Sermon - June 18, 2023 - The Rev. Jack Alvey

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight,

O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

Well, Happy Father's Day.

It says, father and son will go at it.

Parent or child will rise up against parent.

It's a great uplifting Father's Day message.

I'll go a little bit earlier in Matthew, start there.

In the first verse of Matthew 10, which is the second paragraph in your bulletin for this Gospel lesson,

the twelve are called disciples.

Disciples are literally those who are followers or apprentices or students.

Up until this point in Matthew's Gospel, the twelve have followed Jesus.

They have learned from Jesus. They've sort of been in a classroom setting.

In the following verses in Matthew, however, we hear Jesus commission or send the disciples into the mission field.

And then they are called apostles.

Disciples follow, apostles are sent.

So Jesus is sending his students to gather the lost sheep of Israel.

The twelve go from being students in a classroom to workers in the field.

They're basically unpaid interns.

While these first apostles do not get paid in the traditional sense,

Jesus does equip them by giving them the authority to cure the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers.

Jesus even gives them a job description.

Unlike many employers, Jesus even warns the apostles of what the pitfalls of the job might be.

You're going to be hated by your family. You're going to be persecuted.

And when Jesus asks if there are any questions, they say, when can we start?

Now, this sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

Jesus sees a lost and lonely people who are harassed and helpless like a sheep without a shepherd.

And his solution is to gather a group of lost and lonely men to solve the problem.

Sounds desperate, sounds short sighted, sounds like someone didn't call their references.

Sounds like a failure from the word go.

Jesus is going to be the laughing stock of all Jerusalem.

God, who is Jesus, has been laughed at before, though.

In today's lesson from Genesis, God promises 100 year old Abraham and 90 year old Sarah that they're going to have a baby.

First of all, this is two lifetimes past normal childbearing years.

In addition, this isn't the first time God has made this promise.

Of course they're going to laugh. What else is there to do?

As we all know, the climax of God's salvation story is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

God's plan of salvation is accomplished through the cross, through an instrument of death.

And as our lesson from Romans reminds us, God doesn't just die for the good ones.

God died for us while we were still sinners.

The story keeps on getting more ridiculous, doesn't it?

What would possess God to go to such lengths to save us?

Even more, what would possess anyone, especially these first apostles, to follow God to such lengths?

What about the ministry of Jesus is so compelling that we would follow?

Even more, what would compel us to even go when he sends us?

24 years ago this month, I met a man named Chris Greer, who served as a deacon in the Episcopal Church in Valley Cruces, North Carolina.

He started a ministry called Towel Ministry, who served those who lived in poverty in rural North Carolina.

Chris and his team helped repair and make needed improvements to homes in the area.

This is a way to model the compassion of God and the truth of God with us.

In addition, the ministry also served teenagers who were brought up in upper middle class communities.

I say that it served teenagers because Chris didn't really need a group of well-to-do teenagers to repair these homes.

In fact, these teenagers probably did more harm than good.

He probably had to go back behind us and fix all that we messed up.

But these teenagers needed to be a part of this mission for their own good.

They too needed to know the compassion of God.

They too needed to know the truth of God with us.

I know I needed that mission trip for my own soul and my own salvation.

As someone who grew up in an upper middle class neighborhood, I was not really exposed to poverty as a young person.

I mean, I knew we were well off from an intellectual point of view.

I really didn't know how well off we were.

Yes, my parents reminded me all the time of how lucky we are to have so much.

I knew there were starving kids in Africa.

However, my frame of reference was limited to how the top 5% live.

And so these trips to North Carolina every year helped broaden my frame of reference.

I realized that many of the hardships that I experienced paled in comparison to those living in poverty.

These trips helped me grow in compassion, which is one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.

And I'm still working on it.

Compassion really just means to suffer with.

Compassion means to be with someone in their suffering.

It's more than just feeling sorry or having pity.

Compassion is to join someone.

Compassion is pity converted into action.

And it isn't something we can learn by reading books.

It isn't learned in the classroom.

It's only it can only is a gift only gained from experience when we go out and see the world.

So Jesus not only sends the 12 out for the sake of the world, but also for the sake, but for their own sake,

so that they can grow in compassion thanks to Chris Greer and a host of others.

We were given the gift of compassion on those mission trips.

If there's one thing the world needs more of, it's compassion.

There's no such thing as too much compassion, for it is compassion that compels us to follow Jesus.

It is compassion that moves us to follow a Messiah whose instrument of salvation is an instrument of death.

Reason and logic will tell us that God's plan for salvation is ridiculous.

Compassion, however, will tell us there's no other way than through the cross.

There's no way around pain and suffering only through it.

In the end, it is the compassion of God that saves the world.

In today's Gospel lesson, we are told that Jesus is moved to help the lost sheep of Israel because he is filled with compassion.

Biblical scholars will tell you that compassion is formed in the womb or in the gut.

Sound familiar?

Compassion is born from the womb of God.

Compassion is that feeling we get in our stomach when we see pain and suffering.

Compassion is God's way of getting our attention, compelling us to do something.

And compassion can be a very scary feeling.

Compassion has the power to move us towards some pretty uncomfortable places, both physically and emotionally.

Compassion might move us to visit those places in this world that aren't as safe as our neighborhoods.

Compassion might move our hearts to experience sadness or anger or a general sense that things aren't the way they should be.

And we can try to ignore these feelings.

We can try to distance ourselves from those places where there is human need and suffering.

By doing so, I believe we're only shutting ourselves off from the gift of compassion,

ultimately from the heart and soul and womb of God.

Compassion can render us powerless, make us feel unequipped to address the immense pain and suffering in this world.

And I think that's kind of the point.

We can't fix all the world's problems.

Sure, there are plenty of fixable problems, and we as a society have an obligation to try and fix them.

However, most problems require more than a handyman or expertise.

For example, according to the Gottman Institute, 69 percent of marital problems are perpetual.

That means only 31 percent of problems are resolved.

And these percentages come from marriages that don't end in divorce.

So how do all these marriages survive, even thrive?

Remember the vows that we made?

I am with you for better and for worse and sickness and in health and prosperity and adversity.

I am with you until the end.

And this is why marriage is considered a sacramental rite, because marriage is an hour and invisible sign that God is with us no matter what.

When Jesus sends the twelve out on a mission to gather the lost sheep of Israel, he tells them to take nothing for their journey, rely on the hospitality of strangers.

Other than being giving the authority to heal a few diseases, the only thing they have to offer is the good news of the kingdom.

News that says God is with you no matter what.

A truth revealed fully on Calvary when Christ is crucified.

In the end, only the promise of God with us can provide any kind of lasting hope or healing.

God didn't send his son to fix a broken world.

God sent his son to love a world that is short on compassion.

God didn't send his son to fix the world so we could go back to doing things like we did and just break it again.

God sent his son to love us so that we might grow in compassion and soften a world that has been hardened by sin and indifference.

This past week during Vacation Bible School, our young people worked on a few outreach projects to help serve the hungry in our community.

In a small way, their frame of reference was broadened a little bit.

Room to grow in compassion.

I think that's really important.

I'm glad we did that.

But I encourage us to take the next step.

Consider taking your children, your youth to Avondale one Thursday this summer to feed the hungry.

Or you might go to First Light, a shelter where we serve women and children a meal once a month.

Like some of our families, maybe this will become a part of your regular rhythm in life.

You might also look into sending your child or you yourself going to Sawyerville or special session.

I know some of our adults took a meal to Sawyerville this past week.

Emily was at special session with Bartley.

Sawyerville provides a day camp, literacy programs, and more to young people in Hale County who have limited resources.

Special session at Camp McDowell provides an opportunity for adults with disabilities to have a summer camp experience where they sort of are freed from the normal limitations of this life.

Now, by doing these things, we're not going to end world hunger.

We might raise the literacy level of some.

We're not going to cure any chronic diseases.

But you will share and find the compassion of God.

You will share and find the truth of God with us no matter what.

You will share and find the good news of a kingdom that inspires hope in a world full of despair.

And that, my friends, is why we follow Jesus.

Even more, that is why we go when Jesus sends us.

You might be asking, when can we start?

Just as soon as you can.

The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few.

Amen.

And now we proclaim our faith.