3RD AFTER TRINITY (A-prop. 6) S. Margaret?s Budapest
The O T reading is set in the 40 years wandering of Israel in the wilderness as God prepares them, under the leadership of Moses, to be his holy nation in and to the world. It tells of the events around the establishment of the Covenant between God and his people. A covenant is an agreement ? this between God and his people. The people undertake to serve and be obedient and faithful to God. In return God will bless and preserve them and make them the executioners of his plan of salvation. The people thus become a covenant community, committed to relationship with God, recognizing themselves as his chosen. The sign of participation in this is circumcision. However, note! They have been chosen, and have themselves chosen, the path of service, not privilege.
Moses is to address God?s word to the
house of Jacob and the Israelites.
The first expression (house of Jacob) is the women of the community according to the Rabbis ? so he is to go to them first. Why? Because the women are the bearers and nurturers of the children who are the future of the nation. The education of the children in the nature of God and his ways is recognized as being of prime importance. We may do things a little differently in the new covenant community in Jesus, but this essential duty still remains.
The whole world belongs to God; it is his creation, and his purpose is the salvation of the whole world. The Jews were chosen as God?s instrument; they were to be
light to the nations
(Is. 49: 6). They were chosen for service, and not for privilege. They were to be a
kingdom of priests
to the world. A priest is to be a mediator of God?s saving grace, he stands before God for the people, and is God?s mouthpiece and instrument to the people. This is thus the function of the covenant community in relation to the world. It is also the function of the Church. Christians saw this from the beginning ? in the First Epistle of Peter it is clear (2:5,9). When he writes of the
holy nation
he is likening the Church to Israel, separate from the world, God?s instrument for the saving of the world.
In the Epistle reading S. Paul expresses his joy in the love of God shown to us in Christ. This love is totally undeserved ? we have done nothing to merit what God did for us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In his death we have the proof of God?s infinite love, and the source of our reconciliation with him; in his resurrection we have the promise and pledge of eternal life. S. Paul says this event happened
at the right time.
The time of Jesus? coming was not haphazard; it is part of God?s total plan of salvation.
The Gospel shows vividly some part of the working out of that salvation, and the love shown to us in Christ. It shows us something of what it means to be a covenant community; something of how we are to exercise that priesthood to which we are clled by reason of our membership of the Christian community. Jesus sees the crowds, that they are depressed and without direction, as sheep without a shepherd. The small flocks typical of the Mediterranean area are totally dependant on their shepherd who virtually lives with them. Without him the flock can wander into danger, it is open to the depredations of all sorts of marauders. Jesus sees the crowds, their tiredness, their lack of hope, deserted by their shepherds, and his heart is torn. He sees their need; and he sees the opportunity ? the harvest is great. On his own there is no way that he can take on the task; so he takes on workers. Twelve apostles ? twelve for the twelve tribes of Israel, twelve for the whole world as the beginning of the new covenant community. Here was an ambition out of all proportion to this tiny disparate group ? a group only too likely to split up if Jesus is not there to hold it together, to be its head. A few ordinary sinners, a tax collector, a terrorist. Actually these people are named; they are real people each with an identity. They were known to the early Church. How would they measure up to such a task?
?therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.
These disciples are called to continue the work of the Messiah. This ill-assorted group must take the place left vacant by the official rulers of Israel who had forfeited their role of leader-ship and inspiration. The ministry of the Church is based on the minstry of Jesus, shared by these first disciples, and passed on to others in their turn. The baton is now in our hands. Engagement in Christian ministry incorporates us into a community stretching back to N T times.
The goal is at first limited to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
in view of the urgency of their distress. The mission to the wider Gentile world would come later after Pentecost. But even then the instructions will not change ? namely to go to the misfits, to those who arouse the compassion of Christ in the heart of the disciple. For beyond all human ambition, and before any so-called pastoral strategy, the great tide of compassion must flow right up to the place where the sheep go astray. That is where Jesus is active beside and with and in his followers, his disciples, healing, setting free and forgiving. The ministry is to be disinterested; they are to take nothing for themselves, and to accept only the necessities of life. When we share the lot of the most neglected we are already showing them their origin and their end; namely the one and only kingdom prepared by the loving kindness of God.