Living in the Spirit

June 13, 2020

Scripture Reading: Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

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 judgement than for that town. –Matthew 10:5-15

I wrestle with the juxtaposition of receive without payment; give without payment and laborers deserve their food. I have a sense of panic when I realize I am halfway to the grocery store and have forgotten my phone. Yet, I remind myself that most of my life I went everywhere without a phone. It is hard for me to consider setting out on a journey among people I do not know or do not know well without even a change of clothing. Even people who look a lot like me. Jesus apparently expects me to depend on the hospitality of these strangers to feed me. Or am I reading that wrong?

Those are just the practical plans for this mission. When was the last time any of us raised someone from the dead? What does the Lord require of us*? Certainly, in this scripture he is asking for more than is humanly possible. Yet, if we believe Jesus was fully human, he did all these things and more? I do not think Jesus is saying we should not pack a bag or otherwise plan for other necessities as we step out in service to God. I think he may be saying that the only real help we need lives in our relationship with the omnipotent, omnipresent Lord. When we get in sync with the Lord our priorities settle into right places.

We like to throw a little money at problems we see and call it good. I do not think the sins of our world will be washed away without our total commitment to understanding them and using all the gifts with which God endowed us to fix them. Our own greed is probably a great place to start. Greed undergirds poverty, a broken health care system, making criminal justice a for-profit industry, and the desecration of our environment.

Jesus is still sending us out into a world in need of healing with the greatest power of all, God’s love. We are the instrument of that love.

Prayer: Lord, open our hearts to the call of spreading your love across the world. Amen.

*See Micah 6:8

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.