Saturday, April 22nd, 2017
So Send I You
We've been meeting together in this old stone church as the Crossing service since February of 2013. In those four years we've had ups and downs, lots of people, and then not so many people.
In fact, tonight reminds me a little bit of how it must have felt for those disciples of Jesus, who huddled together in fear after he was crucified. They'd seen lots of people following Jesus, and now, after his death, not so many people.
They were probably wondering when the authorities would come looking for them. Doors locked, curtains drawn, low light, desperate whispers.
Each of them were probably struggling with their own demons as well. What they did or what they wish they'd done, the words they said in denial, and maybe even more importantly, the words they didn't say. We are all guilty of playing the "what if" game. What if they hadn't come to Jerusalem? What if they'd stayed awake with him while he prayed? What if they'd payed more attention to the comings and goings of Jesus' betrayer, Judas?
But the darkest cloud, the most ominous disappointment, oppressively hanging over them was this: Christ was dead. The messiah, the promised one, murdered in hatred; his ministry, his miracles were not enough enough to save him. They'd left fishing boats, and mother and father, and lucrative tax collecting enterprises to follow this guy, certain that somehow this would become a revolution.
What did the last three years mean, anyway? Was it all wasted time? Could anything be salvaged? Dare they continue teaching as Jesus taught? Did they even still believe? Were they prepared to give up their lives in just the same way?
I think we still have those questions. Look at us, the few committed, desperate, and maybe slightly disappointed disciples who come week after week, huddled together to pray and sing, trying to work up a memory, a passion, a hope for the future. We're the few, the called out ones, and sometimes we don't have enough energy to go on.
And hope is so hard to come by. Do you have hope?
I don't think the disciples had much at that point… just like us, they changed the trajectory of their lives to follow a brilliant, unusual, countercultural, individual… they came to believe that he was the very son of God, and that they had an important part to play in bringing about his Kingdom on earth. How could there be a kingdom now, without a king?
But then something crazy happened. They couldn't have been ready for it, they were still obsessing in their fear. But into that moment of doubt and dismay, suddenly and without any great flash of light or clap of thunder, they were in the presence of the One. And almost as if he'd never left, he greets them in the common greeting: "Shalom." Peace be with you. It's a bit as if he said "hey" to them.
And without even stopping to draw a breath, he continues: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
"How's it goin? Do what I said."
A wake up call. A wake up call for those people, and a wake up call to us. It makes you stop to think, "what you said? what did you say? You're sending me somewhere? Wait, what?"
Yes. I'm sending you out into the world. Out of this hiding place, out of this dark room. Open your windows, unlock your door. Connect, teach, model, heal, hold, bless, pray for, love.
Jesus is sending us out into the world as well. Out into Sydenham. Let's get out of this building, open our windows, unlock our door. Let's also connect, teach, model, hold, bless, pray for, and love.
Picture in your mind where your mission lies. Imagine the faces of the people you're called to care for. Who are you to love? Who are you to be "Jesus" for?
It's probably not who you think. If we do it like him, we love like him.
He loved the unlovable, touched the untouchable, drank with the outcasts, partied with the sinners, laughed with the poor and he provoked the rich.
So send I you.
Amen.
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