HARRASSED, HELPING

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  (Mt. 9:36)

Jesus saw the crowds as sheep without a shepherd. 

Harassed and helpless. 

Have you ever felt harassed or helpless?  In our fast-paced lives I am sure it happens often.  You know the demands of the day, have seen the unexpected car repair, rising gas prices, sputtering economy.  There are mouths to feed, schedules to keep, traffic hassles, deadlines to meet, and the things that cause worry, like health, or retirement plans, or the ringing telephone.

Jesus saw the crowds as sheep without a shepherd. 
The Good shepherd is one who takes care of the sheep, protects them, prods them, and tends to their needs.  THE SHEPHERD fights off the predators and leads to sheep to pasture, food and water.

I suppose the shepherd also served as sheep midwife when it was lambing time, and probably did some veterinarian work, delivering whatever treatments may have been available.

It’s nice to hear that we have a good shepherd, who is ready to feed us and wash us.  It’s wonderful to come to worship for refreshment and reassurance.

I got a call on Friday from a man who was clearly distraught.  Let’s call him Steve, though it’s not his name.  Steve had just received the news that his father died.  His father was only 56 years old.  A real shock.  He said he had no church, and I began to think about arranging my schedule around a non-member funeral.  I assumed that’s why he called.  I know how to do a funeral.  I can shift gears to do this very easily.  I thought it was what he needed, and here was God’s church ready and able to help.  I soon learned he had other needs.

The funeral will happen hundreds of miles away from here.  He has a car, but no money.  How can he drive to an out-of-state funeral on twenty dollars?  You know how much gas costs.  He’s an only child, and his mother already deceased.  There are no family members who could loan him gas money.  You can’t miss your own father’s funeral!  He called because he was harassed and helpless. 

This was different.  I’m not helpless, but the call made ME feel harassed.  What help should I offer?  How best to handle this? 

Here in this text Jesus is conferring on the disciples the same tasks he himself had been pursuing in the preceding chapters.  It’s one thing to have a shepherd.  It’s another to BE one for the harassed and helpless.  The disciples inherit his ministry.  We too inherit this ministry.

Jesus told them they would be performing miracles.  Are we supposed to do that?  If we fail to produce miracles does that mean our faith is weak?   Do we call into question God’s power?  Or even God’s existence?

We tend to think of miracles as events that break the rules.  When we pit a modern world view against the ancient one, we cannot escape these thoughts. 

In the world-view of New Testament times, God did EVERYTHING- the sun rose by the will of God.  Crops grew by the will of God.  Common colds were cured by the mercy of God, babies born by the will of God, and death happened by the will of God. 

Thus any sign or miracle was not a break in the fabric of the universe!  It was a special example of a variation on God’s usual will and mercy.  God was always involved in life, and always generous, but in the instance of a miracle God was being particularly generous. 

In New Testament times there were miracle stories associated with many people besides Jesus of Nazareth.  In ancient times, the question was not, “Did that really happen?”   It was not,  “Could that person really do that?”

The question for the ancient world was about the meaning of the event.  Whose authority does this sign express?  Answer?  The will of the God of Creation, the One True God, the God of Abraham and Sara, the One Jesus called “Father.”

So for us, the miracles of Jesus are the proclamation that God is at work in the world.  God is at work in the world!  God has concern for the needs of human beings, the way a shepherd looks after the needs of the sheep.

Here Jesus bestows his own mission on his followers.

So as I sat writing this sermon I contemplated how to help a man take a trip to witness his father’s funeral.  I did not ask for or try to make any miracles.  I consulted with Paula, our administrator, and after a few phone calls, we were able to offer help. 

You can purchase a gasoline card that works at other stations along the interstate highways.  Paula’s idea.  We all know there is a risk in giving cash to someone we don’t really know.  In my judgment this young man was in grief and absolutely at a loss for what to do.  Like a sheep suddenly separated from the closest members of his flock.

Jesus calls his followers to be a sign that God is at work.  The whole proclamation of the gospel is that in Jesus Christ, God is pro-active in bringing forgiveness, wholeness, life and salvation to a broken and hostile world.  In this sense, every miracle story is a brief statement of the incarnation: God with us. 

We don’t need to settle the exact nature of a miracle in order to see and hear this call to acts of mercy.  We do need to settle something daunting: our own role in the mission and ministry of Jesus. 

We are talking here about vocation.  Jesus calls us. 

The text of Matthew has a list of names.  We must realize that list carries a huge significance.  These were the local boys being sent to make a difference in their own nation, their own neighborhood.

We ought to read this passage, these names, and then look up from the page and say, “Who Me?”  Jesus replies, “Yes, you.”

I cannot make you or anyone a miracle worker.  I make no claim of being a miracle worker.  But in this day and age no one doubts that acts of kindness matter.  In a world of increasing tribalism, acts of kindness matter.

You can never know the value someone else may place on the deeds of mercy that ARE within your reach.  You may call it service.  The recipient may see in it a miracle.   

Habitat for Humanity, groceries for Food Shelves, offerings for Heifer project, a pig roast for missions in China and Slovakia, advocacy for stewardship of the earth, and calling for fair access to prosperity- all these are on the list of what God would have us do. 

Next week is a pig roast for missions- a fund raiser that is not for ourselves- and I hope we can raise what we raised for chairs last year.  Think about it as though you are buying chairs for a school in Slovakia.  Consider buying protein for malnourished school kids in China.  Give a kid a year’s supply.

We bought the gasoline card.  I called the number he gave me, and got his voice mail.  I told him we were ready to help.  He never came to pick it up.  I’m still wondering.  Will he get to Missouri and back?  Was he even telling the truth?  I’ve been lied to many times by people claiming financial need.  I’ll say this, if he was lying, he was an amazing actor. 

I wonder.  On the phone I told him I had to make some arrangements and then I would call him back.  I wonder if he decided that was a brush-off.  Maybe he simply calmed down enough to figure things out on his own.  

I found myself frustrated because I WANTED him to use our help.  I wanted to PROVE that God’s church is still a place of compassion, that we will help the harassed and helpless.  I realized I wanted to be a hero, and I even wanted a juicy story for this sermon. 

We are called to make a difference in our own neighborhood.  Jesus sent these disciples to Israel.  In other words, to their own communities.  Later on the same Jesus would introduce a vision of a mission for the whole world, but for those disciples it began at home. 

This is never about us.  It’s about God’s will, God’s love, a love that encompasses both the lost and the liar.  I don’t know what happened to Steve.  I don’t know if he got what he needed, or if he saw an excuse to discredit the church.  I do know this.  Christ will still offer to the world those acts of kindness that are in our reach.