The call remains

Watching for the Morning of June 14, 2020

Year A

The Second Sunday after Pentecost:
Proper 6 / Lectionary 11

With Pentecost behind us we return to the Gospel of Matthew.  Before Lent began, we were listening to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ teaching about the nature of God’s kingdom/way – the new world dawning where the Spirit governs every heart, the world of faithfulness and compassion rather than purity and exclusion.  Now we hear Jesus embodying this world of God’s governance and sending out his followers to do the same.

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. You received without payment; give without payment.

The world has changed since the beginning of Lent.  We observed Ash Wednesday on February 28 before we were ordered to shelter in place, before 115,000 had died here and 404,000 worldwide, before a callous policeman snuffed the life from George Floyd and the Attorney General sent troops with tear gas and weapons to clear peaceful protestors so our president could parade past armed forces to have his picture taken holding a Bible.

The world has changed since the beginning of Lent, but its need for the reign of grace remains.  There are terrible spirits to be cast out.  There are lives and communities in need of healing.  There are outcasts to be gathered in, the unclean to be welcomed.  The sick need care.  The dead need resurrection.

Sunday we will hear the people who have been led out from bondage and through the sea and gathered at the holy mountain declare: “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.”  It will be bittersweet, because we know their aspiration to live God’s mercy and justice will not endure.  But the call remains.

The psalm will remind us of God’s faithfulness, and of our own calling, declaring “we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

Paul will speak of the majesty of God’s mercy, saying “while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”  For us.  For all of us.  For those who die alone in intensive care, for those who break windows and burn, for those who beat heads and push old men to the ground, for those who thrill at the assault of the defenseless and those who thrill at destruction.  All of us, those who hold bibles like trophies and those who weep at the sight.  All of us.  Like sheep without a shepherd.  But the true shepherd has come and is sending his people into this wounded world to bear witness to a world made whole and to live that healing.

The Prayer for June 14, 2020

Gracious God,
you bid us pray for laborers to be sent into your harvest,
to a world in need of your healing and life.
Help us to fulfill our calling as intercessors for your world
and bearers of your grace.

The Texts for June 14, 2020

First Reading: Exodus 19:1-8a  (appointed: 2-8a)
“If you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” – Brought out of Egypt and assembled now before God at Mt. Sinai, the people hear and accept God’s covenant: “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.”

Psalmody: Psalm 100
“Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Know that the LORD is God. It is he that made us, and we are his.” – A hymn of praise as the community enters into the temple courts and are summoned to acknowledge and serve God.

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-8
“God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” – having established that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and that God justifies all by faith – by their trust in God’s promise – Paul declares that “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Gospel: Matthew 9:35 – 10:8 [9-23]
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” – The twelve are appointed for the first mission: to be heralds of the dawning reign of God in the towns and villages of Israel.  “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. You received without payment; give without payment.”

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Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Floyd_protests_in_Washington_DC._H_St._Lafayette_Square_on_30_May_2020_-_RP1_3245.jpg Rosa Pineda / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)