All In!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 10th Chapter

“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 

We need to start today by getting oriented.  We’re in the middle of chapter ten of Matthew’s Gospel.  Up until the end of chapter nine, Jesus has been the one who has been working on the mission.  His mission isn't small.  It’s to change the world from a place where a few gain immense power and wealth on the backs of many less powerful people, a place where there is hunger, disease, oppression and injustice, a place where might makes right and the poor are only remembered when the rich need something unpleasant done for them.  His mission is to change that world... our world... into the Kingdom of God.  A place where everyone has enough... not too much and not too little, but enough... enough food, shelter, worth, dignity and purpose that with enough, they would begin to live the abundant life God created all of creation to live.  

So, up until the end of chapter nine, Jesus has been doing it all... healings, casting out demons and confronting the people in power.  The disciples were around but they were more like Jesus’s groupies.  But then, at the beginning of chapter ten, Jesus turns to the disciples and invites them not to just follow and watch what he’s been doing... he invites them to DO what he’s been doing.  He invites them to join him in changing the world!  He gives them the authority to heal the sick, cure the lame and kick demons in the... we’ll say shins and that brings us to today’s Gospel reading.  

Today’s Gospel is where Jesus tells the disciples that what they are about to do is going to be really, really, REALLY HARD!  It’s going to be that hard because change is hard.  Change... even change that leads to something better, is painful and it demands sacrifice and because change requires pain and sacrifice its very hard to get change, even change for the better, to happen.  Because getting change to happen is that hard, you can’t do it half way.  The only way the disciples then (and us disciples now) can possibly change the world with Jesus is to go “All In” putting this mission above everything and everyone else in our lives.  

Change is HARD!  It’s a six letter word that works more like a four letter word.  People don’t like change mostly because when something changes, things usually get way harder and way more painful before they ever even begin to get better.  I learned this lesson the hard way in the 8th grade.  I missed most of my 8th grade year in school because I was lying on a heating pad on the couch watching World War II movies on TV... that and going to doctors to see why my right side was hurting so much.  The doctors couldn’t figure it out.  They were frustrated.  So frustrated that my doctor told me he was ordering one last test and WHEN it came back negative he was sending me to a psychiatrist!  When the radiologist read the test, he took me right to the urology department and I was scheduled for surgery.  I was not making it up.  My kidney was blocked by a birth defect so it felt like I had a kidney stone for almost a year.  It sounds bad, but I was excited that my life would change for the better once they fixed this thing!  

What I didn’t realize was that change is HARD and it always involves pain and sacrifice.  My experience with surgery was from watching TV where people came out of surgery sleepy but better.  I came out of surgery screaming... in a million times more pain than I had ever experienced before.  EVENTUALLY the foot long incision healed.  Eventually, the rib they removed stopped burning.  Eventually I got back to school, could go on vacation with my family, play sports and do all the stuff I hadn’t done for almost a year.  EVENTUALLY... but that change from blocked kidney to free-flowing kidney involved a LOT of pain.  

My kidney surgery was incredibly painful but it pales in comparison to the pain Jesus knew would come when he and the disciples worked and pushed for the whole world to change!  That is what Jesus meant when he said he came not to bring peace, but a sword.  He meant that he had come to change the world and he wanted the disciples to be fully aware that the process of changing the world would be as painful as being sliced open by a sword.  

Even though it meant changing the world for the better and even though it meant changing the world so it worked the way God wanted it to work, it was STILL going to require all the disciples to put everything and everyone else in their lives on a back burner AND it was going to cause sword cutting level pain.  So, why on earth would disciples then, or disciples now do that?  Why would you upset your life and the lives of the people around you?  Why would you sacrifice the things and the systems and the ways that make you comfortable?  Why would you give up the contentment you feel when you're in control?  Why would we take on extra, intense pain and give up all the things we find comforting?  

The only answer I have for you for all of those questions is Jesus.  Jesus is the reason a disciple would take on extra pain.  Jesus is the reason you’d give up what you find comfortable, familiar and in your control.  Jesus is who you would put in front of family and friends and Jesus is why you would join in God's mission to change the world.  But it’s not at all a blind or uninformed trust because Jesus has proven that in him, there is sight on the other side of blindness, hearing on the other side of being deaf, inclusion on the other side of being cast out.  Jesus has proven that in him there is health on the other side of disease, justice on the other side of injustice and Jesus has proven that in him there is life on the other side of death.

The disciples then, and us disciples now, have been invited by Jesus to come up out of the crowd... out of just a passive life... up onto the stage... not just to watch but to join with Jesus in actively changing the world.  He has promised that it will be hard.  We’ve been promised that it will hurt worse before it starts hurting less.  We’ve been promised that we will need to sacrifice what is comfortable, in our control and known for what is uncomfortable, beyond our control and unknown.  But we’ve also been promised that on the other side of this change is life... the REAL life, the abundant life that God created us to live.  

That REAL life… God's abundant life simply can't be found in the life of what the world knows, what we’ve built, what we find comfortable.  If we hold on to the life we can build for ourselves, then we will lose the life God created us to really, really live.  But, if we brave the sword, work through the pain and endure the sacrifice for Jesus’s sake we will join with him and together, as the Body of Christ, bring into being in this world the kind of life God created us to live… not only for ourselves but for all of creation.  So, are you ready to come up on stage?  Are you ready to not just watch the show, but join Jesus in doing God's mission in this world?  Are you ready to be more than a groupie?  Are you ready to be a disciple in spite of the cost and allow yourself to be transformed, your community to be transformed, the church to be changed ALL so that the world might be changed so that all of creation can share in God's promise of abundant life?  Are you ready to go “All In”?  Amen.