June 18, 2023 – 3rd Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 6)
Matthew’s Jesus journeys to built-up areas as well as the villages we hear about in Mark. Matthew’s Gospel is for those who live in towns as well as farmers and those who fish. In other words, Matthew’s Gospel is for the well-to-do pillars of society as well as for those who are on the wrong side of the tracks. If we make and administer policies centrally, we must be mindful that those who are at the “center” of things, geographically and policy-speaking, can lose track of those people “out there” in the margins. And really, who is it who sets the margins anyway?
The Good News of Jesus is of a rule by someone other than priests and politicians. It’s about love, rather than duty. It’s about service, rather than serving. But integral to the Good News of Jesus is healing. Today, we benefit so much from many God-given gifts of healing which are mediated through health professionals – from new drugs to experimental treatments to treatments which have been perfected over the past years thanks to those who have gone before us. But friends, we are also healed by “amateurs” like most of us, to whom God has given gifts of healing through spiritual means. Gifts like love and caring, serving and exuding compassion. Because Good News without healing is hardly good news!
Jesus is moved deeply at the state of the people, deserted and led astray by leaders spiritual and political who were out for easy gains. Jesus uses words similar to what we hear in Ezekiel 34:1-16:
“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
7 “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.”
Jesus shows us a better way than the way that is with the current leaders. But it will cost Jesus, and it will cost us. And truthfully, there is little we can do for the harassed, the helpless, the flattened, the marginalized, unless and until God has moved inside of us that much too.
Gathering the harvest is about bringing to fruition what every stalk, head, and grain in every field has in it. Until we’re moved to our core, we won’t know how to answer the call with a godly and compassionate hand rather than just swinging a scythe blindly.
The authority that Jesus gave the disciples isn’t always recognizable. And what does an “unclean spirit” really mean? Is it an aversion to or shirking of our personal responsibility? Can we play our part in healing whatever is causing uncleanness today if we don’t face today’s with today’s understandings? “Uncleanness” can flourish not only at the margins, but also in our pews. Are we helping to build up a church where it’s okay to fess up to our personal failings and confusion and find healing among compassionate friends? We need to be an expression of the God revealed to us in Jesus.
Our names may not be on Matthew’s list today, but are we on Jesus’ current call list? And what instructions does Jesus send US out with? Is anyone off limits? Can we minister to anybody until we sort out what we’re all about? Or can we do nothing until we sort out what God’s all about? And that’s the kind of work that can only happen with on-the-job training, in and out of the margins.
My friends, can we help others see that God sneaks up on us, jumps in while we’re looking elsewhere doing something else? God always jumps up because God’s always like “it” in our game of hide and seek, yelling, “Ready or not, here I come!” THAT is at the heart of the Gospel.
The repetition of today’s command to heal and to trust not in hard currency or baggage, but in the goodness of others, shows us the importance to Jesus. So the question that really reflects on us this week is, “Are we free enough not only to give ourselves to others, but also to receive others from themselves?”