Sunday, June 15
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Weekly Theme
Named for Purpose

Weekly Prayer
God of the prophets and apostles, you greeted old Abraham and Sarah with news of wonder and life. Send us into the world to preach good news, as Jesus did, heal the sick, resist evil, and bring the outcast home. Amen.

Weekly Reading
Matthew 9:35-10:8,(9-23)

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. (Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

"See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.")

Reflection
by Kate Huey

What is the church to be about? In today's Gospel passage from Matthew, we learn that the church is to be about healing, teaching, and proclaiming the good news. The church is to be about movement, not static, stay-at-home, preserve-our-level-of-comfort-and-let-them-come-to-us spirituality, but a bold "going-out" into the world that God loves so passionately, sharing what God has given us with those who have not yet heard God speaking to them, or felt the touch of God's love upon their lives, or have not known how to name either one. How do we know this is what the church is to be about? To find an answer, we look (as always) at Jesus and what he was about. Matthew reminds us once again that Jesus didn't sit still but traveled about, curing and teaching and healing, and when he saw the hunger and need and confusion of "the crowds," he felt profound compassion for them. Jesus both moved and was moved. We are to see the need of the world, its hungers and confusion, and like Jesus, we're called to respond with compassion and tender care. And it also seems that we are called not to sit still but, like Jesus, to be on the move, open to those we meet along the way.

This has powerful implications for how we see our ministry. It's tempting for us in the church to see its "reason for being" in meeting the needs of those (of us) who "pay their way," perhaps like members of a private club. And yet the gospel impels us to interact with the world beyond our walls, right in our own neighborhood, or in places far away, places which our compassion can reach even though we may never physically go there ourselves. The image of "sheep without a shepherd" calls us to reach out into the world, to see all of God's children as precious and loved and deserving of our attention, energy, resources, and care. We have perhaps too often interpreted it only as referring to a shortage of pastors for the church, an internal problem "we" need to do something about, like recruiting more students for seminary. But the tender image of sheep without a shepherd more properly, and more poignantly, speaks of a world that is looking to the church, to people of faith, with questions and doubts and real, human needs.

Through this story of the way the heart of Jesus responded to the crowds, how is God still speaking today to the church that is the Body of Christ in this world? How do the actions of Jesus demonstrate his instructions about the work and travel of his disciples, those who follow him and allow God to continue to work through them? What is the good news that God is still speaking today? Is it about proper religious beliefs, or is it even more than that; are right beliefs just the beginning point, or do we find our way toward them through faithful practices of mercy and compassion? Are right beliefs really realization that arise from our experience of God's love? What should evangelists do when they encounter human suffering and need during their travels? Thomas Long says that "Any notion that the church ought to quit getting involved in non-spiritual matters and get back to its 'real job' of preaching the gospel and saving souls misses the point.'Preaching the gospel and saving souls' means grappling with disease and the demonic, with social segregation and the powers of death. It means, therefore, wrestling with issues of public health care, with racial and social alienation, with the powers of domination and oppression that bleed the life out of a community." Do you think Long's definition of preaching the gospel matches what most folks today think of as "evangelism"?

As you look over the list of those early disciples, you may notice the several descriptive details given, about Matthew the tax collector and Simon "the Cananaean," two people who would have been on opposite sides of the Roman controversy, since Matthew was a tool of the empire and Simon would have been a passionate revolutionary opposing it. Yet they both found their lives transformed by their encounter with Jesus. In what ways has your life been transformed by your encounter with God, with Jesus, with inclusion in the life of the community of faith? Who are the people in churches who might be surprised to find themselves sharing a pew, sharing communion, sharing their lives, with one another? God still speaks in ways that surprise us, pulling together and planting together and then sending out together the most unexpected of mission partners.

What boundaries and preconceptions are obliterated by the dream of a church that truly welcomes all? What transformation needs to happen to make it possible for that dream to become reality, for such diverse people to come together and discover, and experience, their shared humanity and graced condition in the eyes of a loving God who sees the "sheep without a shepherd" and responds with compassion and tender care? It's God who works through us and through the life of the church, and it's God who sends the workers who are needed. Who are the workers for this harvest, which cannot wait, workers whose ministry needs to be empowered and supported? God is supplying the needs of the church for the harvest in ways that we may not recognize unless we think in fresh, new ways. Who, then, are the unexpected workers, the teachers and apostles ("those sent"), whose "descriptive details" might make them unlikely, but highly effective, bearers of good news in your community? Does your community receive them that way?

For Further Reflection
John Chrysostom, 4th century bishop

Note the careful timing of their mission. They were not sent out at the beginning of their walk with him. They were not sent out until they had benefited by following him daily.

From The Ancient Christian Devotional, Intervarsity Press, Thomas C. Oden, General Editor

All readings for the Week
Genesis 18: 1-15,(21:1-7) with Psalm 116:1-2,12-19 or
Exodus 19:2-8a with Psalm 100
Romans 5:1-8
Matthew 9:35-10:8,(9-23)

About Weekly Seeds

Weekly Seeds is a source for meditation and prayer based on the readings of the "Lectionary," a plan for weekly Bible readings used in Protestant, Anglican and Roman Catholic churches throughout the world. When we pray and study the Bible using the Lectionary, we are praying and studying with millions of others. We invite you to continue the conversation on our “Opening the Bible” forum at http://i.ucc.org.

Weekly Seeds is a service of the Congregational Vitality Initiative, Local Church Ministries, United Church of Christ. Bible texts are from the New Revised Standard Version, © 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The Revised Common Lectionary is © 1992 Consultation on Common Texts. Used by permission. The Ancient Christian Devotional is © 2007 by Thomas C. Oden and ICCS, and is published by InterVarsity Press. Used by permission.