Pentecost 2A
Text: Matthew 9:35-10:8
Sermon by Rev. Robert Klonowski
Faith Lutheran Church, Homewood, IL
June 14, 2010
Following Instructions
The first sentence of the Gospel lesson this morning comes to us with a word of healing, with the refreshing prospect of welcome, welcome relief. Jesus went about all the cities and villages, we are told, teaching, proclaiming the Good News, and … curing every disease and every illness. Hearing that we pray, O come, Lord Jesus, indeed! Come to our city, come to our village, and cure the sickness we know, indeed.
The second sentence of the lesson tells us about Jesus’ reaction to the situation. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Compassion. That is the motivating factor, for what Jesus is about to do here, later in this passage. His heart went to them. The New Testament Greek word that is used here, that we translate as compassion, means literally to feel in one’s body, to feel in the viscera, in the gut. Seeing what he saw, hearing what he heard, Jesus felt it like a punch to the gut.
Is there better evidence anywhere of the truth of the Incarnation, of the fact that God in Christ became as the creed says, truly human? Our God: truly human! For what could possibly be more human, than to feel it in the gut, when you see, when you hear of, the harassment and helplessness and suffering of another?
Have you had coronavirus infection in your family? I have. I got the news from my brother by text, and that moment of looking at that message, was a punch in the gut. So far it looks like everybody’s going to be okay, so far, but we all – all of us – live now with stories in our lives, of how the threat has come so close. Did I say close? No; not merely close: of how the threat has hit us where we live. Punch in the gut.
Have you suffered in the economic dislocation? You have, I know. Every week I’m talking to another member of our community who has lost a job; another one with the news of a significant pay cut; a couple of our people whose stores were looted a couple of weeks ago. Punch in the gut, people getting news like that. Punch in the gut for me, too, to hear day after day about people I love living with the news, with the uncertainty, with the threat.
Have you wondered at it, along with me, have you wondered to see the calls for justice in our streets these weeks? To see the strength of the reaction, how widespread – in how many cities? – and how long it’s going on? What’s up with that, this time?
Some of it, I think, is the punch in the gut factor. No one who’s human could watch the George Floyd video, without feeling your insides were being torn out. I had a conversation last week with the chief of the Chicago Heights police department – we were at a protest for justice together – and I heard him talking the same way: My heart sank, he told us, for that man killed like that, and my heart sank, too, on behalf of the 80 people in my department who wear the uniform. The strength of the reaction, of all of us, is because, well, what could possibly be more human, than to feel it in the gut, when you see, when you hear of, the harassment and helplessness and suffering of another?
Not unlike when a couple of years ago one of our African-American members of Faith, a member of our Council, shared at a Council meeting his own experiences of racial injustice. You feel it in your gut when it’s happening to your fellow church member, when it’s happening to your grandson. Tears your guts out, in fact.
So it is, too, when God’s own self takes on flesh, when it’s then God’s own guts that are torn. That’s the motivating factor for what Jesus has come to do, is about to do among us.
And so it is that we come to … well, what is it exactly that Jesus does do about it, when the punches in the gut come? Jesus is the great healer, right?, so you would expect him to get crackin’ and get healin’. Jesus is God, and so as powerful as you please; time for Jesus to start doing something about these situations, don’t you think?
And Jesus does; yes. Jesus does, but what he does in the first place is invite the disciples to pray, not for him to do more, but for more laborers to move out into God’s harvest.
And then what he does, is summon his disciples – and that would be you, wouldn’t it? A disciple of Jesus, are you not? – and he gives us the authority to do his work, it says.
And then what he does, is he sends us out, we are told, with the following instructions. With some instructions, for following: “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.”
People of God, we live right now in a time of pandemic, in a time of monstrous economic dislocation, and in a time with cries for racial justice ringing in our streets, in our cities, in our small towns and neighborhoods. Whatever are people like us to do about such things?
Well, people of God, this Gospel lesson says that we are sent out with following instructions:
Cure the sick. People of God, be about all the ministries that heal. In these times there are medical ministries, emergency response ministries, therapeutic ministries, nursing ministries, administrative ministries, IT ministries, delivery and grocery ministries; all part of the ministry of healing in this time. Step up and be them, those of you called to such ministries. Step up and support them, those of you who are the rest of us. Step up and pray for them. We’ve got our instructions, so we disciples, we’re gonna cure the sick.
Raise the dead. Every day we see the new number, deaths by Covid. People of God, you have been sent; so what are you gonna do about that number? What does the Lord require of you, but to be absolutely rigorous about what you have to do to keep people safe? Pitch in with the community response; wear your mask when indoors in public places; wash your bloomin’ hands; don’t take unnecessary trips; keep your distance; take the science seriously, and think, think, think! Our experience in Illinois has proved this already: We do this, and people who would have died, will not. In my book that qualifies as nothing less, than raising the dead. We’re just going about it a little backwards is all: we’re gonna raise the dead, by lowering the mortality rate. Net results are the same.
And what was that last instruction, Jesus? Oh, yeah, cast out demons! I submit to you that is exactly what we are about these days, in these days of public action and a national conversation to respond anew to matters of racial injustice. I’ve got a pastor friend who is all depressed about what is happening, who tells me we’ve been trying to address these issues for all of our adult lives and careers, Bob, nigh unto 40 years, and it doesn’t make any difference and we’re still suffering from it. I need to disagree with him: we haven’t been doing this for 40 years; our country has been beset by the demons of racism and injustice for 400 years and more, because if there’s one thing true about the devil, and if there’s one thing true about this devil in particular, it’s that he never gives up. He’ll come back at you again and again with his warping and corrupting and sickening ways of fear and greed and racism and hate; and with his siren songs of patriarchy and privilege and supremacy; and with his death-dealing ways of dominance and violence.
Your heart breaks. Your gut is punched in. And from Jesus you get your marching orders, O people of God: Cast out demons. Cast out demons. Let this demonic thing that has bedeviled us forever and a day, let it be gone. It’s an exorcism that we’re doing right now; we’re throwing out the devil, is what we’re doing. And we’ve got to, because we’ve got our instructions from Jesus, our following instructions: wherever you find ‘em, you cast out those demons of yours.
You know, they keep tellin’ me that the churches are shut down right now. And they tell me that people are having a hard time finding God in the difficult days we’re living. My take is different. I’m seeing God in all this difficult stuff, and I’m living surrounded by the Church. For I notice that, for the people of God, the following instructions? They are just the same as ever:
Cure the sick.
Raise the dead.
Cast out demons.