Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 9:35-10:1

Jesus made a tour through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness. And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is rich but the laborers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest.' He summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to drive them out and to cure all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness.

Prayer

We are modern people, Jesus. Our first move, always, is to distance ourselves from such outlandishness. We don’t believe the church has power over demons (whatever they are) or authority to cure the bodies of the broken. This is hardly our task or power. For us, that authority belongs to the medical community.

Our first move upon hearing that someone has been healed after prayer is to explain it away. We abolish the mystery by assuring ourselves it was the result of rational processes human minds can understand and chart.

In the process, we remove any promise or claim your actions might have on us. The sending of your followers becomes just an old story about someone else, long ago and far away.

Still, I wonder: What happens when people believe they have received power from you to free and heal? What happens when we imagine that we are sent with a story that is true, a love that is real? What happens when our hearts are convinced of your conviction to birth a new community fashioned by a compassion that shines on just and unjust alike, not by our ideas of justice?

I wonder if we would then know a power to speak and act and love that does, indeed, heal and set free. We then could heal and release souls from the bondages that reduce us to so much less than your desire for us.

Convince our hearts, Jesus, and send us to a world with a word that is true.

Pr. David L. Miller