St George’s Episcopal, Fredericksburg, VA
“Kingdom Come and Kingdom Sent”
Collect: Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Genesis 18:1-15
The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”
Romans 5:1-8
Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
Matthew 9:35-10:8
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.
Good morning, friends. This morning I am going to talk more to those who are insiders. While I pray and trust that what I say is applicable to any and every person this morning, but if I go a little “inside baseball” please forgive me. Even our Collect for the day, the little prayer we say when we begin our liturgy, speaks to God’s “household the Church.”
We see in our Genesis reading a family in want of an heir with Abraham and Sarah, and a promise of one. They had given up so much hope that Sarah actually laughed when the promise was made and got called on it. We all ponder the legacy we leave, the things that will remain when we are gone. I paraphrase the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, “Man is the only animal that knows he’s going to die.” And we ponder our legacy once we get to a point of acquiring to turn our faces to what we will leave behind.
Abraham and Sarah wanted an heir to inherit all that they had accumulated and to carry on their family name. God wanted a chosen lineage to honor God, and to have a chosen people to be a blessing to all of creation. Abraham’s faith was reckoned to him as righteousness, and that faith lineage continues on in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
We think of the grand heritage of this place, this household of faith that has lasted multiple generations. We are older than our country. While the USA celebrates her 250th in the coming days, St George’s predates that, coming up on our 306th birthday. Huzzah! But as you were coming in today, you saw the scaffolding that is up,m and part of the sidewalk closed. While we are a strong and firm institution, we still need to do the work to keep the beautiful but old girl up. It takes work to keep any institution healthy and strong, especially after so many generations have passed by. So we take the time, money, and talent to ensure that what we have been given is passed on as good as we received it, if not better. For us to keep things going, we have to change to ensure it keeps going. Such is the contradiction of life, the paradox of any institution.
We have the calling of the Twelve in our Gospel reading. Jesus established the foundation of his “called-out-ones,” the Chosen, to be his apostles in the world. 12 people who were selected and sent. While given in bible language, he is clear what they are to say, what the Gospel, the “Good News” is.
‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’
Now that may sound bible-y, but how might you say it?
“Dude, where’s the remote.”
“Thy remote is at hand!”
No, no, no, no.
“Dude, where’s the remote?”
“The remote is right next to you.” Or, “The remote is within your grasp.” Or, “The remote is yours for the taking. Right there!”
That’s the promise of Jesus. Each of us, each and every one of us has the opportunity and the ability to join in on the work of God and have it go to work in our lives and change us in the ways we need to be changed.
Jesus sent the apostles out, and they began the work that continues on to this day. For 2,000 years the Church, Jesus’ “called-out-ones,” continues in that Gospel work, though its means have shifted.
We are still called to give, and serve, and heal, and resurrect. All of the things he sent out the apostles to do. Jesus sends us, too! But we are in a different context. We are sent with the same mission, but we have a home base from which to work. Our fields are still white unto harvest, but the fields often come to us. As Jesus puts it still,
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Every Sunday, you who are called by God and baptized in God’s name are commissioned. Whether it is “Let us go forth, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit!” or “Let us go forth in the Name of Christ!” and we respond “Alleluia, alleluia! Thanks be to God!” And thus we are sent.
It is still good news that the Kingdom of God is within our reach! It is still good news that we are asked and encouraged to be a part. Thanks be to God!
Being a white, cis-gender male I have about all the privileges checked. I hold an American passport and received a fantastic education, mostly in public school and university. But I remember one time when I was not seen that way. It was just after I had graduated from college and a former roommate and I were backpacking around Europe for a few weeks. We found ourselves in Zurich on a Sunday morning, and our train got cancelled. We were stuck. We had hours to kill and no museums or anything were open. I remembered that there was a seminary of my former denomination just outside of town, and decided I would go to the seminary and look around. I then saw there was a church on the grounds so I decided I would stay for their morning services. Because we had been on overnight trains a couple of nights, I was not at my best. I had not showered in a couple of days, and my decent clothes were dirty and in my backpack which I left in Zurich. I had not intended to go to church. But I did not really think about it, and went in.
I sat down in the back, trying to be as inconspicuous as a 6’5” guy can be, in shorts, and not smelling or looking my best. A family a row ahead of me turned and saw me, and actually got up and moved across the church. Maybe I smelled worse than I thought. Then I started noticing the looks, the people turning to look and whispering. That made it clear, that I was not wanted. Okay, I thought, and I was starting to get up when a man came over bringing me a bulletin. He sat with me and asked me about myself. He made sure I knew that he welcomed me and wanted me there. That the Kingdom of God, at least in that place and time of that church was within my grasp, and that I was a beloved child of God. No matter how I smelled or looked.
I learned at the coffee hour (which he made sure that I was welcome at and he stayed with me and introduced me to many people) that he was a seminary professor. And when he learned that I was bound for seminary and had found my way from Zurich with diligence and purpose, people looked at me differently. It took the professor practicing what he preached and taking the time for people to see me for who I was. But why? Why did it need to be that way?
We have a God of abundance. As Jesus said in our passage,
You received without payment; give without payment.
We have been blessed to be a blessing. Dragons hoard. Saints give. Which do we want to be?
Friends, we have been so abundantly blessed. An organ that sings praises to God. A building over a century and a half old with glorious windows proclaiming the story of a God who so loves us. A gathering of people who have been given to in abundance. We have so much to be thankful for, and so much that we can share.
Jesus promised that when we do anything for someone else we do it for him, but that it is the same as if we do it to him. Our fields that are white unto harvest actually come to us. At our Community Dinner. At The Table every Tuesday. At the concerts we share. At the services Sunday in and Sunday out. Every soul that walks through these doors is a gift from God.
Often we have neighbors who are our honored guests walk in looking for a place out of the rain, or the cold, or the heat for a few minutes. The world says be wary. Jesus says “Welcome home!” For those of us who have been here a long time, you have seen so much happen, and it is still changing. Yes. It is. As we age, that drive for comfort and “same-ness” goes with the territory. I caught myself saying the other day, “Ah man, why did they have to go and change that.” I get it. There is comfort in stability and same-ness.
But I invite you to think of those apostles who were sent out, how they went out with nothing, intentionally nothing, and all that came back was a gift from God. And through the generations and across the millenia we come to today, at the corner of Princess Anne and George Streets. A three-hundred year old institution, fixing and mending to prepare for the next three hundred years, a place which opens its doors for friends and neighbors, for seekers and the saved, for all children of God. We can offer a cup of water in Jesus name, or a warm cup of coffee. The Bible promises we could be entertaining angels unaware. Every soul that comes through our doors for a moment of respite or to attend Vacation Bible School should be as welcomed and loved.
As we depart, you are being sent out to do the work Christ has given us to do, with grateful hearts and thanksgiving. If we pray, thy Kingdom Come, then Jesus prays my Kingdom Sent. Thanks be to God! Amen
