Sermon on Matthew 9:35-10:8
Pastor Jennifer Garcia
You can’t do it by yourself.
That’s a tough lesson for many of us.
There’s much in US culture that rewards independence, the “self-made [person],” and an attitude of “if you want it done right, do it yourself.”
Even Jesus had to learn that he couldn’t do it all himself.
He was traveling around, teaching, healing, and proclaiming the good news of the Beloved Community. Our reading says he went to “all the cities and villages.” Maybe he actually went to every single village in the area, or maybe it just felt like it. You’ve been there, right? When it feels like every single piece of paper is on your desk or every single person in your life needs help right now?
Our story tells us that Jesus had compassion on all the people he could see who were “harassed and helpless,” who were looking to Jesus for help and healing.
That’s a lot of pressure.
Overcome, he turns to his disciples, asking for prayer.
He tells them: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Jesus can see there are so many people who need the good news of the inclusive, abundant Beloved Community that he is bringing to the world. And he’s trying to do it himself. Sure, he gathered some students, but so far, he’s just having them follow him around and learn from him. They aren’t doing the work themselves yet.
But now, Jesus has reached the end of his capacity. He’s been trying to take his message to every town and village, and it’s not enough.
People are still suffering, people are still harassed and helpless.
The suffering in this world can be overwhelming.
It was overwhelming for Jesus, and it can be overwhelming for us.
The vast number of anti-trans bills in various states in this country is overwhelming.
The vast number of immigrants and refugees who are suffering around the world is overwhelming.
The vast amount of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and all other kinds of discrimination is overwhelming.
And yet, we have a responsibility to address it.
The world watches us, as people of faith, to see what we will do about suffering and injustice. They look at us to see if we really take Jesus seriously or are just paying him lip-service. And if we say and do nothing, that speaks volumes.
We are part of the ELCA, the whitest Christian denomination in the United States.
And yesterday was the anniversary of when a young white man who had grown up in an ELCA congregation went into Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina and shot and killed nine Black people who had come for a Bible study.
We have a responsibility to remember this tragedy, and we have a responsibility to dismantle the white supremacy that fueled it.
But, where do we even begin?
If we go about it alone, we will end up overwhelmed and burned out.
We see Jesus in our reading trying to reach everyone, trying to ease every form of suffering, all by himself.
His conclusion: “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
He could have given in to despair—“nothing will ever get better! I can’t fix everything, so why bother?” But he didn’t.
Instead, he asked his community for prayer. He asked his disciples to pray for help.
Then, the next thing we see him doing is sending out his disciples to do exactly what he had been doing in all those cities and villages, starting in Jewish territory, though expanding to the whole world by the end of this Gospel.
Looks like God answered Jesus’ prayer. Jesus prayed for help, and then he saw the people around him and taught them to do what he was doing.
They say, “Be careful what you pray for.” I wonder if Jesus looked at his…eclectic…band of disciples and thought to himself, “This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
The reading lists out the disciples, almost likeit’s saying, “yeah, really: this is what Jesus had to work with.”
It begins with Peter the denier.
In the middle, there arepolar opposites:
Matthew, the tax collector, the collaborator with the Romans
and
Simon, the Cananaean or zealot, the rebel, the political radical
And then the list ends with Judas, the betrayer.
God gave Jesus these folks to work with?
Jesus gave these folks “authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness”?
But that’s exactly what happens.
God has a reputation for preferring the underdog, for using the least likely suspects to work God’s wonders.
And if God could use that motley crew of disciples to cast out spirits, cure diseases, and share the good news of the Beloved Community, then God can use us, too.
God can use us to speak up against racism.
God can use us to challenge what is violent in our world.
God can use us to advocate for the dignity of every person, every beloved child of God.
God can use us no matter where we come from, or what we’ve done, or how awkward or scared we are, or what barriers society has put in our path. We are cherished children of God, invited into the Beloved Community, and sent out again to bring God’s abundance and liberation wherever we go.
But where do we even begin?
You can’t do it by yourself.
No one person can end white supremacy by themselves. But without the work of individuals, nothing will change. It requires many people working together to change the status quo.
To summarize something my ethics professor in seminary, Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, wrote in her book Resisting Structural Evil[1]: what has been constructed by humans can be dismantled by humans.
White supremacy is a structure of lies, biases, and violence that was built by humans, and so, we can demolish it and, with God’s help, build the Beloved Community in its place.
Whenever that seems overwhelming, imitate Jesus, and turn to your community for prayer.
Through prayer, he gained the clarity to recognize the answer to his prayer was already surrounding him.
Prayer by itself is often not enough, and action without attending to the spiritual can easily get off course or become overwhelming.
We need both action and reflection, spiritual practices and hard work. And we need each other.
Overwhelming tasks like bringing healing and good news to all the cities and villages or like ending white supremacy can be accomplished with God’s help. God uses all kinds of people, even us, to share the healing and liberation of the Beloved Community with this world.
You can’t do it by yourself, but fortunately, you don’t have to.
Begin by turning to your community for prayer. Expand your idea of what your community is. And let God answer your prayer in the most unexpected ways.
That is how the world will be unchained from evil.
That is how every person will be celebrated for who they are.
That is what will set us free.
[1]Moe-Lobeda, Cynthia. Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological and Economic Vocation. p. 3.