Isaiah 66:10-16

Psalm 66:1-8

Galatians 6:1-18

LUKE 10:1-12,16-20

Sermon – July 8, 2007

Our message from today’s Scriptures is one of nurture, challenge and teamwork.

The most compelling nurturing image comes from our Old Testament reading. God says, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” Maybe I need to read that again: “Thus says the Lord…As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.”

Has anyone here every heard God referred to in male images? A lot of people tell a recent national poll that the image they have of God is one which is cold, austere, remote, authoritative and not warm, close and nurturing at all. That is truly tragic.

I vividly remember visiting two women in the hospital in Boston back when I was doing Clinical Pastoral Education (what Brent Bates is doing now). Both described themselves as “lapsed Roman Catholics”, both had cancer, both said that they didn’t feel that God the Father Almighty cared about them and their suffering – that he was as remote as a statue high upon a wall of a vast cathedral – and neither did they expect any compassionate interest from Jesus. Both said they prayed to the Virgin Mary instead “because”, they told me, “She’s a woman and she understands.”

Imagine if they had been Protestant and had the same concept of God – and no belief in the Blessed Virgin Mary as someone to whom they could pray! The pain of their cancer would have been exacerbated even more by their spiritual isolation.

So please, let us hear this word from the Bible and take it to heart: God wants to comfort us “as a mother comforts her child.” Think back to when you were a child, and your mother or grandmother or some warm, maternal figure comforted you, perhaps hugged you tenderly, or perhaps when you did this for someone. Or if you never experienced this the way you would have hoped, imagine right now God offering you all the tender, compassionate, near-at-hand unconditional love you could ever need or want. You have it. “Thus says the Lord, ‘As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.’”

This is part of God’s self-disclosure to God’s people, part of what God is like – along with all the power and authority. In fact, the Good News is that the ultimate power in all the universe is also the ultimate source and producer of love.

And now for the challenge: millions of people don’t know this. Some of them know absolutely nothing about God except as God is depicted in movies, on TV or in the rest of pop culture – a rather depressing thought. Some others grew up with the “sit down and shut up or I’ll hit you with a ruler” kind of “Christian education” and couldn’t wait to escape organized religion. Others may have tried to read the Bible like a novel and gotten bogged down, puzzled, confused and discouraged without guidance. Others may know just enough to know what religion they are not (“We’re not Jewish, you know”). Others may simply not be connected to any faith community.

In fact, on an average Sunday morning, only 21% of Americans are in church. And a lot of the 79% who aren’t are people I would call “unconverted Christians”: people who would tell the Gallup Poll they were Christian, but are not connected to any faith community and may not have a living, dynamic relationship with the one true God in a way that enriches, strengthens and transforms their lives.

It’s fair to say that there are plenty of people who are on the mailing list of a church or other for whom that is also true, which means there are millions and millions of spiritually hungry people in our country alone. Some of them don’t know that there is spiritual food: that there is unconditional love, guidance, forgiveness, strength and wisdom available free because they are priceless children of God.

Now, I hope all of us here are spiritually hungry, too. Sometimes with physical food, I know I don’t always realize how hungry I am until I’ve had the first bite, and I think once people experience being fed spiritually – directly by God in their daily lives, through Bible reading, through the sacraments, through a faith community, through consciously participating in serving others as a spiritual discipline or perhaps in all of those ways – only then do we begin to realize what an enormous banquet there is, and we may yearn for a deeper relationship with God and perhaps never be quite satisfied in this life. Which, actually, is absolutely fine: St. Augustine of Hippo said, “Our hearts are restless, Lord, until we rest in thee.” C.S. Lewis remarked that the yearning for pure joy is more satisfying than actually receiving anything else. So spiritual hunger is good and can accompany being fed spiritually.

But there are millions who do not know how much spiritual food – good food, not spiritual junk food or worse, is available to them for the asking, partly perhaps because no one has ever invited them to the feast.

How has each of us experienced God in our lives? Was there someone at various stages of our lives who encouraged us and guided us in our faith journeys? Was there someone here who welcomed us and encouraged us to make this community our faith community?

Have we ever said “Thank you” to those who helped us along the way by offering encouragement or spiritual nurture to others? Have we said “Thank you” to whoever invited or welcomed us here by inviting or welcoming someone else?

Two thousand years ago Jesus sent out 70 of his followers – not just “the twelve”, but seventy of his followers – to share God’s peace with the world, to heal in Christ’s name and to represent Jesus to an assortment of towns, including passing judgment on them. Without followers Jesus’ message and Jesus’ mission would have ended with his death – for he only appeared after his resurrection to those who believed in him. Without continued growth and empowerment by the Holy Spirit his corps of followers would have dwindled after Jesus’ return to heaven as they gradually died off; instead his corps of followers grew spectacularly.

If that had not happened, no one here would ever have heard of Jesus Christ. No one here would have experienced his love, forgiveness, healing, strength, guidance, peace or received hope for personal salvation and for the ultimate transformation of this broken world.

We are among those commissioned by Jesus today to bring his message of compassion to the hurting and especially the isolated and hurt – including those who never heard God say, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” We are commissioned to share with those who feel they are unforgivable that God can forgive them, to share with the directless God’s desire to offer guidance, to share with those who hunger for a deeper community and communion an invitation to be part of exactly that.

If you undertake this task of sharing faith explicitly with others, I encourage you to pick someone to be your teammate so that you can encourage each other in this ministry. Jesus knew what he was doing when he sent the Seventy out two-by-two. We may not be canvassing neighborhoods in pairs, but we could be reaching out to others supported by the prayers of our prayer partner with whom we could do a mutual debriefing.

It doesn’t take a lot of equipment to do this. In Eugene Petersen’s translation of the parallel passage to this one in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says to the Seventy, “You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment.”

We are among those through whom God Almighty has chosen to bring God’s peace and love to the world. Let’s do it.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Monmouth Junction, New Jersey