Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts - no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep.” (Matthew 10:1-10)
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Welcome! It's what the church is about, isn't it? Or at least it's what it's supposed to be about, right? Welcoming, inclusive, non-judgmental, accepting of newcomers and fully open to their new ideas? Right? Well, that's the ideal in most people's minds, anyway. Some churches are better at it than others. Some attract people like a magnet attracts lead; some, on the other hand, seem more interested in driving people away, lest visitors or newcomers upset the apple cart. I'd like to think that here at Central we lean more toward the former than the latter, but we have our moments, I'm sure. But being a welcoming church is now the big idea in the world of Christianity. How to be welcoming; how to appeal to people; how to reach a modern society; how to keep 'em once they're here. How to be a “seekers' church” - a church for people who know they believe in something, but who aren't too sure what it is they believe in, and who are looking for some guidance to comfort them, or some thought provoking ideas to challenge them. There's books and programs galore dealing with this subject. It's what we're about, people say. And it's all well-intentioned and well-meaning, and we hope people respond to the efforts. I hope people respond to the efforts. I hope they do, because I believe that the church does have something to offer to those who truly believe that there has to be more to life and more to existence than just what we see around us; that reality has to do with more than just the concrete stuff we can see and touch and smell and hear; that there's something beyond us, but not that far away from us at the same time – which is, of course, exactly what the message of Jesus was about God: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” And I believe that the church – this church – can help people who are on that quest. And that's all a part of being welcoming and open and invitational. And it's great. But I sometimes wonder if we haven't taken it too far?
Is welcoming people really what we're all about? Or at least, is welcoming people all that we're about? Really, isn't that what Rally Day is all about? “Welcome back” to those who've been away for the summer and “welcome to Central” for newcomers checking us out? But - welcoming them for what? What's the purpose? We reach out, we invite back, we invite in, we're happy when people respond – but is that all there is to it? Is it just about getting people in? It's interesting that early on in His ministry, once Jesus had found His original crew of disciples, He didn't hang on to them. He “sent them out ...” They had work to do! They had His work to do! To proclaim the Kingdom of God. To offer freedom to those held in spiritual bondage. To offer healing and wholeness and comfort to those suffering affliction of mind or body. And for those purposes, they were sent out!
I'm guessing that the disciples weren't especially happy to hear those instructions. Really. You have this group of 12, who in the overall scheme of things really haven't been followers of Jesus for all that long, suddenly being told to go out and – well, the Gospel writer may have left out some details, but I can imagine what their response might have been.
“Excuse me? You want me to do what? Drive out evil spirits and heal diseases and proclaim the Kingdom of God? Uh, Jesus – I don't know if I'm up to that. Really. Maybe it would be better if we all just kind of stuck here close to You, and then maybe You could teach us a little bit more? That might be better. Really.”
I can imagine them responding in that way. Just the desire to stick close to home, to not take many risks, to avoid having to actually stand up and be counted – because that can be a very uncomfortable thing. Now, in truth, Jesus didn't ask too much of His disciples. They didn't have to go far, they just had to go out. They didn't have to go the the Gentiles, but at least they had to go to Israel. They didn't have to go to strangers, but at least they had to go to their neighbours. But, still, it must have been hard for the disciples, and they probably would have preferred to have stayed right where they were, and in fact, I think that just maybe the church today sends the implicit message that that's the way it's supposed to be. With all the emphasis we put on getting people in, perhaps we lose sight of the need to also be sending people out! Perhaps we as a church sometimes give the impression that faith is something we do in here, in church, on Sunday morning. Maybe we unintentionally encourage people to compartmentalize their life of faith, so that it takes up one slot in our life (that 90 minute slot on Sunday morning, and maybe another hour or two for different things happening – at the church! - during the week) but it leaves all the other slots free of that risky entanglement with faith. Our society promotes that. I notice it all the time. You're not supposed to talk religion, are you. It's personal; it's private. You know the old advice about the three things you should never talk about: politics, sex and religion. As I've sometimes said in response, if you avoid those three things how much more is there to talk about that's actually interesting? But the message we get from society about faith is: “believe what you want, just keep it to yourself.” And that's comfortable for us, so quite often we do, and quite often it's Christians who get upset by public displays of faith that are too much in our face – for example, how many of us actually like Jehovah's Witnesses showing up at our door on Saturday morning? Hey - I'd rather keep my Saturday morning nice and relaxing too, but then I have to admit something – they understand what Jesus said. He sent His disciples out!
His basic message to His disciples was that now that they had heard the message, they could take it out. I mean it really isn't complicated. Sometimes I think God created clergy to make things more complicated than they have to be – but really the message isn't complicated. Love everyone, and remember that God's unconditional grace is there for everyone, and live accordingly. And Jesus sent His disciples out to share that message in practical ways. I can hear His words to the disciples: “Share the message; live the message; be the message! And do it every day!” He didn't leave them on their own to do it. They would come back to Him. He wasn't casting them away, but He was sending them out.
Isn't that what the church needs to do? As a community of faith, isn't it important for us to by all means invite all of you in, but then also by all means to send all of you back out? Surely we don't exist as a church just to worship for an hour and then go away until next Sunday. We worship – and then we don't just go away – we go out! We do what Jesus essentially told His first disciples to do: we go out to share the message, to live the message and to be the message!
I do like to think that we're a church that welcomes and invites everyone and anyone; that we're a church with an open door policy – but as Christians we need to remember that an open door policy works both ways. We welcome people to come in the doors to celebrate their faith and to be reminded of the message of Jesus, but then we encourage those same people to go out the doors and to share their faith; to share the message of release from all the things (spiritual or physical) that afflict us.
Share the message; live the message; be the message. That's our calling as disciples of Jesus! And remember – we do have an open door policy: so go on out!
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