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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: “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.] (Matthew 9:35—10:8 [9-23], NRSVue)

Jesus called the twelve and then sent them.

He sent them to go into the world and depend on the world for their needs.

He called them to be different than the world, as He sends them back into the world.

You are called by Jesus.

Called to be different from the world. Called to be a giver of God’s grace to the world.

You are sent into the world, that can be hurtful and hateful to those who are different, and when we follow God and do what Jesus called us to do we are different from the world.

But you are a piece of the greater picture that is God’s kingdom.

So go. Knowing you never go alone, and make the picture bright.

tradition

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders, and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash, and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
    teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
“You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God), then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus nullifying the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.” (Mark 7:1-13, NRSVue)

Which is more important, people or tradition?

I went to an ELCA congregation in Tulsa last Sunday that has a traditional Lutheran service at 9:30, a non denominational service from a different congregation in their basement at 10:30, and then a Catholic service in Spanish at 12:00. They bridge tradition and contemporary by having multiple services in their building. This moves beyond tradition. But at the non denominational service I saw a man with a shirt that said People First, Labels Second.

People are always first.

Before labels. Before tradition. Before rules.

People come first.

Do not think traditions are more important. People are always more important.

History

“It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from your own people as he raised me up.’ He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living oracles to give to us. Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands. But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
‘Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices
    forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
No; you took along the tent of Moloch
    and the star of your god Rephan,
        the images that you made to worship;
so I will remove you beyond Babylon.’ (Acts 7:35-43, NRSVue)

This is from the speech of Stephen, where he tells the history of Jesus to the religious leaders before they stone him. He expounds on the story of Israel, telling their history in the way it was meant to be told and understood, not how the leaders were teaching and twisting the story for their power to stay in place.

What do we know from our history that was taught to us wrong, in order for power to be maintained? In the United States, there is a lot in our history that is meant to keep white power in place. How many of the race riots did you learn about in school? How many of the indigenous peoples’ massacres did you learn about?

We are told the history to maintain power and status quo…

What history do we need to learn?

pride inspired by hope

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also “was faithful in all God’s house.” Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later. Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the boldness and the pride inspired by hope. (Hebrews 3:1-6, NRSVue)

Pride inspired by hope.

I have seen a lot of posts lately about how pride is a sin and we are to humble ourselves because June is Pride Month and celebration of our LGBTQIA2S+ siblings. Yet here we hear the author of Hebrews tell us that we are His house. We are Jesus’ house. We are His house when we hold firm the boldness and the pride inspired by hope.

Hope is that things that keeps us moving forward, hope is the thing that guides us and moves us to continue when the world tries to beat us down. And when we are bold and prideful we are inspired by hope.

And faith is the hope for things unseen, the author of Hebrews tells us.

So pride is not a sin when it is inspired by hope and love of God.

Live in your pride, inspired by hope.

Law or Love?

At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? How he entered the house of God, and they ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:1-8, NRSVue)

Rules are made for good reason, but if a rule causes you to be hurtful or mean it is not what God intended.

When rules get in the way of hungry people eating they are not what God intended.

Life is not about sacrifice. God tells us life is about mercy.

Live mercy.

Show love.

Mutual Affection

Let mutual affection continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them, those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” So we can say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper;
    I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?”
Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food, which have not benefited those who observe them. We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13:1-16, NRSVue)

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Mutual affection means we love all and look out for all.

Any one and every one is an angel. We are all messengers for God.

Share good and show love and light in all your life.

Share with all.

Cleanse Ourselves

Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? Or what partnership is there between light and darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said,
“I will live in them and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
Therefore come out from them,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch nothing unclean;
    then I will welcome you,
and I will be your father,
    and you shall be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God. Make room in your hearts for us; we have wronged no one; we have corrupted no one; we have taken advantage of no one.(2 Corinthians 6:14—7:2, NRSVue)

Cleanse ourselves and be free from defilement.

Is it possible to be free from defilement? Is it possible in our humanness to be completely in the sacred?

We are to be separate from the world and yet we still have to live in the world.

We are God’s temple and God is always with us. We are the love and mercy for God in the world.

Live in the world and share God’s light in all you do.

Do not concern yourself with be free from defilement, but live love out loud and share light in all your life.

Mercy. Not Sacrifice.

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are ruined, but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread through all of that district. (Matthew 9:9-26, NRSVue)

What do we need to do to make God happy?

Allow people to be in the presence of God and be made well? How do we do this?

Do we need to give until we can’t any more. Sacrifice our very beings. Make sure we are in worship every Sunday and bible study every week?

Is it about us doing the things we feel are seen as necessary so people see us doing what needs to be done. So we are not seen with the wrong people or seen doing the wrong things?

Jesus plainly here says to the Pharisees, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’”

Jesus desires mercy, not sacrifice. As my new Bishop said to me today, God doesn’t care how often you are in worship, God cares how much mercy you show.

Be merciful. God will handle the rest.

What we don’t understand…

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying loudly, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you have faith that I can do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, let it be done to you.” And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus sternly ordered them, “See that no one knows of this.” But they went away and spread the news about him through all of that district.

After they had gone away, a demon-possessed man who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed and said, “Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees were saying, “By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.” (Matthew 9:27-34, NRSVue)

What we don’t understand is of the devil, or done by demons.

Jesus cured the blind and the mute man. He set them free according to the people of the time and restored them to commumity.

When we don’t understand how this happens we say it is unnatural, but what if we say it as the working of God and expected it?

What do you want to expect God to do?

cured

After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta. The local people showed us unusual kindness. Since it had begun to rain and was cold, they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us around it. Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire when a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the local people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man must be a murderer; though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. They were expecting him to swell up or drop dead, but after they had waited a long time and saw that nothing unusual had happened to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.

Now in the vicinity of that place were lands belonging to the leading man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. It so happened that the father of Publius lay sick in bed with fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and cured him by praying and putting his hands on him. After this happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured. They bestowed many honors on us, and when we were about to sail, they put on board all the provisions we needed. (Acts 28:1-10, NRSVue)

Many people came to Paul and were cured. All those on the island that had diseases were cured by Paul. After he survived the viper attaching to him.

We see weird things and assume that people are possessed or unnatural.

Sometimes God does things we do not understand and through that brings others to healing.

Who can you cure by your witness to love of God?