On A Mission
Matthew 9:35-10:16[1]
When I was growing up, there were only two avenues for
those who felt “called to special service” in the church: either serving as a
pastor or a missionary. At least that was all I knew. When I “surrendered to
the call” at the age of 17, I’m not sure I had a very clear idea of what my
path would look like. When I was a freshman in college, I knew I wanted to earn
a Ph. D. degree and teach in a college or seminary. And I pursued that path for
13 years. After finishing my degree, I taught at the Baptist seminary in Fort
Worth for 9 years. I wrestled with feelings of being pulled toward pastoral
ministry, but I didn’t think I had what it took to be a pastor. The truth is
that I knew what to expect in an academic environment, and I had no idea what
to expect in a pastorate. I would say that’s still the case, and it’s one of
the things I like about my role. The one thing I (thought) I knew for sure was
that I didn’t want to be a missionary, because they were supposed go to an
impoverished country in Africa or Asia.
As it turns out, during my time at the Seminary, I also
wrestled with feelings of being pulled to serve as a missionary. The head of
the Baptist mission agency was a persuasive speaker, and I found myself
gripping the arm rests on my seat on more than one occasion when he was sounding
the call to serve on the mission field! And, at one point I actually
volunteered to go live overseas to teach in a mission seminary in Prague.
Unfortunately, the details didn’t work out. But as many of you know, I’ve spent
some time in a variety of places. I taught at a mission seminary in the
Philippines for 2 months in 1994. I visited Pastor Manuel in Nicaragua in 2000.
And I met the Presbyterian nuns in Cameroon in 2011. As those of you who have
served on the Membership and Outreach committee or on the Session know, I still
have a keen interest in supporting mission partners both here and around the
world.
A funny thing happened along the way. The mission field
moved! Most observers of our culture would say that this country is now just as
much a “mission field” as anywhere else. And you can find all kinds of outlets
for mission, from working with impoverished communities, to helping victims of
violence, to sharing God’s love with those who have never had much of a meaningful
relationship with a church. I personally think this is a golden opportunity for
the church in our day. There’s another shift that’s taking place in our
culture. Most people under 40 aren’t satisfied to simply “send a check” and let
someone else do the work. They want to “get their hands dirty” by getting
involved directly in mission projects. I think that makes this post-pandemic
era an exciting time for the church in our society. If our churches are going
to thrive, everyone is going to have to step up. We can no longer expect the
“paid staff” to do the work of ministry. We have the opportunity to reclaim the
fundamental Presbyterian conviction that “every member is a minister”!!
It might not seem at first glance that our Gospel lesson
for today relates to this idea. The gist of the lesson is that Jesus was
sending the Twelve, his hand-picked ministry apprentices, to go out and extend
his ministry of preaching and healing. Since they were the “Apostles,” we might
think that our lesson only applies to “special” people serving in “special”
roles. But a closer look at the lesson in the context of Matthew’s Gospel as a
whole makes it clear that Matthew presents this story in a very different way.
Like the other evangelists, Matthew was writing his gospel for a particular
Christian community. And the message he wanted to convey in this passage was
that Jesus not only commissioned the “Twelve” to extend his ministry. That
commission was also intended for the church of Matthew’s day, and in fact for
the church of every day! From this perspective, the church that seeks to follow
Jesus faithfully has always found itself to be “on a mission”!
We see this reflected in our Gospel lesson in some subtle
ways. For example, both Mark and Luke report Jesus’ commission to the Twelve
Apostles, and they report something about them carrying out their work. On the
other hand, Matthew, who has the most developed account of this episode, says
nothing whatsoever about the Twelve carrying out this commission! It would seem
that Matthew was directing Jesus’ original commission to the Twelve to the
early church community for whom he was writing his Gospel. They were the ones
he wanted to encourage to follow Jesus’ original instructions. Again, I think
the point is that the church of Matthew’s day, and every day, is meant to carry
out the original commission to the Apostles.
We see this also in that Matthew takes some of the
traditions about Jesus’ teaching and connects them to this “sermon” to his
church about carrying out the mission of the kingdom of God. For example,
Jesus’ admonition that “What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and
what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops” (Mt 10:26) in this
setting serves as an encouragement to bold proclamation of the gospel. In
Luke’s Gospel, this same teaching serves as a warning against hypocrisy: “whatever
you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have
whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops” (Lk 12:3).
It might seem confusing at first, but in a very real sense both Matthew and
Luke were using Jesus’ teachings much like we would read Scripture today. They
were taking them and applying them as they were led by the Spirit to the life
situations of their respective church communities. Pastors everywhere continue
to do the same thing every Sunday! Matthew has interpreted this saying as an
encouragement to believers of that day, as well as every day, to carry out the
mission Jesus gave us without fear.[2]
I could go on, but I think you get the point. In Matthew’s
Gospel, this passage was meant not just to reflect the call to mission of a
select few. Rather, Matthew saw everyone in the church as called to the
“mission” of extending Jesus’ work. We’re all called to take part in sharing
the good news of God’s love. We’re all called to take part in offering care to
those who need it. That’s true regardless of how “actively” we carry out that
work. Whether we go overseas or across town, whether we preach and teach or
serve behind the scenes, we all share the same joy. To this end Matthew quotes
Jesus’ promise that even the ones who simply offer a “cup of cold water” (Mt
10:42) get to see themselves as equal partners in the mission.
I think this perspective is going to be crucial for the
church in our day. We live in a time when many people prefer to go and do
rather than sitting back and watching. I think the more we can orient our ministry
as a church toward “going and doing,” the more we will thrive in this strange
new world. As we create opportunities for everyone to take part in the mission
of sharing God’s love, we encourage more people in our congregation and in our
community to step up and join us. When we do that, we will be reclaiming the
conviction that we’re all “on a mission.”
[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 6/18/2023 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] M. Eugene Boring, “Matthew,” New Interpreters Bible IX:260: he says
Matthew makes this a “foundational principle of Christian discipleship.”
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