Matthew 9:35 – 10:8 NRSVUE
35 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. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
10 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. 2 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; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
I heard y’all had a wonderful service led by United Women in Faith last week! I was at Adult Renewal Retreat at Camp Magruder with 13 people from Haven Dinner! The first year we had 5, last year we had 9, this year 13, and there are 8 other people who are regularly involved in Haven Dinner who weren’t at the retreat and one of the people we met at camp wants to join us, so Haven has grown from about 5 to about 22 people in 3 years.
In a time when most churches are declining, we can say the harvest is plentiful in Haven Dinner. But the harvest doesn’t look like it used to.
On Saturday night at camp, while watching the sun set, Troy, the Camp Manager, and I were talking about our common problem as church leaders.
We do what we do because Jesus has inspired in us compassion for the crowds because people are harassed and helpless. People are in need of a community where they are safe and accepted. A community they can turn to when they need a friend. A community that gives them the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves, where they can do some good while experiencing belonging.
If only there were some kind of group…
a group of people who gather on a regular basis…
Like some kind of…. Church…
The problem, as Troy and I discussed, is not that we need to create these communities from scratch, or build sacred places set aside for the intentional practice of Beloved Community in nature… some kind of Church Camp, maybe….
The Problem is not that we don’t have good Churches and Good Church Camps.
The problem is that people don’t know that our Churches and Church camps are good.
And by good, I do not mean that we are perfect, or that we never do harm. I mean that we are intentionally trying to do no harm and do all the good we can.
People don’t know that our churches and camps are good because other churches and even our past selves have done harm.
I asked permission to share this story.
This is a true story. This is Torben’s story.
Torben was raised in a conservative branch of the church.
And Torben is autistic.
Not the, I’m a little socially awkward kind of autistic.
The, it took a long time to learn how to talk kind of autism.
The, very literal thinking kind of autism.
There are good things about growing up in the conservative church.
Like there are very clear directions on what you are allowed to do and what you are not allowed to do and clarity is kindness when you’re autistic!
And you belong to a community who is required to be nice to you, even when you’re a little different.
And there are bad things.
Like punishing teenagers with 2 days in isolation at camp because they kissed another teen.
Torben felt shunned and rejected for the rest of the week at camp after those 2 days.
But the main event of that camp was the dramatic enactment of the end times.
The kids were told that in the end times, which they were taught were coming soon, so they needed to be prepared!
In the end times, it would become illegal to be Christian so they needed to practice hiding from the government.
So the church paid some police friends of theirs to come at night, wearing their uniforms and tactical gear, and bang on the doors and shine their flashlights in the windows and pretend to be searching for Christians.
Riding right past that ethics violation…
The camp leaders had taught the children to hide and be silent while being searched for by the government during the Tribulation part of the end times.
Also, riding right past the fact that there is no prophecy of a Tribulation of the end times in the Bible.
This was what church was like for young Torben.
A place where you were told that you were a part of the right group and everyone else was evil.
Torben thought this whole thing didn’t seem right, but, if they said anything they’d end up in solitary confinement again, so they didn’t say anything.
And the church told them again and again, and again, that if they ever left the church the devil was coming for them.
So when Torben left the church in their teen years, everyone they knew turned their back on them. Their church friends weren’t their friends anymore.
Friendless, and with time on their hands, Torben was recruited to be a drug mule. Torben didn’t know they were a drug mule. They just knew that a guy paid them really good money to deliver packages across town. When the FBI picked them up in a drug sting, Torben genuinely didn’t know they were doing anything wrong, because they were autistic and just following directions. So the FBI told them to not go back to work right before the big drug bust.
So Torben concluded that everything the church told them was right. Torben had left the church and therefore Satan had gotten them into drug running. And now they were evil and there was no help for it.
Which led to substance abuse and some more bad situations. But God placed some helpers in Torben’s path. I would say God, because I believe in prevenient grace, but that’s not quite how Torben would say it. Torben would say that they got long COVID which permanently damaged their heart, and in the process of getting the help they needed to be physically healthier,Torben also got emotionally healthier, and learned how to be a peer support person.
And one of those helpers, invited Torben to Haven Dinner.
And we all encouraged Torben to go to camp with us.
And at the end of the week, Torben shared in the gratitude circle that they hadn’t needed to take their short acting anti-anxiety medications all weekend and they were shocked because they didn’t realize that church camp could be a safe place.
Before Haven Dinner, before Montavilla United Methodist,
They didn’t realize that a church could be a safe place.
The harvest is plentiful!
But the workers don’t know what to do!
Because, as Troy put it, everything we were taught about how to run a camp or a church doesn’t work anymore.
Not since COVID.
I’ve read the church growth books. How to organize your systems and volunteers and staff and overcome the problems created by fast growth.
I’ve designed successful children’s and youth ministries that had children dragging their parents to church because they didn’t want to miss Sunday school.
Back when I was a church musician, I could confidently state that I would increase worship attendance by 11% in my first year, because I did that in every church I worked in.
Now, I only know one thing.
My neighbor is the person who needs me to be a neighbor to them.
The person who is lonely, hungry, hopeless and harassed.
Look at our scripture for today – the last paragraph, starting with verse 5.
Jesus tells them to start easy by starting with their own neighborhoods.
Jesus tells them, don’t try to talk to the people you already know don’t want to talk to you. Don’t talk to the gentiles — which meant the non-Jewish people – the Greeks and the Romans or the Samaritans who were the former Northern Israelites. Jesus went north and talked with the Samaritans and the Syrophoenician woman. God likes to save the hard jobs for Godself! Then later, God sent Paul.
Verse 7 – and as you go proclaim the good news. And help people. For free.
Now, I don’t usually begin Haven Dinner by saying, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
I’m also not a doctor and to my knowledge I have not cast out any demons or raised the dead…. Lately.
But I can tell you this.
Several months ago we had a bunch of Havenites who were out of work so we had a lot of resume writing and job applying sessions. And the Mission Team shelled out less than $100 so that several people could take the online bartending class and exam for $11 each.
Now everyone has a job who was a part of that group.
Only one of them is bartending – as a side gig in the evenings.
But you choosing to believe in them made a difference.
You, Choosing to invest in them made a difference.
Knowing that they have a community – a church – who cares about them enough to take an $11 risk on them in an economy where a good burrito costs $12.
That *shows* them that the Kingdom of Heaven is here.
That you allow the camp scholarships that you created in days in plenty to be used to pay for them to experience the goodness of Camp Magruder.
That shows them that the Kingdom of Heaven is here.
That in a time when this church is struggling financially – we’ll talk about that more in next week’s Town Hall meeting – that you are still choosing to prioritize Haven Dinner and Family Promise and the Sewists Collective – ministries that bring in no money – yet you are choosing to prioritize them, because these ministries are changing lives.
Did you know that 16 people attend the sewists gatherings?
This is why we are experiencing an unusual harvest.
An unusual harvest that doesn’t look like church used to look –
An unusual harvest that doesn’t fill the pews on Sunday morning.
An unusual harvest that proclaims that the Kingdom of God is here
with more than words.
The harvest is plentiful,
And there aren’t a whole lot of us, and we don’t really know what we’re doing.
But we are bringing in an unusual harvest of crafters and Queers… the kind of outcasts and oddballs that Jesus hung out with.
The kingdom of God is here.
And we’re a part of it.
Amen.
