Lectionary Year A, Proper 6: June 16, 2002
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, AR

Ex 19:2-8a
Psalm 100
Rom 4:13-18
Mt 9:35-10:8(9-15)

Holy Jesus, Model of Preachers, You who delighted those who heard you with your simple stories and profound thoughts, be with us now. Let the sacred words of scripture fall like seeds upon our spirits, to be nourished by our own flesh and blood. Send forth your spirit and touch our hearts. Amen. [1]

"Jesus taught and proclaimed the good news of the kingdom, and cured every disease and every sickness. [Jesus] had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He summoned his twelve disciples, gave them authority, and sent them out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Jesus commanded them to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons." [2]

Imagine the twelve disciples' reaction to these instructions of Jesus: "Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons." "Say what? Let's get this straight. Do you want all of this done in each village, or is it all right to raise the dead in one town, and perhaps cure one leper in another? Is there a time line to this operation?"

To our ears, Jesus' instructions seem preposterous, but to the Matthean Christian community, who assembled this account sometime very late in the first century, it was crucial to relate that their religious views descended directly from Jesus Himself. So, the Matthean community used the Gospel of Mark as its root text to tell the stories of Jesus' teachings and miracles, and then added and embellished those stories with its own traditions in order to draw a line between believers and non-believers in Christ. [3] The Matthean community saw itself as distinct from everyone else – Jew and Gentile – but firmly rooted in the person of Jesus. So in a few short verses, the Matthean community retells the story of Jesus as a healer, teacher, and preacher. And then in a few more verses the community connects its own belief and value systems to those of its founder and lord, and describes its mission to exactly reflect Jesus' ministry.

It is the mission of the disciples that I wish to concentrate on, for Jesus' words to His disciples are the words we need to respond to today. What we hear in the Gospel is an exhortation to think very hard whether what we do and say is consonant with the Christian faith, or whether we have remade Christian faith to suit our own tastes.

What does it mean to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons? Using imagery that the Matthean community understood, Jesus was equated with the true shepherd. The crowds Matthew referred to were the uncommitted Jews living adjacent to the Matthean community who were being mislead by their leaders. They recognized Jesus as the true shepherd who had compassion for the people; Jesus understood that it was his vocation to care for them. Matthew wanted everyone in the community to understand that it was everyone's job to follow in the tradition of Jesus, and to act as God's agents to bring in the harvest – to do what they could to get the uncommitted people in their midst to follow the Christian Way. In today's passage, Jesus told the disciples to gather the lost sheep of Israel. But by the end of the Gospel, Jesus expanded their work by telling them to go forth and make disciples of all nations.

And it is toward the call to discipleship that Matthew's community speaks directly to us across the centuries. What is it that we can do to spread the good news? How can we become committed disciples to the Christian Way? What can we expect from our efforts?

What we are talking about here is that subject often avoided by Episcopalians: "evangelism." I know that often when we hear that word it invokes images of somewhat scary, often fundamentalist preachers who knock on doors or stand on street corners and ask us to repent of our sins and accept Jesus as our lord and savior!

Matthew's community was in the business of evangelism, because they believed that the second coming of Jesus was right around the corner, and they wanted to reconcile as many people to God as they could before the day of judgment. But Matthew's Gospel doesn't give us many instructions as to how evangelism is to be done. For that, we have to turn to other resources.

The Letter of James instructs us to be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. [4] This letter, although written well after the Gospel of Matthew, tells us that it is by our deeds that we will show forth who we, as followers of Jesus Christ, really are. Last week, Father Grisham told us that Huston Smith believed that the early Christians were extraordinarily egalitarian, and that they genuinely loved and supported one another. And therein lies the key as to how we all become disciples of Jesus Christ, and serve as effective evangelists.

Let me give you an example. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey tell the story of John Kermegan, a leper in Vellore, India. [5] John had an advanced case of leprosy. Both hands and feet were irreparably damaged, and because of one-sided facial paralysis, he could not smile normally. His eyelids were surgically altered to remain partially closed in order to protect his sight. When he tried to smile, his face distorted because of the paralysis, and people would gasp or respond with a gesture of fear.

John caused terrible social problems, probably as a result of the reactions to his marred appearance. He was an angry man and became a trouble maker. In the New Life Center, a treatment center for lepers where he was employed, John treated his fellow patients with cruelty, and once organized a hunger strike against the center's organizers. He was deemed beyond rehabilitation.

The mother of one of the Centers leaders worked with John and led him to the Christian faith. He was baptized in a cement tank on the grounds of the leprosarium. But, his conversion did not end John's loathing of the world. He was still angry at most non patients. He acted like a dog suffering from years of mistreatment.

But one day, almost defiantly, John asked one of the leaders what would happen if he went to the local Christian church. The leader was afraid of what might happen, but he went to the clergy of the church and talked with them. He convinced them that John was not contagious for leprosy. The clergy agreed that John could take communion from the common cup with the other parishioners.

The Center leader took John to the church, which met in a plain white building with a tin roof. It must have been terribly hot, and it was a tense moment for John. You and I cannot imagine the kind of trauma and paranoia that must be inside a person with the deformities John had coupled with the decades of shunning he had experienced. His paralyzed face could not reveal his inner turmoil, but his body trembled. As the leader and John entered the church during the first hymn, an Indian man turned to look at them. What a sight that must have been. A white man standing next to a leper, with patches of skin in garish disarray.

And then it happened. "The man put down his hymnal, smiled broadly, and patted the chair next to him, inviting John to join him." John was stunned. He haltingly shuffled to that row and took the seat.

That single incident of compassion and love proved to be the turning point of John's life. Not long after, the leader of the clinic returned to England. Several years later, the clinic director returned to Vellore for a visit, and toured a factory set up to employ disabled people. The plant manager showed the former clinic director a machine that made tiny screws for typewriters, and introduced him to the employee who had won the parent corporation's all-India prize for the highest quality of work. That man was John Karmegan. The former clinic director described meeting John again in the factory this way: "[When he turned to greet us] I saw the unmistakable crooked face of John Karmegan. He wiped the grease off his stumpy hand and grinned with the ugliest, the loveliest, most radiant smile I had ever seen. A simple gesture of acceptance might not seem like very much, but for John Karmegan it proved decisive." [6]

That Indian man who welcomed John was a disciple of Christ. After a lifetime of bad treatment based on his appearance, he had finally been welcomed on the basis of another Image. That Indian man saw in John the Image of God, and his simple offer of a seat healed John. To be sure, John was still a leper, but his soul was healed by this simple, selfless, loving, evangelical act.

Perhaps the goal of every Christian should be to "go to heaven and take as many people with you." [7] Evangelism is not hard. All it takes is a personal sense of awareness of God's love and a willingness to let that love ignite a light within us that cannot be hidden. That awareness and love are what prompted that Indian man to invite John to sit. It is what you wonderful people did for Brandy, Miriam, and I when you brought a meal and household supplies to us shortly after our arrival.

Did you ever see two people you didn't know holding hands, speaking in soft whispers to each other? You knew they were in love by how they acted toward each other. Their actions and way of behaving told the world how much they were in love with each other. Our Christianity is like that - or should be at least. Our Christianity is revealed by our actions, and those actions are rooted in our own very real personal experience of God's love for us, and our obedience to God's call. So, all we need to be disciples and evangelists is to open our hearts, and to respond to that feeling of love and peace that surpasses human understanding. Once we do that we will be ready and able to go forth as disciples of Christ, to spread the good news, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to respect the dignity of all of God's people – especially those people who are not like us.

Let us pray:

"Lord, help us to care about others enough to share your truth with them. Let us also give generously of our time, energy, and resources as well. No, more than that, Lord. Help us obediently give our entire lives to them and to you. Help us to neither be afraid nor ashamed." [8]

Exodus 19:2-8a

The Israelites had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites."

So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. The people all answered as one: "Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do."

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Psalm 100 Page 729, BCP

Jubilate Deo

1 Be joyful in the LORD, all you lands; *
serve the LORD with gladness
and come before his presence with a song.

2 Know this: The LORD himself is God; *
he himself has made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

3 Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise; *
give thanks to him and call upon his Name.

4 For the LORD is good;
his mercy is everlasting; *
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

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Romans 5:6-11

While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

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Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-15)

Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he 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, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, `The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. [Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town."]

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