Sunday Serman 14th June 2020
MATT 9:35-10:8 CCM 14 June
I remember a while back, I woke up about 2am and for some reason couldn’t get back to sleep again. So I got up, laid on the sofa with a hot drink and switched on the TV. I don’t usually watch TV in
the middle of the night, but I discovered that’s the time when the American religious broadcasts are shown.
I watched 3 programmes. The first two ended with the hosts saying something like: send us money for our programmes and you will be blessed. The third ended with the host saying “buy this book
for $100 and you will receive God’s blessing”. I went back to bed after that, absolutely appalled. In fact, I was so appalled my husband was very lucky that I didn’t wake him up just to complain.
For the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans makes it clear to us that receiving God’s blessing has nothing at all to do with whether we buy a particular book. If we can afford to buy an expensive book, that’s fine, and if we can afford to give generously, that’s fine too. But those things are a response to God’s love, not a condition of God’s love
Paul writes that we are justified by our faith. Through Jesus we enter into a new relationship with God. One of my study Bibles says that we are now friends of God. Isn’t that wonderful? To be a friend of God. That is how we receive God’s blessing, because of his love rather than because of anything which we can do to deserve it.
God’s love is a free gift.
The Gospel of Matthew is the Gospel which is most reflective of Jesus Jewish background. Matthew’s community was a small group of Jewish Christians, living in a wider Jewish community. He wanted to encourage this small faith community, and to help them understand who Jesus is in the context of the history of God’s relationship with Israel. He wanted to connect Jesus the Messiah with their religious history.
That’s why Matthew uses much imagery which is common in the Hebrew Scriptures. The image of workers for the harvest, and the image of Israel as a flock of sheep without a shepherd would have
been easily understood by Matthew’s audience, because this reflected their lives.
Moses was a shepherd, King David was a shepherd and the subsequent rulers of Israel were supposed to care for the people in that same way that a shepherd would nurture his sheep. But what Jesus can see in the crowds who follow him is that the people of Israel are devoid of true leadership. Israel is the flock which needs the leadership which only Jesus, and now his disciples, can provide.
The disciples are to be sent to a very specific group of people: the lost sheep of Israel only, and not to any other people. The Gentiles and all others will receive Jesus ministry after the sheep of
Israel have been fed. It always intrigues me that we first meet some of the disciples earlier on in Matthew’s Gospel, but it’s only now that Matthew tells us exactly who they are. And it’s interesting how Jesus called the disciples. He didn’t call for volunteers, he didn’t force them to join the
team, or ask them if they had something better to do with their lives.
They weren’t called because they were especially talented, or smart, or good-looking. But they were willing. In fact, the Gospels don’t tell us much about these men at all, and yet it was because of
them that we know about Jesus and his ministry. In the list of twelve disciples, we have Matthew the tax collector, Simon the zealot, a known political activist, and a collection of fishermen. Probably not what we might call the dream team.
But now they are not just the people who hang around with Jesus, they are on a mission. And it’s the same as Jesus mission: to teach, to love, to liberate, to heal people from the things which
oppress them, and to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.
Nothing has changed for followers of Jesus since that time. As believers, we have the same mission; we are to proclaim the Good News, and most importantly, to love.
When I first visited Mandurah parish to meet with Fr Ian and to discern whether God wanted me to be here in this ministry, Mike and I drove down on a Thursday morning. And I have to say that I was so delighted with what we found here.
There were so many people around the church: the Orange Sky van was outside, the book shop was open, there were people serving morning tea and lots of people sitting around talking with each other.
I was pleased to see so many people around because churches should be open during the week and there should be lots of people engaged in ministry of every kind. In fact, Fr Ian showed me around
and then we went to a coffee shop so we could speak in private. We are the workers of the harvest.
And we are to give freely, because we have been given freely. Our mission can be summed up in the words of St Francis of Assisi, written in the 13 th century: “Proclaim the Gospel, use words
only if necessary.”
AMEN
I remember a while back, I woke up about 2am and for some reason couldn’t get back to sleep again. So I got up, laid on the sofa with a hot drink and switched on the TV. I don’t usually watch TV in
the middle of the night, but I discovered that’s the time when the American religious broadcasts are shown.
I watched 3 programmes. The first two ended with the hosts saying something like: send us money for our programmes and you will be blessed. The third ended with the host saying “buy this book
for $100 and you will receive God’s blessing”. I went back to bed after that, absolutely appalled. In fact, I was so appalled my husband was very lucky that I didn’t wake him up just to complain.
For the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans makes it clear to us that receiving God’s blessing has nothing at all to do with whether we buy a particular book. If we can afford to buy an expensive book, that’s fine, and if we can afford to give generously, that’s fine too. But those things are a response to God’s love, not a condition of God’s love
Paul writes that we are justified by our faith. Through Jesus we enter into a new relationship with God. One of my study Bibles says that we are now friends of God. Isn’t that wonderful? To be a friend of God. That is how we receive God’s blessing, because of his love rather than because of anything which we can do to deserve it.
God’s love is a free gift.
The Gospel of Matthew is the Gospel which is most reflective of Jesus Jewish background. Matthew’s community was a small group of Jewish Christians, living in a wider Jewish community. He wanted to encourage this small faith community, and to help them understand who Jesus is in the context of the history of God’s relationship with Israel. He wanted to connect Jesus the Messiah with their religious history.
That’s why Matthew uses much imagery which is common in the Hebrew Scriptures. The image of workers for the harvest, and the image of Israel as a flock of sheep without a shepherd would have
been easily understood by Matthew’s audience, because this reflected their lives.
Moses was a shepherd, King David was a shepherd and the subsequent rulers of Israel were supposed to care for the people in that same way that a shepherd would nurture his sheep. But what Jesus can see in the crowds who follow him is that the people of Israel are devoid of true leadership. Israel is the flock which needs the leadership which only Jesus, and now his disciples, can provide.
The disciples are to be sent to a very specific group of people: the lost sheep of Israel only, and not to any other people. The Gentiles and all others will receive Jesus ministry after the sheep of
Israel have been fed. It always intrigues me that we first meet some of the disciples earlier on in Matthew’s Gospel, but it’s only now that Matthew tells us exactly who they are. And it’s interesting how Jesus called the disciples. He didn’t call for volunteers, he didn’t force them to join the
team, or ask them if they had something better to do with their lives.
They weren’t called because they were especially talented, or smart, or good-looking. But they were willing. In fact, the Gospels don’t tell us much about these men at all, and yet it was because of
them that we know about Jesus and his ministry. In the list of twelve disciples, we have Matthew the tax collector, Simon the zealot, a known political activist, and a collection of fishermen. Probably not what we might call the dream team.
But now they are not just the people who hang around with Jesus, they are on a mission. And it’s the same as Jesus mission: to teach, to love, to liberate, to heal people from the things which
oppress them, and to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.
Nothing has changed for followers of Jesus since that time. As believers, we have the same mission; we are to proclaim the Good News, and most importantly, to love.
When I first visited Mandurah parish to meet with Fr Ian and to discern whether God wanted me to be here in this ministry, Mike and I drove down on a Thursday morning. And I have to say that I was so delighted with what we found here.
There were so many people around the church: the Orange Sky van was outside, the book shop was open, there were people serving morning tea and lots of people sitting around talking with each other.
I was pleased to see so many people around because churches should be open during the week and there should be lots of people engaged in ministry of every kind. In fact, Fr Ian showed me around
and then we went to a coffee shop so we could speak in private. We are the workers of the harvest.
And we are to give freely, because we have been given freely. Our mission can be summed up in the words of St Francis of Assisi, written in the 13 th century: “Proclaim the Gospel, use words
only if necessary.”
AMEN
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