Urgent Care for the Soul
Matthew 9:35-38
Some things to ponder: Interest in things spiritual is at an all-time
high in
People
are willing to drive thirty to forty-five minutes or more to attend worship or
participate in events at a church where they feel at home and are spiritually
fed. In the process they sometimes drive
past several other churches that would be more geographically convenient. Some of them are probably driving past this
church. Maybe they know we’re here. Maybe they don’t. Maybe they’ve tried us out and found us
lacking in areas they deem important.
For better or worse, we do live in a consumer culture. People do shop for churches. The days of the neighborhood church are
mostly gone. So, too, are the days of
denominational loyalty.
Underneath
all the spiritual hunger, church shopping, and hyper-consumerism there is a
great deal of spiritual and emotional unrest.
People are anxious about the present and the future. People are aimlessly searching for something
they can’t even name. People are
burdened with too much debt, mostly run up in the pursuit of this, that, or the
other thing that the world tells them will fill up the emptiness in their
lives.
Our
nation – and our denomination – are being torn apart by factions who are
willing to have their own way no matter what the cost to the nation or Christ’s
Church. We are drowning in a sea of
incivility, choking on the rude, crude, crass, and vulgar toxicity produced by
the entertainment industry, fed by down-and-dirty political campaigns, and
allowed to flourish in our public schools.
Our culture very much reminds of a flock of lost, aimless, confused, and
harassed sheep, a society full of souls in need of urgent care.
How
are we to respond? We are to respond to
these folks the same way that our Lord Jesus responded to the lost souls of
First Century Judea: with compassion. Christ
has called and commissioned us to continue Christ’s work of teaching and
preaching the Good News of the Gospel and living out that Good News by way of
various acts of help and healing. We,
his modern disciples, are still called to pray for – and go find - more helpers
to assist us with the Lord’s work. There
is a great harvest in need of our attention.
And
this need is urgent. The unsatisfied and
often misdirected spiritual hungers of those around us must be fed with the
good food of the Gospel. The lost,
lonely, anxious, and confused people just beyond this church’s door need to be
told – and shown - that this church is a place where they can find the peace,
hope, mercy, and love of Jesus. It must be made obvious to all who come into
contact with us that this is a place of compassion, a place where people can
find the spiritual care they so urgently need.
This
is not to say that some of that care isn’t already being given. Why else would those of us who come here do
so? Here in this place there is a sense
of mutual compassion. It isn’t perfect,
sometimes things do fall through the cracks, but mostly it works. Here in this place there is a demand for
competence in worship and preaching, worship and preaching that feed the souls
of those in attendance. The members and friends of Grace Church are teaching
and being taught. We are being fed on
God’s Word and directed in God’s way.
We’re being led to those things of God that truly do fill up all those
empty spaces in our lives. Again, not
perfectly. But at least we’re trying.
Beyond
our doors we’re taking steps in the right direction: Warm Nights, Community Café,
the upcoming mission trip. Almost 13% of
last year’s budget was specifically directed to mission projects. Our goal is always a tithe. In 2004 we surpassed that goal. We could do better than that. Some churches do. But then, many of them don’t. Whatever, we’re on the right track. But let’s not get too caught up in patting
ourselves on the back.
A
term that has come into vogue in ecclesiastical circles in recent years is “Missional
Church.” There is a movement toward
redirecting North American congregations back to our roots as revealed in the
Book of Acts. That earliest church was
always moving outward: socially, spiritually, and geographically. The early Apostles preached, taught, and
healed. They proclaimed and demonstrated
the Good News of Jesus Christ.
To
be sure, those early Christians took care of one another. But mission and outreach defined the life of
the First Century church. Those earliest
Christians took the words Jesus spoke about the harvest being great and the
workers being few seriously. So out they
went: from Judea, to Samaria, to Asia Minor, and to Europe. Evidence of early missionary activity has even
been found in India and Africa.
In
some ways our modern situation is much like that of the early church. Law and culture are choosing less and less to
bestow their favor upon us. We’re more
and more being pushed to the fringes of society. As they discover the hard truths about following
Jesus in a post-modern world, a lot of wannabe disciples are abandoning ship. Mission work is no longer something done in
far away places. It’s no longer a matter
of writing a check and swapping letters with missionaries overseas. We need to do that, but we also need to do a
lot more: both far away and near at hand.
There
is a need nearby missionary work. A
mission field literally sits on our doorstep.
The harvest no longer just waits in some far away place. It’s here.
It’s now. For a lot of Americans
the Good News about Jesus really is new.
They’ve never heard it before, or seen it demonstrated. There are millions of people in our nation who
need to hear about Jesus, experience healing and forgiveness, and then
themselves become workers in the great mission field that is America.
It
isn’t that we don’t have enough churches.
There are churches everywhere. On
almost every street corner there sits a church.
Ah-ha, therein lies the problem.
Not are more than enough churches on enough street corners, but all they
do on those corners is sit. “Here we are.” Our
doors are open every Sunday. We’re more
than happy sit here and wait for you.”
Did
Jesus instruct his disciples to set up shop on some corner and wait for that
great harvest of souls to come to them?
Did he tell them to sit tight and be patient, because sooner or later
all those lost sheep would surely come their way? Of course not. In the chapter immediately following this morning’s
reading from Matthew, Jesus sends those disciples out to where the lost sheep
were. He tells them to go out there and
proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom’s coming.
He commands them to do exactly what they’d been watching him do: cure
the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. “Don’t
wait for those lost souls to come to you, you go out there and meet them where
they are. Preach the Gospel. Teach my commandments. Reach out and touch those who are hurting in
ways that bring peace, healing, and hope.”
Have his instructions changed?
Are they no longer relevant? Is
what he wants us to do limited to building nice, comfortable churches on well
kept lots, as close to the main road as possible, putting up signs announcing
our worship times, placing an ad in the paper, and then sitting back and waiting? Does he want us to limit our mission work to
sending a few checks to a few missionaries and organizations, housing the
homeless for a week, and taking part once a month in providing, preparing, and
serving a meal to those who are hungry?
I
don’t think so. He doesn’t want us to
stop doing the mission we’re already doing.
Nor does he want us to forget about far away mission needs – they’re
just a real as the ones down the block.
If anything, Jesus wants us to do more of what we’re already doing. But he also wants us to be more intentional
about sharing the Gospel with and living the Gospel for those around us.
Some
may be offended. Some may say no
thanks. Some may try it and not like
it. But some of those lost, lonely,
hurting, and bewildered folks out there are going to see the Gospel for the
lifeline that it is and grab onto it with all their might. Some will find in our missionary efforts the
urgent care their souls so desperately need.
The
harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Amen.