Only the Unqualified Need Apply

“Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news… 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.”  Matthew 9:35-38.

 Dear Friends: 

There’s a place in Matthew’s gospel where Jesus looks at the confused crowds and sees them as “harassed and helpless, like a sheep without a shepherd”. They look lost, but Jesus sees them through compassionate eyes, through eyes of hope. He sees what’s best about them. He sees their potential. Then Jesus says the harvest is ripe, and God will gather us like a crop of wheat, but we need laborers. To me, the situation screams: “Somebody should do something!” The disciples are the somebodies in God’s eyes.                        

Matthew meticulously lists the disciples’ names as they’re sent out in pairs, and we learn that they’re related. They’re brothers, sons, friends, known sinners and enemies. From Jesus’ closest friend to his betrayer, everyone is included. They won’t completely understand who Jesus is, but he will make them his apostles meaning ‘the one sent out, to carry a message.’

These apostles clearly aren’t qualified. They’re only authorized and empowered. Disciples transformed into apostles by God’s grace.

Recognizing I’m unqualified is often easier than realizing I’m empowered.  After all, we’re not Jesus. We can’t replace Jesus. Jesus tells us we can preach and heal with his blessing. The blessed can be transformed into those who bless in his name.                    

Years ago, I traveled with a group from All Saints in Birmingham to Rome to meet Sophia Cavelleti, the woman who created the little wooden figures and a method of teaching children called Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Sophia, a brilliant biblical scholar, devoted her amazing intellect to welcoming children into the kingdom of God for over 55 years, and her work has spread worldwide.

Our diocese has many atriums using Sophia’s work. At age 92, she was still working. Using the first statue of the Good Shepherd ever made, 54 years ago, with twelve little wooden sheep and a sheepfold of twine and sticks, she told us the story of the Good Shepherd.                           

She said, “The Good Shepherd cares for the sheep and the sheep know his voice, he calls them by name.” Sophia remembered a little boy who turned the Good Shepherd to face the sheep when he moved him to lead the flock. “Why did you make him face the sheep?” she asked him. “Oh,” the boy said, “… they can hear better. He knows every sheep by name and they come.”                          

“That’s the covenant,” Sophia said. “God calls and we answer and follow. The children don’t follow because Jesus died for them, they don’t always get that. They follow because Jesus knows them by name. That means Jesus loves them. That’s what’s important to them. They follow to be near his love.”

Then Sophia remembered reading the Good Shepherd story to a room full of hardened prisoners at a prison in Bronx, N.Y. The crowd of prisoners became quiet and peaceful as they listened. “That is God’s word and the strength of it,” she said. “The words bring peace.”

C. S. Lewis once said, “Each person is created to see a different face of God’s beauty, something no one else can see in the same way.” God sent his disciple Sophia to bring peace. God sends each of us in a different way to carry his message. Jesus cares for us, a Good Shepherd, who sees we’re lost sheep, looking for help, salvation and peace. In a world that needs peace, hope and love, we’re his sheep and his messengers.     

God sees us as vibrant and capable carriers of his love and he invites us to follow. Only the unqualified need apply. We can trust God will supply the power. 

Last Friday and Saturday, nearly 500 pilgrims celebrated a vigil and then walked the steps from courthouse to jail to the site of the martyrdom of Jonathan Myrick Daniels in Hayneville, Alabama.  Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preached to us about “the long walk to freedom” that followers of Jesus make as we persist in prayer, in seeking justice and in loving our neighbor as God loves us all.  He said, “it’s a marathon, not a sprint”.  But when we love as Jesus loves, we have energy that never quits.

So let us pray that peoples everywhere may seek after Jesus and find him; that he may “bring the nations into his fold; pour out his Spirit upon everyone and hasten the coming of God’s kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Amen.

As summer winds down and new school year begins, I am honored to be your bishop and I hope I see you at church!

Blessings,