Sermon
18th June 2017 2nd Sunday after Pentecost
Text Matthew
9:35-10:-23 God’s Mission
Although
last year’s census has not yet released the results for religious beliefs – it
is expected that there will be a drastic decline in the number of people who
identify as Christian.
Part
of this view is because the option of “no religion” was placed at the top of
the list of options.
Perhaps
in the past people were less reluctant to say they had “no religion” but in our
growing freedom of speech culture people are more confident to say how they
feel.
There
may be other issues also.
The
growing threat of terrorism linked to Islam, while not being Christian, does
affect people’s view of religion.
There
is the growing debate on Same Sex Marriage where much of the public blame the
church for holding back a vote in parliament.
And
probably one of the biggest turn offs of people towards religion, especially
Christianity is the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse in institutions
which people identify as “the church”.
With
the decline in church attendance and the growing separation of the public from
the church the task of mission is getting more and more challenging.
Not
just because of the growing amount of non-Christians to witness to but because
of the hostility of the public towards the church.
This
is not unexpected for the church – far from it – as Jesus says - See, I am
sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves.
This
is not how we often see our mission work.
We
easily fall into the trap of thinking that the church is failing unless it is
expanding throughout the world.
Whereas
that would be a magnificent result as it would mean more souls being saved for
heaven, it is not symbolic of how the church has been received in the world
throughout time.
From the
beginning of the church it has faced persecution and rejection.
Many
of the letters in the New Testament are written in a climate of persecution and
rejection to give encouragement to Christians.
And
with that encouragement the church continued to grow.
The
church has lived with the experience of suffering for the faith as did the
disciples of the first church.
As we
read the Book of Acts and the beginning of the Church we are introduced to a
man by the name of Stephen.
He
tries to reason with his own people to tell them how much God loves them and
what Jesus can offer to them.
They
block their ears and drag him into the street and stone him to death.
A
young man named Saul is standing there giving approval.
He
sees how much this pleased the people so he goes from house to house dragging
Christians, men, women and children, from their homes and throws them into
prison.
Jesus
says that this is how it is going to be in the life of the Church:
He
says: they will hand you over to councils and flog you; and you will be dragged
before governors and kings because of me.
So
what we need to do is not to be disheartened by our seeming failure and
rejection in the world but understand that this is part of the mission field we
are sent into.
We are
not to see rejection as failure but how the world has always responded to the
church.
Sadly
we too often judge the success of the church like the success of a business.
But
what the world deems as successful is not how God deems success as we are
reminded so often by Paul especially in first Corinthians:
Paul
says: The message of the cross is foolish
God
chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;
God
chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
God
chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things
that are not—to nullify the things that are
And
just as rejection and persecution only made the Christians stronger so too it
is to make us stronger and not give up our mission work.
In
fact, Paul says, we should rejoice that we are having this affect.
He
says: we should boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and
hope does not disappoint us.
People
often talk about “the school of hard knocks” where a person learns skills that
can’t be taught in a class room.
They
are skills learnt “on the job” as you make mistakes and learn from them.
I
remember coming out of my 5 years of study at Seminary to become a pastor.
You
come out thinking you have all the answers and you’re going to fix all the
problems in the church and get it back on track.
But
nothing in the class room prepares you for sitting with a parent who loses
their child in a car accident.
Nothing
in the class room prepares you for that call in the middle of the night to tell
you someone has died.
Nothing
in the class room prepares you for the news that one of your parishioners
marriage has just broken up.
Nothing
prepares you with the words to answer why did I get cancer.
These
are not learnt but are handled with compassion, love and being there for them –
not with answers but with hope.
And
that’s what mission is about – showing compassion and creating hope.
Just
like Jesus did when he saw the crowds and had compassion for them, because they
were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
What
can be very disheartening is when that opposition comes from those close to us:
Our
friends and family.
Jesus
also prepares us for that when he says that: Brother will betray brother, and a
father his child, and children will rise against parents; and you will be hated
by all because of my name.
There
is only one success in the church that we focus on.
And
that has nothing to do with us as Paul tells the suffering Romans.
Since
we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ,
The
success of the church has already been achieved by Jesus and he has given us
the results of that success: we have obtained access to grace of God in which
we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
There’s
that hope again that does not disappoint us.
It
would be lovely to see the church flourish in worldly terms but that has the
danger of taking away what Christ has already achieved and instead focusing on
ourselves and becoming disheartened when we don’t see “success” in what we are
doing.
Success
in worldly terms.
We are
all sent out as missionaries in the world and it can be a daunting situation.
I know
I have been verbally abused and I know many others that have also.
But we
are to keep strong.
And it
begins with compassion as it did with Jesus.
When
you are rejected, don’t retaliate.
Use it
to pray about.
When
Jesus says to move on if rejected it’s not because we are condemning them but
so we don’t lose heart and give up – move on to the next town.
We
need to remember that the true mission is God’s.
God is
the one who converts the heart and as Jesus has said previously –
Whoever
rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
I
don’t always understand mission.
It’s
not like a program that if you do A plus B you’ll get C.
At the
end of the day it’s not about us.
As St
Paul says:
Neither
the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes
things grow. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s
building.
It is
the Lord’s harvest not ours and if we are disheartened then imagine how
disheartened the Lord of the Harvest is.
The
harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the
harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
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