The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, June 14th, was preached using the below manuscript. The gospel text was Matthew 9.35-10.23.
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In our passage from Matthew today,
Jesus is about to start out on a journey,
but the beginning of that journey
is doing what he’s been doing.
Jesus keeps proclaiming,
“The kingdom of heaven has come near.”
The very beginning of our passage
is almost verbatim a restatement
of a verse in chapter 4.
“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.”
Then Jesus sits and teaches,
he tells crowds on the mountain
how to live with the kingdom of heaven having come near.
After he teaches,
Jesus goes around healing diseases.
For two chapters of Matthew,
Jesus is working healing miracle
after healing miracle.
“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.”
Jesus doesn’t only proclaim the good news of God’s reign,
he makes it manifest.
After proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven has come near,
and teaching how to live in that realm
and showing people that it makes them whole
Jesus calls the disciples to him
and tells them to do the same.
The weather in Seattle is beautiful today,
but that feels like one of the few ups right now.
YouTube and Zoom decided that
I needed to reauthorize permissions
and could live stream again in 24 hours.
Snohomish County is in Phase 2 of reopening,
but the COVID19 case numbers —
and deaths —
continue to rise nationwide.
As every state has protests about police brutality —
from metropolises to small towns,
Berkeley to base towns —
police officers in Atlanta
killed another black man on Friday night.
Many of us don’t have a lot to do,
but still have trouble getting it done.
Whether it’s brain fog,
depression,
multitasking,
increased work loads,
or decreased motivation,
I — and you that I’ve talked to —
can’t seem to keep up…
and can barely keep our chins up.
“After Jesus saw the crowds,
he had compassion for them,
because they were harassed and helpless,
like sheep without a shepherd.”
Last week week we heard Jesus tell the disciples
to go to every nation teaching as he had taught them.
He’s just finished those teachings,
and healing all sorts of ailments,
when he sees the crowds.
Jesus has been among them,
but perhaps has not actually seen them.
In seeing the crowds,
Jesus has compassion for them.
Jesus has been going 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.
And now Jesus has compassion on them.
The savior of creation,
through whom all things were made,
has compassion on the crowds of people
who can’t seem to keep up
and can barely keep their chins up.
Rather than wring his hands as if there’s nothing to do,
Jesus calls the twelve to him
and prays that there be laborers in the vineyards.
Jesus calls the twelve to him
and prays that the harassed and helpless crowds
will have someone to minister to them.
Jesus calls the twelve to him
and gives them authority to minister to those crowds,
authority that only he has had up to this point.
“As you go, proclaim the good news,
‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.”
Jesus has compassion on us in all of this.
In the midst of a pandemic,
an outbreak of police brutality
as retaliation for complaining about police brutality,
and the background stress that there are actually elections in November
the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Jesus goes about our towns and villages
proclaiming that in his incarnation
in God becoming human,
the kingdom of heaven has come near.
As the whole of creation has been changed
by God living among us as Jesus,
things do not have to be how they are.
God has compassion on us
in our brain fog,
depression,
increased work loads
and decreased motivations.
God has compassion on us
and the kingdom of heaven has come near!
Not only has the kingdom of heaven come near,
we’ve been sent as Jesus’ ambassadors,
joined to his defeat of death in our baptisms.
Jesus gave us authority
to cure the sick,
raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers,
and cast out demons!
These miracles aren’t one more thing for us to do.
These miracles are part of our beings
as those who have committed to following Jesus
to living like the way he taught.
These miracles —
casting out the demon
of racism from our systems,
raising the dead
whom unchecked capitalism has left in abject poverty,
curing the sickness of loneliness
by gathering together (even digitally)
are part of our proclamation:
The kingdom of heaven has come near!
2020 has been quite the decade.
We’re not even halfway through yet.
It could get better.
It could get worse.
In the midst of it all,
Jesus has compassion on us,
and the kingdom of heaven has come near.