\u201cThen Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. And these are the names of the twelve apostles\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wait a minute! Something\u2019s happening here, something important, but it goes by so fast you may not even have noticed it. In the first sentence, they\u2019re \u201cdisciples.\u201d Then, suddenly, they\u2019re \u201capostles.\u201d What happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if you caught the change, you may not have paid much attention: \u201cdisciples\u201d, \u201capostles\u201d \u2014 what\u2019s the difference? They\u2019re just interchangeable names for the same twelve guys, aren\u2019t they? What\u2019s the big deal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All over the country at this time of year there are young people (and not so young) making the same kind of transition. The papers these weeks are full of reports of commencement speeches, lists of graduates, pictures of young people tossing mortarboards and cadet caps into the air to celebrate their change in status. One minute they\u2019re students, still in training, still learning the ropes, the rules, the formulas and logarithms, syntaxes and structures. Then comes the moment of graduation \u2014 diplomas in hand, shifting tassels from one side to the other, grinning for pictures with proud moms and dads \u2014 and suddenly they\u2019re somebody else, something else: no longer students, but graduates, ready to go out into the world to practice what they\u2019ve been learning for lo these many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019re no longer \u201cdisciples\u201d \u2014 students, learning the disciplines of their craft or trade or profession. They are, in effect, \u201capostles,\u201d people being \u201csent out\u201d into the world to do what they\u2019ve been \u201cdiscipled\u201d to do. That is what \u201capostle\u201d means: someone who is \u201csent out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This passage from Matthew marks the moment when the followers gathered around Jesus \u201cgraduated,\u201d when Jesus seems to have decided that they knew enough, were formed and shaped and changed enough, to be sent out to share the mission and ministry with him. Unlike our contemporary graduates, it wasn\u2019t that they\u2019d completed a nice, tidy set course, with the required numbers of credit hours and proficiency tests and final papers. Discipleship isn\u2019t as easily marked out and measured as that. It was more a matter of Jesus deciding that he\u2019d taught them about all he could, at least for the moment. And he knew that the world needed their ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For several chapters before this story, Jesus has been traveling around, healing and teaching, and the crowds are building. More and more people keep coming, with their pain and their need and their troubles \u2014 \u201charassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,\u201d as Jesus describes them. As he looks on them, he can see the great need \u2014 far more than he alone can reach. And so it is time to add some helpers \u2014 \u201cto send out laborers into the Lord\u2019s harvest\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So Jesus called to him his closest followers, the ones who\u2019d been with him longest and observed the most closely, and passed on to them some of his power \u2014 the power to name and overcome evil, the power to heal and reconcile, power granted to him by the heavenly Father, the one, holy and living God. And then he sent them out \u2014 \u201capostled\u201d them \u2014 with these instructions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cAs you go, proclaim the good news, \u2018The kingdom of heaven has come near.\u2019 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons\u2026Proclaim the Good News, \u2018The kingdom of God has come near.\u2019\u2026It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
And off they went, to do the work in his name, as disciples become apostles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did they do it perfectly? Not at all. The gospels and the book of Acts tell us over and over again of the ways they missed the mark, dropped the ball, fell over their own feet, and generally were the gang who couldn\u2019t shoot straight. They couldn\u2019t understand the parables, didn\u2019t know what he meant when he predicted his own death, slept through his last agonized hours, deserted him as he went to judgment and the cross, barely recognized him when he appeared to them as the risen Christ, and hadn\u2019t a clue what to do when he ascended into heaven. One of them even sold him to the enemy government for a briefcase full of unmarked bills. And yet \u2014 and yet\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a church around the world today, witnessing in every nation to the Good News of God in Christ. The sun never sets on the Christian hope, the faith that proclaims the good news even in the darkest hour, the ocean depths of the love of God. All because the disciples, imperfect as they were, answered the challenge of Jesus to be sent out to proclaim the good news: \u201cThe Kingdom of God has come near.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our baptismal promises include the promise that \u201cwe will, with God\u2019s help, proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.\u201d That\u2019s because we, too, are apostles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, I know you\u2019ve probably always thought that title belonged to those first twelve guys. When was the last time you spoke of yourself as an \u201capostle\u201d? But if you\u2019ve made those baptismal promises, you\u2019ve taken vows as an apostle. You might even try it on for size. Try saying to yourself, \u201cI\u2019m ______ ______. I\u2019m an apostle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All too often we\u2019re tempted to treat our life as a church as if it were an end in itself. We\u2019re happy to gather within the comfort of our worship and our buildings and our communities, just to be in the presence of the Lord. We\u2019ve been content to be disciples, safely gathered around our Lord, shutting out the world. To be an apostle is to risk, to venture, to step outside our close supportive company and into a world of people caught in suffering and fear. It takes courage to be an apostle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The followers gathered around Jesus weren\u2019t much different. They certainly weren\u2019t eager to go out there, outside the comfort of the close circle of friends and companions, where they had to be \u201cwise as serpents\u201d as well as \u201cinnocent as doves.\u201d But Jesus saw the world, grieving and wounded, and knew its suffering, felt it in his own bones, in his own heart. He sent out his first apostles to bear the power of God into the struggle with evil, to heal the sick, to bring the reconciliation of love. And he sends us still, to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chances are you\u2019ve seen this summer\u2019s blockbuster hit movie, Tom Cruise in \u201cMission: Impossible.\u201d If you haven\u2019t seen it, you\u2019ve probably seen the ads. You know the line: \u201cYour mission, if you choose to accept it, is\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good Christian people, as apostles of Christ, we are called to a \u201cmission impossible\u201d: to bring healing, reconciliation, and love to the world, in the power of the grace of God. Each of us has our own places to which we are called \u2014 families, homes, workplaces, clubs and groups \u2014 wherever there are people hurting, searching, in pain. Our world is as full as Jesus\u2019 world was of people who are \u201charassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like the first apostles, we won\u2019t be perfect. We\u2019ll make mistakes, miss opportunities, welsh on our word, betray our Lord. But our Lord is endlessly forgiving. And he keeps sending us back out into the world, in his name. The first apostles, our forebears in the faith, turned the world upside down, in the power of God. You can too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good Christian people, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go out from this church to the world you live in. Name evil and injustice and sleazy practices and work to change them. Touch the sicknesses of the world \u2014 fear, rage, racism, people set against people, hopelessness, despair, emptiness, pain \u2014 and heal it. Say to the world, \u201cThe Kingdom of God has come near.\u201d And don\u2019t worry about how you\u2019ll accomplish it. The words and the ways will come to you, because it will be the Spirit of God moving through you. So the \u201cMission Impossible\u201d will be the \u201cmission possible\u201d in the power of God. This is your mission. How do you choose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by Linda Strohmier<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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