Like a Feather Poking Through

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 9th & 10th Chapters

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.

And lo, it cameth to pass that Jesus sat down with twelve new rector/pastor types and shared with them their letters of agreement.  Jesus read, “You will be expected to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers and cast out demons, “Wow!” said the disciples, “That seems like a really ambitious list.  What’s the compensation package look like?”

Jesus said, “I’m glad you asked!  There will be no gold, silver or copper BUT you won’t have a bag or a belt to put any money in so that won’t be a problem.”  “But if we don’t have a belt or bag, what will we match with our sandals?” asked the twelve.  The twelve had excellent fashion sense!  “Oh, don’t worry about that,” said Jesus, “You won’t have sandals either.  Oh, and one last thing.  Before you get done you’ll be hated by everyone because of my name.” “That seems like a “great opportunity.” Said the disciples, “Is there any Good News?”  “Actually,” Jesus replied, “There IS really Good News… THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN HAS COME NEAR!”    

What sort of an ODD Rector/Pastor type person would accept a call like that?  Impossible expectations, promises of rejection, hatred and persecution.  Wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Sheep in wolves' clothing… lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!  And not even a stick to beat back wild beasts or unruly parishioners!  Now, I don’t think THIS call HERE is quite like THAT call there.  I looked, and “Raising the dead” was NOT on my Letter of Agreement!  But even though THIS call now, isn’t exactly like THAT call, then, following God’s call is still HARD!  And not just for Rector/Pastor types either.  For all of us who do God’s work in our world today… it’s HARD!  Christ Trinity might not need the EXACT sort of ODD people that Jesus called together in this lesson, but the work that you and I are called to do in our world at this time in our history, could still benefit from at least a little bit of… well, ODDNESS.

Apparently your search committee believes I might have the sort of “ODDNESS” needed for this place and time.  But here’s the thing, if your search committee is anything like the rest of you, YOU just might have that right sort of “ODDNESS” as well!  Which makes be smile, because one of the most beautiful things in life is finding other people with whom you can un-reservedly share your particular sort of “oddness”.  

And it is a bit of ODDNESS, isn’t it, that we all share?  It’s ODDNESS that we can watch the news, see the violence, hear the hate and see people being mean, seemingly just for meanness sake, and yet STILL believe that there’s actually enough… enough food to feed one more mouth, enough space for one more chair at the table, enough compassion to lift one more soul, enough love to include one more heart, enough light to dispel any darkness and enough life to even raise the dead!  

It’s ODDNESS!  To insist God has given us enough, when mountains of pictures and sound bites and ick pour in on us day after day, always insisting there will NEVER be enough, there CAN never be enough… so you better grab all you can before someone who’s different gets it first!  It’s oddness!  Oddness to believe what we believe!  So, how is it then, that we’re ever going to be able to maintain our beautiful, holy, mutual, oddness in the face of a world that keeps insisting on horribleness?  I’m glad you asked!  I believe we’re able to do it… we’re able to maintain that beautiful, holy, ODDNESS of love, compassion, grace and generosity because… THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN HAS COME NEAR! 

Now, I’ll be honest with you, I have nothing to do with it.  I don’t have a dozen boxes labeled “Kingdom of Heaven” up in Maine, and it’s not going to “come near” by moving us next door!  The truth is, the Kingdom of Heaven has ALREADY come near here!   The Kingdom of Heaven is God’s gift… God’s doing… not mine.  I’m just here to tell you that even when it doesn’t feel like it, the Kingdom of Heaven HAS INDEED come near and it’s pokin’ in.  Not always easy to see, but pokin’ in for sure!

It’s kinda like this couch that used to be at my grandparent’s place in Upper Michigan.  Every summer I’d sit on that couch and there would be this one little spot… one little, tiny, pokey spot.  If you got up and looked, you’d never see it, but it poked, so you knew it was there.  One summer I felt that little nub under my leg and instead of getting up to look, I ran my finger along the couch until I found it!  Then I started to pick at it and work at it and wiggle it until out from the weavings of that 1960’s plaid, gold and brown couch I pulled… a feather.  

I can’t bring the Kingdom of Heaven near.  It’s near already!  What I CAN do… what I hope to do… is to help you look around and see if together, we can feel the tiny, hidden, unexpected spots here in Southern Berkshire county where the Kingdom of Heaven might just be poking through in new spots and in new ways, like a feather poking through grandma’s couch.  It’s going to take all of us looking and feeling our way together, because the Kingdom of Heaven is poking through these days in ways it never seemed to poke through before.

But, I think maybe, with a lot of grace, patience… some heavy leaning on the Holy Spirit and a REALLY good sense of humor, we might just be able to join together our holy, hope-filled ODDNESS that we’ve all been given in our Baptisms; feel where those tiny places of God’s love, hope, compassion and care are poking into world and together….  pick at ‘em, work ‘em, wiggle ‘em and move ‘em for a while, until out from the weavings of this very different and all-too-often difficult world, we’ll pull another little piece of God’s love and grace from where the Kingdom of Heaven is poking through, and share it with the world.

I told your search committee when I was here to interview, and I’ll tell you all now, there’s no place I can PULL you as a congregation that I’ve been to before.  You’re ready to walk a brand new road that NOBODY’s walked before!  That’s super exciting!  And a little bit scary too.  So, the best I can offer, is to walk with you… to try and find our way together.  That’ll mean playing a bit of “mad scientist” along the way.  Some experiments will work like a miracle and others… Well, we’ll try not to create a full-on monster, but sometimes things won’t go as planned.  But every Sunday, after we’ve all had a week of ups and downs… hopefully a week of more miracles than monsters, I’ll invite you THERE to THAT Table and together we’ll eat the Bread of Heaven and share the cup of salvation.  There, in that bread and cup we’ll all be reminded, that no matter what feathers we’ve found or monsters we’ve made that week… the Kingdom of Heaven really HAS come near, and because of that, we’ve been given all we need to put one foot in front of the other, taking one step and then another, always toward the Kingdom of Heaven.  After all, it’s not that far off you know.  The Kingdom of Heaven is actually quite near!  Amen.