Sermon - June 15, 2008 - Ordinary Time: Sunday 11

Pastor Heisley

“Don’t thank me; you will repay me.” That’s the mindset of the people whom Moses leads. It sounds like a threat. It seems to imply that if there is no repayment, then there will be retribution. Don’t thank me. You WILL repay me. 

The Israelites came out of slavery in Egypt. Saved by their God. They wandered into the wilderness of Sinai and they camped in front of the mountain, the mountain where Moses would meet God. God told Moses to tell them that they would be “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” Priestly and holy. And more: everyone would be equal in power and in responsibility. 

And the ancient Middle Eastern phrase, “Don’t thank me; you will repay me,” must have been on their minds. How will we make things right with God after this great saving act? How can we ever repay God? How can we be priestly and holy? So they decided not to lose face. And not to embarrass God: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” 

Of course, on the surface they might have meant what they said; it’s not often you get a mass promotion to priestly and holy. So, they agreed. “Yes, we’ll do anything!” But you and I know that it didn’t happen. They didn’t repay God. And, at the same time, the thanks they gave to God was all too sparse. Priestly and holy just didn’t work for them. They were responsible for being God’s servants here in this life and they could not live up to their responsibilities. 

It’s a hard thing for Lutherans to hear, “Don’t thank me; you will repay me.” It sounds too much like God wants us to help out the salvation situation. It sounds like God is impotent, like God has expectations about what we will do that we don’t want to hear. Lutheran Christians want to say, “I can do nothing more than offer profound thanksgiving and pray that I may become just a little holy in the next breath, and in the next and maybe still a little in the next. But I know I will fail.” 

I’m becoming more and more convinced that this is not good biblical theology and it’s not good Lutheran thinking. Maybe what we need to hear God say is, “Thank me; and then repay me.” 

Last week Jesus taught the disciples and us to be compassionate; to work to alleviate the suffering of others; to be merciful because we have been given the gift of mercy. That teaching is carried forward today. “Jesus summoned his twelve disciples,” his twelve followers, “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…” 

Apostles! Disciples become apostles. Followers become those who are sent. The action is not toward Jesus, but instead toward the world. This is the only place that St. Matthew uses the word apostle and it is for a reason. “These twelve Jesus sent out…Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” Do the impossible! Repay God for what God has done. Is that what is going on? Is Jesus saying that if the apostles don’t come through they’ll lose their status in the kingdom of God? “A priestly kingdom and a holy nation?” 

This is not a casual sending. Jesus said to the disciples, soon to become apostles, “’The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.’” If we don’t get out into the fields now, today, in this very hour, the harvest will be lost. And right there is a frightening sense of urgency that propels the apostles, that chases after them like hounds hunting their prey. We are a priestly people, a holy nation, responsible. And the weight of doing God’s work becomes almost overwhelming. 

St. Paul understood this: “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” For us. Made us a priestly people, a holy nation. But Paul understood more than this. He knew that we can never repay, fully repay what has been given to us, done for us, by God in God’s great love. 

We can never be priestly and holy on our own. The Israelites tried and they failed. The apostles went out and they were despised and mistreated. And we are to join them in doing the deeply compassionate work that Jesus did? It’s like asking us to go into a funeral home and with a loud voice shout, “Arise!” and expect all of the corpses there to stand up as they once again breathe deeply the breath of life. You and I both know that’s not going to happen. 

No, in all that we do we are to be bring good news. To be the good news that we, even we, are forgiven. And forgiveness comes from God. 

One of our former vicars said that she was amazed that Cantor Cherwien could preach from the organ console. But preaching, bringing good news, is what each of us is to do. Bringing good news – wholeness, health, understanding, mercy and compassion – is at the heart of music. 

Johann Sebastian Bach was perhaps the greatest preacher of all times. We hear him loudly and clearly today both in this liturgy and in the sermons-in-song that will be presented at Evening Prayer today at 4 o’clock. 

Music preaches. And so do our actions. Every one of them, and every word we speak is to preach. 

But good news is sometimes difficult truth. We suffer at the same time that we are called to bring and to be good news. And we should not deny that we suffer. Like the Israelites, like Jesus’ apostles, like people of all times, we suffer. But our 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.” As we suffer and do our best to be and to bring good news it is hope that our lives preach. We are a priestly people, a holy nation, made so by God’s grace and mercy. And it is now our turn. Our turn to show grace, to act with mercy. 

Our new rite for the Holy Eucharist has four alternative endings: “Go in peace. Serve the Lord.” Or “Remember the poor.” Or “Share the good news.” Or “Christ is with you.” It’s almost as if these statements are little sermons of their own and taken together they form a unique whole. Go in peace. Go from this place having been fed in word and song and food, having been washed and made clean. 

Go into the world with joy and confidence in your hearts so that you might serve the Lord in every other person you meet. 

Go with the understanding that to thank God is to repay God by giving to the poor. By advocating for them. By supporting those who struggle with no hope to live lives of decency and integrity. 

Go forth sharing the news that God is good and that in God’s astonishing grace we are forgiven for our lack of full repayment. We are instead sent over and over to do the impossible, with hope. 

Go forth knowing that Christ is with you, in you, beside you, behind you, looking over you. Therefore you can go into the world knowing that in spite of the sufferings you see, the challenges you face, there is hope that together God is making us, today God is making us apostles, priestly, holy. 

And the future is ours. Amen.

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