on, those people will get what’s coming to them. We didn’t hear the whole passage today. Jesus then describes additional possible outcomes: court appearances, floggings in the synagogue, extreme division among families and communities. (I wanted to leave that part out since it’s Father’s Day and Parent/Child dedication Sunday but oh well.)

Proclaiming the Reign of God, healing and hospitality, is not all roses and sunshine – not now and not then under Roman occupation and oppression. But, Jesus says, don’t let the fact that you don’t have much to offer immobilize you. Use what you have, your humble self, to connect with other people, who may in turn offer themselves in connection for healing and hospitality. Of course you will be misunderstood and mistreated but how is that any different from how life is now?

For as much “progress” as we think we have made as humans, the injustices in our own cultural context are overwhelming: another police officer acquitted after shooting an unarmed black man – Philando Castile; families torn apart by draconian immigration policies; whole communities in despair, consumed by the opioid crisis; soldiers using drones to kill remotely so that bodies on the other side of the world are wounded and killed while spirits and minds on this side of the world are morally injured; generational poverty that seems intractable; mass incarceration, hunger, human trafficking, suicide. What can we possibly do?

Maybe Jesus is right. Maybe the place to start is with ourselves – our own body/mind/spirit selves. No extra clothes, no money, no credentials, no big itinerary. If we wait until everything is lined up just right, we will never be ready. If we wait until we have the answers who will want to listen to us anyway. Just offer your humble self.

It’s not quite what we teach our kids about preparedness. But Jesus is not totally naive. He does say, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So you must be as clever as snakes but as innocent as doves. Be on your guard.

I would add that what this looks like to live this out at 15 is probably different than what it looks like at 35 or 50 or 75 but maybe that is just the overly cautious parent in me, a little bit of Jesus’ mother speaking. Mother Mary might also remind us that offering our very selves is not something we do alone. We gather as a community for a reason; Jesus had disciples, we are part of this congregation. And as we offer our true selves we encounter systems that are not always true. We need to work together. We need each other for support and strategy, for laughter and tears, to call us back to our true and best selves.

My friends, we live amidst beauty and brokenness. The harvest is bountiful but the laborers are few. May we have the courage and strength to offer our true and humble selves as laborers for healing and hospitality in the Reign of God.