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.”
Matthew 9:35—10:23
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: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, 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 those with a skin disease; 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.
“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. Sibling will betray sibling 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 this town, flee to the next, for truly I tell you, you will not have finished going through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
My sermon from the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost (June 14, 2020) on Matthew 9:35—10:23.
In 1863, a new kind of ad started appearing in newspapers across the country. The ads were simple – boxes of text, submitted by people who either paid to have them published or relied on the generosity of the publishers to print them. These ads showed up in newspapers across the country, including The Christian Record, The Colored Tennessean, The New Orleans Republican, and The Washington Times. And these news ads started to appear while the Civil War was still raging across the Eastern United States. The recent signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the movements of the Union Army, had led to a number of formerly enslaved African-Americans creating new lives in refugee camps and in places far from where they were formerly enslaved. They carried with them the scars and the memories of what their life used to be like. So some began putting ads in newspapers seeking information about where their family members were. In 2017, a project called “Last Seen” was put together by Vanderbilt University and Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia. Their goal was to digitize and transcribe these kinds of newspaper ads. They first looked at ads from six newspapers and, over a 45 year period, they found over 900 people looking for their family and friends. That number grew as more newspapers were looked at. After a year, the project ended with over 3500 ads in its database. The ads were published from 1863 through the early 1900s. And some of them are pretty heartbreaking to read. One ad from 1866 reads: “Mrs. Elizabeth Williams, who now resides in Marysville, California was formerly owned together with her children, vis: Lydia, William, Allen and Parker, by one John Petty, who lived about six miles from the town of Woodbury, Franklin County, Tennessee. At the time she was the wife of Sandy Rucker, and was familiarly known as Betsy – sometimes called Betsy Petty. About twenty-five years ago, the mother was sold to Mr. Marshal Stroud, by whom, some twelve or fourteen years later, she was, for the second time since purchased by him, taken to Arkansas. She has never seen the above named children since. Any information given concerning them, however, will be gratefully received by one whose love for her children survives the bitterness and hardship of many long years spent in slavery.”
We sometimes imagine that the Civil War was a long time ago. But these ads appeared during the same century many of us were born in and during the lives of our grandparents and parents. Slavery was a system where African-Americans did not have a say in the violence that was done to their bodies and to their relationships. It was designed to destroy families; to obliterate people’s histories; and to break apart every relationship a person had. Slavery was a system of violence that assaulted every part of a person’s heart, will, and soul. Yet individuals and communities refused to let what happened to them – a violence that was legal, constitutional, and supported by those in authority – to have the final say in who they were. Instead, they chose to reach out; to hold onto their histories; and to always be truthful about what happened to them while not letting that evil be the end of their story.
Today’s reading from the gospel according to Matthew is pretty harsh. It describes a world that is oppressive and scary. We hear Jesus talk about wolves, acts of betrayal, family members turning against each other, and other acts of violence. We might want to act as if Jesus is only talking about the so-called “other’ – to people who don’t look or sound like us. But Jesus was busy describing communities that disciples knew and were already a part of. They were going to visit towns filled with people who spoke their language, who looked like them, ate like them, and who worshipped in the Temple like they did. And Jesus was calling them to go out into the world and do the very things Jesus was already doing.
Yet we know that these disciples weren’t always the most faithful, the most generous, or the most holy. And sometimes they were really bad at following Jesus. For example, Peter would eventually deny even knowing Jesus while Judas would be the one who turned Jesus in to the authorities. The tax collectors in their group had a different relationship with these communities because their job made them close with the Romans who occupied and controlled the land. Their profession needed that Empire to continue – while Simon the Cananaean, was probably a zealot – a revolutionary who did everything he could to make the Roman occupation end. The disciples were a ragtag group of people who were not perfect, fully faithful, or without doubts. Yet they were the ones Jesus called and made part of his mission in the world. The truth about who the disciples were – the fullness of their imperfect story – was not the final determinant of who they were. Instead, they would proclaim that the kingdom of heaven was near. They would cure the sick; raise the dead; and cast out every kind of demon. The disciples would embody and live out a different truth that knew that God’s love for the world was made tangible in the presence of Jesus. And that Jesus would, in the end, be at the heart of who they were.
But the truth about Jesus is also an opportunity for us to admit the truths about us and our world. It’s why, on this Sunday, we’re remembering the Emanuel 9 – who chose to proclaim and surround themselves with God’s word while offering hospitality to the one who killed them. It’s why we remember that their killer grew up in an ELCA church, attended Sunday School, Confirmation Classes, and heard sermons on our call to love our neighbors as ourselves. And yet he still made white supremacy the primary story of his life. It’s why we can be honest that we live in a society where racism is real and that African-Americans continue to be denied opportunities because of the color of their skin. That reality is documented in countless statistics, from wealth inequality to incarceration rates to even health outcomes. This racism shows up in unexpected places – like healthcare of mothers – and how black women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. It doesn’t matter how rich or educated these women are. If they are black, their outcomes are worse – because of old racist attitudes about standards for pain and healthcare that still exist. These attitudes don’t just appear in thin air. They are passed down and taught through our culture and the stories we choose to tell. We, as a community, say that certain stories matter more than others – and we see that in our retelling of the Civil War. Growing up, the stories I heard centered on battles, soldiers, generals, and the so-called notion of “states rights.”
I never heard about the ads from formerly enslaved people who showed us how slavery did everything it could to destroy who they were. We choose to focus on the people we put onto pedestals – rather than on the violent institution of slavery which, through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movements, and even today – still impacts people, communities, churches, and our nation. I wonder what our communities would be like today if we had chosen stories that focused more truly on this harder truth.
Yet – even though this hard truth is part of who we are – it’s not the only truth about what we can become. Because, as we hear in our reading today, Jesus reminds his disciples that God’s kingdom has come. God, through Jesus, is already in our world – telling a new story centered in justice, reconciliation, and love. In our baptism, and in our faith, we are connected to Jesus who is already moving in our world and giving us a different truth that should be at the center of our story. He also promises to equip us so that we can admit hard truths that will impact our view of ourselves, our families, and our communities. And that truth-telling lets us be bearers of peace into troubled communities that are sick and full of all kinds of demons. Through Jesus, we get to be Jesus to all kinds of people. And we do this not because we are perfect, wonderful, and always faithful. Rather, we do this because we are Jesus’ disciples – imperfect people that proclaim that life can be experienced in a different way.
Out of the 3594 ads listed on “Last Seen,” only 16 describe reunions that happened. In one of those announcements, a daughter who was one month old when her mother was sold to someone else, found her almost 31 years later. I don’t know if that story of reconnection was normal or very unique. But I know we can, together, choose to live as if reconciliation, hope, and love is what God’s kingdom is all about. Jesus is already active in our world, offering a perfect love that we struggle with. Yet we get to live as if God’s kingdom is here – and that God’s truth is actually true. Together, we proclaim that God is present; that the Spirit is active in the world; and that Jesus has already been among us, showing us the truth about who we are, and yet, through the Cross, saving us from ourselves. Jesus has already chosen you to be part of his ragtag and imperfect team meant to bring love, mercy, and hope into the world. This is a mission we‘re already a part of. It’s a mission Jesus is already living out. It requires us to name and express hard truths that will trouble us. Yet those hard truths will help us see a more righteous truth – that God loves you; that God loves your neighbor; that God loves the world – and those truths are ones we can truly live out.
Amen.