Spread the Gospel; Always

Proper9B, July 7, 2024, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Moses Lake by Sr. Annette Fricke, OPA Ever thought about the evolution of occupations? I use the term loosely to indicate what occupies the time of humans. Some things, such as counseling have existed for many years before becoming a paid occupation with titles such as ‘registered, certified, or licensed.’ Sometimes it is a gradation from lesser to more and other times appears to be a random change decided by others. It often subsumes duty, obligation, the job performed for others. A licensed counselor forms relationships. And yet, forming relationships is not just an occupation. It is something to which we are all called and which bids all of us to grow in relationship to each other. God calls us to be cultivators of relationships. A cultivator in the farming or gardening perspective loosens the earth and destroys or removes unwanted, unplanted growth. A grower tends to the plants to improve the plants or crops by way of cultivation. The function of a cultivator is to promote the healthy growth of the plants. However, despite careful cultivating, some crops will fail; some of our relationships will fail. Paul doesn’t give up on the Corinthians. Jesus does not give up on his disciples. The nature of faith is reciprocal. God loves us and is always open and accepting of us. God will not turn away from us. God gives us unconditional love. What is striking here is that when people reject Jesus, he doesn’t back down or retreat, he multiplies his efforts 12-fold by sending out his disciples. The awkward part, of course, is that we are also part of Jesus’ answer to the challenge of rejection. God’s love becomes effectual in us. It does us no good until we accept God’s love. In the absence of that acceptance or awareness of God’s love for us, we can have no relationship with God no with other people that has any meaning or depth. Relationships require reciprocity; otherwise, we are mere robots carrying out stipulations of duty, orders, job descriptions, what is supposed to be accomplished in a transaction in a business-like fashion. Or worse yet, there is total disengagement and disbelief. And Jesus’ message to the disciples is the same. If “they refuse to hear you,” move on to someone who in faith will accept God’s love. Jesus’ ministry and that of the early Church consisted “of preaching, teaching, and healing. When Christians throughout the centuries have been faithful followers of Jesus and the early church, they have continued the same threefold ministry.”1 The answer to rejection is not to simply give up, but to try a different method. Remember when Jesus tells the disciples that they will be able to do greater things than he? We are told that the disciples indeed were able to do what Jesus was not able to do. What Jesus did in his early ministry appears have to been transferred to the disciples. Jesus gave them authority over the unclean spirits. “So, they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” Here is succinct and ample evidence of what the early Church of Jesus Christ felt was their mission and ministry in the world. This world was very different from ours. This was a time of poor traveling preachers and poor house churches, united in the meal-hospitality at the center of the Jesus tradition. It is here presented as another outbreak from the weakness of Jesus. While Jesus is unable, the disciples sent by him are able. The mission of the Church, in its simplicity and poverty, in its dependence on hospitable meals and housing, even in whatever success it enjoys, is rooted in the cross of Christ, in the presence of God as little and weak with the little and weak. Many are again living in a poor state like the early Christians. The numbers of homeless people have multiplied in recent years. But none of this type of environment stopped the early Christians. They were on a mission fueled by their passionate belief in God. Not even rejection allowed them to think that they should stop believing, stop preaching, stop teaching, stop healing and curing people. At the very least, Jesus’ ministry included laying on of hands on a few sick and healing them. Even in the weakness of Jesus, power breaks out, even in the situation of unbelief. In the seeming weakness and helplessness of Jesus dying on the cross, resurrection and the promise of eternal life with him occurs. Belief requires us to die to ourselves, to come before God in all humility, to allow God to transform our lives into God-centered lives rather than self-centered lives. Nobody can prevent the inbreaking of the kingdom of God and nobody’s disbelief will stop it. The kingdom is here and God’s power to heal is here, whether we believe it or not. 1. Healing and Christianity, Morton Kelsey, 1973.