Without Cost

Gospel: Matthew 10: 7-15

As you have received, so must you give.  We the sick who have been healed of our infirmities.  We the cripples who have been made to walk again.  We the lepers who have been made clean.  We who were possessed by demons and liberated from them.  Now it is our turn to go out into the world and provide healing to the ill and crippled and leprous, and to provide liberation for those held bound by the demons that oppress them.  

In doing so we proclaim that the kingdom of God is present in the world.  God's kingdom is not about domination and enslavement of others.  God's kingdom is about the liberation of others, the lifting up of those who have been poor, ill, and enslaved.  It brings with it the great jubilee - the forgiveness of all debts, a renewal of the land, and the restoration of our relationships with God and others that have been broken and frayed.  

These tasks are the work Jesus has entrusted to those who are his disciples, those who claim membership in the Church.  We have all received such healing and liberation ourselves.  God has given it to us freely.  Now we must do the same, offering mercy and reconciliation, healing and restoration to all freely.  Only in this way can renewal and restoration come to the earth, to individuals and communities everywhere.   This is the Good News of the kingdom of God.

Answering the Call

Gospel: Matthew 10: 1-7

In yesterday's Gospel portion Jesus prayed that we would come to work the harvest so desperately needed.  Today he calls an initial group to enter the fields and reap the harvest.  They are to do so by undertaking the same work Jesus himself has done:  to heal people of all their diseases and infirmities; to liberate people from the demons that imprison them; to nourish people at table and announce the kingdom of God is present in their midst.

Today Jesus commissions twelve; later he will appoint a further 72 to undertake the same work.  Throughout the ages up to today he calls many to the work of mercy and reconciliation, the work of the kingdom of God.  Many do not answer the call as the grip of self-interest squashes the call.  Many others are deterred from the work by the Church herself, restricting the work to less than half the population, insisting on a discipline few follow and one having little historical warrant.

In spite of such limitations, many take up the work regardless of the limitations.  The needs of people take priority over our arbitrary rules and categories.  People have a right to have access to the sacraments.  They have a right to health care, to food and drink, shelter and clothing.  Providing these things to people is the only work of the Lord Jesus, the only priority for us.  The world is in sore need of our care.  We cannot, we must not, deprive them of it. 

Healing and Good News

Gospel:  Matthew 9: 32-38

Jesus goes about from town to town in Galilee telling people about the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and he provides cures for people with all sorts of ailments.  He does this day in and day out, and he is tired.  Jesus needs more people to engage in the work of proclaiming Good News, in healing others of their illnesses, in liberating people from the demons that oppress them, and in providing nourishment to others at table.  He begs God that more people will enter the fields to do this work.

Sadly, most of us are about the bad news of the world.  We prefer to perseverate on this bad news and to traffic in it.  As a result, rather than healing others, or liberating others, or nourishing others, we instead do great harm to other people.  We keep them enslaved to the demons of the world.  We impoverish and starve people of the nourishment they need to flourish.  And all this being done by those who claim the mantle of Jesus' name.

The prayer of Jesus for workers to engage in the harvest is not a prayer for random people to engage in this work.  It is a prayer for us all to engage in this work - to put away the bad news and violence of the world and to proclaim Good News, to heal others, to liberate them from the demons of the world, to nourish them in body and soul.  It is not for us to recite this prayer of Jesus.  It is for us to respond to it ourselves and engage in the work of the kingdom of God.