Less Than Perfect Instruments of God’s Gifts
June 20, 2008
Read: Matthew 9:36,10:8
Today’s gospel names the twelve apostles. Jesus already had a small band of followers, but these twelve were given special authority.
A few years later, after his death and resurrection, scripture tells us that there were 120 present on the day of Jesus’ Ascension to heaven. Ten days after that there were 3,000 present when the Holy Spirit appeared at Pentecost. By the time the last of the original twelve died, towards the end of the 1st century, it is estimated that there were 500,000 followers of Jesus – and by the end of the ninth century, the number had grown to almost ten million. Today there are more than two billion Christians in the world.
It all started when Jesus looked out and took pity on a crowd that looked “like sheep without a shepherd.” If pity were all that Jesus had to offer, I do not think it would have had such a lasting effect. Even if he had done one great miracle – healing, curing, cleansing and driving our demons - it may have helped those who were there, but I doubt it would have had much of an impact beyond that.
Instead of one great miracle, he performed twelve. He called twelve ordinary men and gave them authority to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers and drive out demons.” He did not give them this power to make them rich or famous. He only asked that they pass on what they themselves had received.
Although they were now sharing some of his authority, he reminded them that they would never cease being sheep themselves. They had all received the gift of healing – had all been rescued from their own broken existence. Now they were to give back what they had received. “Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give.”
All of the millions who have followed Jesus through the ages – from the original twelve to the more than two billion Christians alive in the world today – all of us have one thing in common. We are all inadequate to the task. None of us is able to bring about the changes that Jesus brought to the world.
I recently saw the film “Evan Almighty.” It is a silly little film about a man who is elected to Congress on the slogan “We can change the world.” Of course, when he gets to Washington all he wants to change are those things that will give him power and help him be re-elected. God appears to him – in the person of Morgan Freeman – and tells him to build an ark because another flood is coming. Of course, he resists, but God is persistent – and finally he builds the ark. A dam breaks, a flood comes, and hundreds of people are saved. Evan was not able to change the world, but his ark saved a small part of it.
Of course that is more than most of us can ever hope to do. We preach to hundreds of people each week. I, for one, am very happy if my words make a difference to one.
That is the pattern of God’s saving work. Just as he did with the original twelve apostles – and with Evan - he calls each of us by name - one by one. He gives each a task to perform – all we have to do is figure out what it is. When we do, we may not think we are up to the task, but – just as he did with Evan - God will give us the tools necessary to do whatever he is calling us to do. We may be less than perfect instruments of God’s gifts - but we are the instruments that God has chosen.
This weekend we celebrate Fathers Day. All of us who are fortunate enough to bear that title are often reminded how less than perfect we are in fulfilling that role. The truth is none of us measure up to the standard of the one Jesus called Abba – which means Daddy- but that is the role for which we have been chosen. Jesus used that familiar term to describe the intimate, loving, caring, protective relationship that His Father wants for His children – and that is the standard we must try follow for our own.
Some of us may fail – but remember that only eleven of the Twelve Apostles remained faithful. All who have been chosen to fulfill the role of father - birth fathers, adoptive fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers, godfathers – even single moms who are both mother and father to their children – bear the heavy responsibility of providing the same love, care and security that we all receive from the God who is Father of us all.
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