Faithful Conversations #18

Note to readers:
Thanks for your continued interest in exploring the Lectionary! On page 13 of the LBW (Lutheran Book of Worship), we find this introduction to an explanation of the church year:  Time is a gift of God’s creation. People order time in various ways, often based on the rhythms of nature. The church organizes time by the Christian Liturgical Year. It tells the story of God, who is beyond time, acting in history – above all through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. . . . The church year includes the Christmas and Easter cycles of seasons and the periods of time after Epiphany and after Pentecost. We are now in the period after Pentecost, also known as Ordinary Time. See pages 14-15 of the LBW for a concise overview of the calendar. My weekly reflections are drawn from conversations I have with Pastor Jen, fellow parishioners, friends far and wide, the day-to-day news environment, and various things I am reading. I have a bent toward history, and I suspect that comes through from time to time. This week’s edition is inspired by the reading from Romans and the Gospel.

Readings for Pentecost 3:
Exodus 19: 2-8a
Psalm 100
Romans 5: 1-8
Matthew 9: 35 – 10:8 (9-23)

The Second Reading: Romans 5:1-8
5 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ^{3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6} For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸ But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

The Gospel: Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)
³⁵ Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

10 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. ² These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; ³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. ⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, ⁶ but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷ As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸ Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. ⁹ Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, ¹⁰ no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff, for laborers deserve their food. ¹¹ Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. ¹² As you enter the house, greet it. ¹³ If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴ If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. ¹⁵ Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. ¹⁶ “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. ¹⁷ Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues, ¹⁸ and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the gentiles. ¹⁹ When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you at that time, ²⁰ for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. ²¹ Sibling will betray sibling to death and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, ²² and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ²³ When they persecute you in this town, flee to the next, for truly I tell you, you will not have finished going through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

This Week’s Reflection: Hope for a World in Despair

“Harassed and helpless.” This description of the crowds in Matthew 9 has gripped me this week. Let me explain. It seems to me that in 2023, many in our midst are feeling “harassed and helpless.”  In recent polling (linked here) for example, nearly 70% of respondents say our “country is headed in the wrong direction” (and, by the way, this number has been roughly the same for the past 20 years, regardless of who is in power). Our politics, and especially the echo chambers in which we reside, seem to envelope us in an atmosphere of pervasive cynicism and, dare I say, despair. Listen to how we interact with one another.  Listen to our news coverage. Spend a few minutes on social media.  “Harassed and helpless.”

As a Christian, I am challenged by this state of affairs on two levels. First, it makes me feel ashamed. Think of it. We live in a nation of abundance, and certainly with more privilege and more freedom than 80% of humanity. Relatively speaking, we are incredibly fortunate. My mother, bless her memory, liked to remind us of that, especially it seemed, at mealtime! (My parents generation experienced true deprivation in the 1930s, and it certainly impacted their worldview). Clearly, the things we complain about pale in comparison with so much of what our brothers and sisters across the globe are dealing with day to day. May God grant us the wisdom to understand that. And second, I am not surprised by the cynicism and despair. We have lived with them for a long, long time. These impulses are as old as the hills. And though I claim no special expertise in this regard, my take on all this is that what many are experiencing today is a spiritual void, an emptiness in their heart, a loss of hope (the word “despair,” by the way, derives from the Latin verb dēspērāre, meaning “to be without hope”). For a variety of reasons, many of our fellow travelers have walked away from the faith experience — they have shrugged their shoulders — leaving them adrift, feeling “harassed and helpless.”

Head of Christ (c. 1650) Dutch School

This is why as Christians we need to continually return to our roots, and why we need the community of faith. Like he did with those twelve disciples more than 2000 years ago, Jesus calls us to venture into that spiritual void with open hearts and discerning eyes –– be wise as serpents and innocent as doves — sharing the good news and “making God credible in the world” (see note below). And his model for us is compassion! Will it be easy? No, it will never be easy. But, we are equipped with God’s grace for the journey, as Paul tells us in the letter to the Romans. Further, we are encouraged to press on because, affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And, it is this hope, this antidote to humanity’s despair, that is our great gift. Let’s share it!  

Soli Deo Gloria. 

** I especially like this phrase — “making God credible in the world” — and borrowed it from Debi Thomas, an Episcopal Priest, who quoted it in a powerful reflection she wrote in June of 2020 (linked here).    

Prayer (Inspired by Psalm 100):
Heavenly father, you made us in your image and we are yours. At times, the cares of this world cloud our vision of you, but we know that your steadfast love endures forever. Amen.

And, one more thing . . . . 

Me and my dad, Thorwald “Unk” Rykken, Cando, North Dakota, 1958.

Sunday is a day when we think about our fathers. I suspect that for many of us, our faith may have first been nurtured by our father, or mother, or both, depending on our situation. I won the lottery in that regard. That said, take time to reflect on your faith journey in the coming weeks. We are hoping to offer elder members of our parish the opportunity to share the story of their faith with others. The plan is to do this in an informal interview setting, recorded and transcribed for posterity. Our goal is to preserve stories of faith as part of our congregational legacy. Stay tuned for further details!