June 15 - Called to be a Part of God’s
Happy Fathers Day – A card included this
note:
“Dad, everything I know I learned from you,
except one thing I learned on my own:
The family car can do 100 mph.’
When Jesus saw the crowds,
he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep
without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is
plentiful…” Matthew 9:36
Jesus looks at the crowd -- lost and
scattered, like sheep without a shepherd, wandering in different directions –
and away from God’s way. The needs of
the crowd are envisioned by Jesus as a vast field, awaiting harvest - and an
occasion for mission.
Have you ever been grocery shopping late on
Friday afternoon, when the lines are long at the cash register? Do you enjoy standing in line for a
long time, waiting for your turn?
Of course not. And so there is a sigh of
relief when you hear the voice of HEB manager on the loud speaker:
"Cashiers to the front please." And you want them now. The
crisis at hand is now and needs to be solved now.
Down in the
valley at certain times of year you may hear radio advertisements calling for
pickers. When the fruit is ripe, it needs to be picked immediately, so
you’ll hear advertisements "workers for the fields are needed
now." Those workers are needed now in the fields when the harvest is
ripe.
So Jesus says: "The harvest is plentiful, but the
laborers are few… 9:37
They are ready to hear and receive God’s
word. But the challenge is
overwhelming. What’s
needed are harvesters – laborers – those who can help Jesus do what he wants
done.
So the twelve are told to
pray.
Pray, “ask the Lord of the harvest to
send out laborers into his harvest."
9:37
Pray for more laborers - people to help
bring in the lost sheep - They pray unaware that they will be the ones provided
by God to answer their own prayer. Jesus
sends them out: Go to the lost sheep of the house of
Maybe
you’ve noticed that before. You pray for
God’s help – pray and pray. And finally
you get the message: the Lord will empower you so that you can be the answer to
your own prayer.
Up until now, the disciples have been like
passengers in the car and Jesus has been doing all the driving. They’ve been astonished at what they’ve seen,
but He’s made all the decisions, handled all the tricky moments, steered them
through the towns and villages, and taken all the criticisms. Now He’s telling them to go
out and so it themselves. Rather
ordinary guys, who as far as we know, have had no special training.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see how
they would feel. You want us to do
what? By ourselves?
Two months after 9-11 Pastor Kelly Fryer
took her first post 9-11 plane trip. She
got to the airport early, waited on the long lines to clear security, and ended
up being the last person to get on the plane.
As she made her way down the aisle to the
last seat on the plane, way in the back, pulling a little suitcase, and
carrying her brief case and lap top, a flight attendant came up to her and
addressed her by name. He helped her
with her gear and made small talk: “Why are you going to D.C.? What kind of conference are you going
to? What do you do?” And so on.
Then he went back to his duties and the
plane backed away from the gate.
Suddenly that helpful flight attendant reappeared and crouched down next
to her seat. “Kelly”, he said in a
conspiratorial whisper. “See that guy
sitting two seats in front of you on the other side of the aisle? If he does anything suspicious, let me know.”
Then he stood up and walked away.
Kelly was dumbfounded and thought “9-11 must
have made that flight attendant go off the deep end.” Then she thought “What if that guy does do
something suspicious?”
She never took her eyes off him the whole
way to D.C. And nothing happened.
As they were deplaning, Kelly thought maybe
she should report the odd behavior of that flight attendant.
The man she was watching was just head of
her in line as they exited. There were a
few people waiting at the end of the jet way and two of them stepped in front
of that guy, flashed ID and said something about being FBI agents. Two uniformed police officers put the guy in
handcuffs and led him away.
Are you kidding. Kelly thought.
You gotta be kidding. I mean, am I the
best plan they’ve got?
Our Lord Jesus calls ordinary people like us
to assist him in his world changing, kingdom inaugurating work. And you think Are
you kidding. Am I the best plan He’s
got.
You believe in Jesus, but can you believe
that he believes so much in you. He
seems potential in you that you don’t realize.
He’s more confident about your abilities than you are.
And you are part of His plan. We are the only body that the Risen Christ
has in the world. For someone out there,
you may be the only person they know who will act in Christ-like way – share
His love and compassion.
We are called, sent out to do His work. You
can be his voice speaking His word - words of comfort and encouragement. Or His ears listening
compassionately to another. You can be His hands and feet in ministry as
you visit the sick, or welcome the stranger, or show hospitality to someone
different from you. You are called to be
the body of Christ in the world.
Anticipating our reluctance, the authors of
the gospels don’t hesitate to point out the weaknesses and failures of the
first disciples. They were far from
perfect, sometimes seem like slow learners, and Jesus even called them “Little faith’s”.
And yet these very ordinary people are given his authority, and sent out to
minister - to do what they saw him doing.
It would be impossible if they had to
do it on their own
- and I suppose that’s the point: It is
not by their power, but by the power of God working through them. The Lord gives us the power to accomplish the
tasks that He has assigned to us.
But for that power
to be effective,
there are two things we must do: First,
trust in His promise that He’ll
empower you, and, second, start
working on the task He has given you - begin even though’ you’re not
sure how you will accomplish it, trusting that He will provide what is needed
at the appropriate time.
You can only
experience His power, as you accept the assignment. When you put your faith into practice, then
you experience the power.
His Spirit will empower us for any task he
puts before us, just a he empowered them.
In spite of their limitations and failures, they accomplished a great
deal, because they learned to rely on His strength and power.
That’s one reason we come to church – to be
reinvigorated for the tasks he sets before us – to be reminded that he gives us
the gifts we need to do His work and empowers us with His life-giving
Spirit.
To be a follower of Jesus is to be a
participant in Christ’s mission to love and bless the world. This mission comes to us and it
goes through us to others.
What are we
being sent to do? Share the blessing and love
of Christ.
Our task is to share the love of Jesus in word and deed with others - His love and His acceptance, that through our actions they may see the
love of God in action. Our task is to
bring hope.
As Paul explains, “God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ
died for us.” Romans 5:8
We know the love that God has for us - His
acceptance of us as we are - His mercy and forgiveness - and faith in that love and mercy brings us peace and hope
Peace and hope that can sustain us
through life’s difficulties, as Paul wrote:
“And not only that, we can boast even in the midst of our
suffering
knowing that suffering
produces endurance,
and endurance
produces character,
and character
produces hope
and hope does
not disappoint us,
because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through
the
Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Romans
5:3-5
A hope that does not disappoint, because our future is in the hands of someone
who loves us, the Lord, and He will bear us up on eagles
wings…
With His love and the hope it provides, we
have the power to make it through
difficult situations, because we know he will stand by us, and never let
us down. That peace and love, that faith and hope is something worth
sharing.