WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:10.720 One of my favorite definitions of discipleship is from the late Dallas Willard. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:22.480 He says, discipleship is the life, living the life that Christ would live if he were you. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:31.280 Discipleship is living the life Christ would live if he were you. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:47.039 The reason I love this definition is it's so lucid, it cuts to the heart of really what's at the center of Christian living, a Christian life, what church is all about. 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:50.399 That is, why are we gathering together? 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:52.399 Why are we praying? 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:55.840 Why do we sing songs of praise, worship? 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:57.359 Why do we confess our sins? 00:00:57.520 --> 00:00:59.200 Why do we gather at the table? 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:01.439 Why do we befriend each other? 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:07.760 We do this to be formed into Christ. 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:13.680 That is, that we inhabit Christ in our life. 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:28.239 Now, we are familiar with the phrase, you are what you eat, but there's a deeper logic, an ancient logic that the ancient mind knew, the biblical authors knew, that is, you are what you worship. 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:54.879 That there's something about what we direct our gaze, our worshipful gaze to, whatever we esteem as that having ultimate, unsurpassable value and worth, that that, the object of our worship, shapes and transforms us in the act of attributing such worth. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:02:00.879 This is to say that humans are malleable. 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:08.960 This is like the logic behind why we can talk about things like repentance and you know, change here. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:10.080 You know, let's do this. 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:11.919 Humans are malleable. 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:20.639 We're moldable, we can be shaped and formed to a particular kind of end. 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.599 We saw Paul speaks about suffering in this way. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:32.479 This is one of the joys of suffering, is that it can actually give shape to something that would otherwise not happen, according to Paul. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:47.439 But this image of being molded, I was actually today just happened to be playing with Plato with my three kids, and just this image of being shaped, like truly we are the clay and God the potter. 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:58.800 That as we worship, as we attribute ultimate and unsurpassable worth to Christ, that this is meant to shape and form us. 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:16.719 It's as though all these words that we're singing, these phrases about redemption and mercy and the cross, that these phrases seem to like ricochet off somewhere and hit us and thereby transform us. 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:26.159 That we, according to Willard, discipleship is living the life that Christ would live if he were us. 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:33.759 And principally what this gets, kind of the anchor point for what this means in the New Testament, has to do a lot with love. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:37.919 Christ is the revelation of the love of God. 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:44.879 That Christ is loving us and is showing us the definition, in fact, of love. 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:45.520 Right? 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:54.560 Love is not a feeling, it's not some vague intuition, it's not desire, desiring somebody. 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:56.879 Love, in fact, has been on full display. 00:03:56.960 --> 00:04:00.800 This is part of the gospel, the love that's been revealed. 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:12.159 And love gets revealed as this self-giving and emptying out of oneself for another. 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:23.360 This is Christ pouring out his life in self-sacrificial love for others, for the world, for us. 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:42.240 It is to say that love, true love, has been revealed as pouring out our lives for people, including those who don't give a rip about you, but pouring out your life nonetheless. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:47.680 This is the display of love, right, that we see in Christ. 00:04:48.160 --> 00:05:02.879 That while at the right time, right, while we were weak, Christ died for the ungodly, while we were sinners, while we were enemies of God, Paul says, Christ died for you. 00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:06.560 This is love. 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:21.439 This is the life that we are beckoned by Christ to embody, to inhabit through the very power and presence of God in our life. 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:33.519 You see, in our reading in Romans, Paul says, right, the love of God has been poured out into you by the Spirit. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:35.199 That is the Spirit. 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:40.879 That this love that Jesus embodies, Paul says has been poured into us. 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:52.639 The love of God, the love that comes from God, the love with which God loves, that love, Paul says here in our hearts. 00:05:53.759 --> 00:06:04.560 And so Christ is the one, the object of our worship, the object that determines the quality and the shape of our heart and our soul. 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:08.079 This is what it means to love Jesus. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:10.800 This is what it means to worship Jesus. 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:18.160 It is to have this deep resolve in faith to be like Jesus. 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:35.120 We see in this beautiful passage in Matthew, Jesus is going into ministry in Judea, and he looks upon the peasants there in these villages. 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:44.480 And we know throughout the rest of the Gospels, all the Gospels attest to these very powerful things, right, that Jesus will do, miraculous things. 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:52.480 He'll heal the sick, he'll heal illness, he'll raise the dead, he'll exercise demons. 00:06:53.759 --> 00:07:02.560 And as we saw in our readings today, he even gives the power and authority to do this over to the disciples, that they can do this. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:09.839 Why does Jesus do what appears to us these miraculous things? 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:12.480 Why does he heal the sick? 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:16.399 Why does he exercise the possessed? 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:21.040 Why does he feed the hungry? 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:29.600 Is it to prove that he's God, to prove that, well, you can listen to me? 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:34.800 You know I'm telling you the good stuff or the true stuff because, hey, look what I can do. 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:41.439 I'm sure that that's a dynamic, and that dynamic comes out in the text at times in Jesus' story. 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:43.680 But what does Matthew say? 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:57.600 It says that Jesus is standing and he's looking upon these villages that he's about to go into ministry, and he has compassion on the people. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:02.560 Because they look like sheep without a shepherd. 00:08:03.839 --> 00:08:06.800 What is sheep without a shepherd? 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:10.720 I imagine sheep without a shepherd. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:23.360 They're scared, confused, sick, haven't known where to get water, where to find rest, where to find food. 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:38.240 Jesus looks out on these villages, these peasants, as he sends out the twelve, and his heart is full of compassion. 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:49.279 And this is where the manifestation of the power of the Spirit through the disciples is manifesting from, from this compassion of God. 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:54.159 This is the vision that we see. 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:57.279 And what does this mean? 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:11.759 Very clearly, according to this passage, God, simply put, God cares whether people have heat in their home in the winter. 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:20.799 God cares whether people have enough food on the table. 00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:32.559 God cares if a single mom feels completely stressed out of her mind. 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:39.120 God cares if people are sick. 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:52.799 What you see embodied in Jesus and the disciples is the deep concern and care for God for the pain that people carry in this world. 00:09:57.039 --> 00:09:58.960 God is deeply concerned. 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:03.440 God cares if you had a hard week. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:10.480 God cares if you're struggling right now. 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:15.919 God cares if work is not going well. 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:21.679 God cares if you're scared. 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:26.720 God cares if you don't feel like yourself. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:28.799 If you're sick. 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:31.039 God cares. 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:44.320 And Jesus in his ministry, moved by compassion on the crowds, sends out empower the twelve disciples. 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:52.639 And what we see in the ministry of Jesus is that God cares about all these things. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:59.759 And God cares if his children care about these things. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:10.080 It's interesting, it's in this context, right, that Jesus says, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:12.080 What's the harvest? 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:21.200 Apparently, looking, reading the text, the harvest is the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:22.320 It's Judea. 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:27.120 It's all these scared, sick, needy, tormented people. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:29.039 That's the harvest. 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:38.000 A harvest of needy, weak people, hurting people? 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:39.679 Yeah. 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:46.639 Jesus says the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 00:11:47.200 --> 00:12:05.679 I can't help but imagine that what Jesus is saying is that those, the laborers being those who imitating Jesus, full of compassion, empowered by the Spirit, going to the world's need. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:08.720 I think that's the laborer. 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:18.639 Full of compassion, empowered by the Spirit, meeting the world's need. 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:21.039 Why? 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:26.000 Because God cares if people are sick. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:36.080 This is a powerful image that we see of Jesus. 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:48.559 And may we know that when God Christ looks upon us, God does so with compassion. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:53.039 God does so full of deep concern. 00:12:53.200 --> 00:13:23.840 One of the favorite things to remind myself, remind others often if there's a counseling event that I learned from a couple of other priests, is the saying that God cares more about this, this being the situation, your fear, your concern, what seems to be the most important thing to you right now. 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:30.559 That God cares more about this than you ever could. 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:37.840 Even though at the very moment it feels like nobody cares about this more than me. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:42.639 I mean, who could possibly care more about my joy than me? 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:44.480 Or my peace? 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:46.399 My future? 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:50.399 Who could possibly care more than me? 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:55.679 I've not even told anybody that my concerns. 00:13:56.399 --> 00:13:57.039 Yeah. 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:02.320 Christ is more concerned. 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:04.720 Full of compassion. 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:15.279 May we know that we have been beckoned by this Christ full of power, full of compassion. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:22.080 The same power and compassion that he has shown to us on the cross. 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:25.200 That we've been empowered with the love of God. 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:29.759 May we be concerned with suffering. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:36.879 And one of the things I love about this passage, too, is that Jesus is explicit, right? 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:44.960 He says, Don't go to Samaria, don't go to the Gentiles, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:48.399 Jesus isn't being anti-evangelistic here. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:52.639 There's a time, Samaria, that'll come, the Gentile, that'll come. 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:56.879 But it's almost like an invitation for us. 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:09.600 Like, go here, go to each other with deep compassion and the power of the Spirit. 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:28.960 I wonder if some of the reasons why we don't see what we would often call in a modern time miraculous things may not be, in fact, due to our hearts not full of compassion and trusting in the power of the Spirit. 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:32.240 Who knows? 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:39.440 But we do see this: this calling, this one that we are called to imitate, the one that we are called to worship. 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:44.399 May we worship the Jesus who stands over Jerusalem. 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:51.200 We know other times weeps, full of compassion, and goes in mighty works of power. 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:59.200 And may we be like this Christ as we follow him to the cross, through the grave, into glory. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:00.320 Amen.