SPEAKER_00: Holy God, open our hearts to hear your call to us as we break open your word.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you read this week uh in the email from the church that came to you, there was an article from Angela in there, and she reminded us that we are now in the season of Pentecost, which godly play calls green growing time.
SPEAKER_00: This is everything is green.
SPEAKER_00: Green growing time.
SPEAKER_00: But I like to call it discipleship summer school.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're going to be doing.
SPEAKER_00: During this time from May until November, Jesus is teaching us what it takes to be his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And better yet, what it means to be his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not just about answering the call to follow Jesus, it's about joining him in the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples you see have already been called by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We heard their names this morning, and they immediately obeyed.
SPEAKER_00: They left everything, they got up and they went and followed.
SPEAKER_00: And they, as they, as they traveled, they have watched him heal.
SPEAKER_00: They have heard him preach that the kingdom is near, though they're not real sure what that means.
SPEAKER_00: They saw him cast out demons.
SPEAKER_00: He really was a remarkable man.
SPEAKER_00: But now something has changed.
SPEAKER_00: Something is different.
SPEAKER_00: The crowds that follow are keep getting larger and larger as Jesus journeys from village to village, and that their demands seem infinite.
SPEAKER_00: The people are desperate, they are fearful and helpless and exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: The pain goes beyond the physical.
SPEAKER_00: They are adrift, not sure which way to turn, latching on to Jesus as their only hope.
SPEAKER_00: But hope for what?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says they are like sheep without a shepherd, like sheep without a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: He recognizes this turmoil as a crisis in leadership.
SPEAKER_00: To whom can they turn for help?
SPEAKER_00: The people are trapped in a power struggle.
SPEAKER_00: The power struggle is between the Roman the Roman occupation of the region and the religious elites of the Jewish nation.
SPEAKER_00: Romans and Jewish elites.
SPEAKER_00: The Romans have imposed abusive laws to all the people, taxes everywhere on everything, worship the enemy, worship the emperor and not God, and limits on what they can do and what they can what how they can make a living.
SPEAKER_00: But the religious elites, probably in response to their Roman occupiers, fortified the Jewish law, made it stronger to keep the rabble at bay and the powerful in control.
SPEAKER_00: There is a division between the haves and the have-nots.
SPEAKER_00: There is division between those who worship in Jerusalem and those who worship at their local synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: Even the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the scribes don't always agree.
SPEAKER_00: There is always division between those who are in and those who are out, those who are clean and those who are unclean, the rich and the poor.
SPEAKER_00: And in this turmoil, who suffers most?
SPEAKER_00: Apparently it's the crowds that are following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Larger and larger crowds.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows that something else is needed beyond new leadership.
SPEAKER_00: The people need new leadership, but also they need a renewed community.
SPEAKER_00: A community that is no longer based on power, but on compassion.
SPEAKER_00: A community that offers help instead of rules.
SPEAKER_00: A community that invites all people to share in its bounty.
SPEAKER_00: And realizing the enormity of this project, Jesus turns to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: There is a huge promise of infinite hope for these people in the future, he says to them.
SPEAKER_00: But there aren't many in their midst who even know where to begin to pursue it, or even have the energy to do so.
SPEAKER_00: I am not to do this alone.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do this alone, he says.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore the Lord is sending laborers out.
SPEAKER_00: And that means you.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing their uncertainty, Jesus tells them, Don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_00: I will give you the authority you need, the authority over unclean spirits to cast them out, to cure diseases and sicknesses, including the lepers, and raise the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And they're stunned.
SPEAKER_00: Seriously?
SPEAKER_00: Raise the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He sends them out with instructions.
SPEAKER_00: Pack lightly.
SPEAKER_00: Keep moving.
SPEAKER_00: Even if discouraged, keep moving and always preach that the kingdom of heaven has come near.
SPEAKER_00: Though they still aren't real sure what that means.
SPEAKER_00: And then he sweetens the pot.
SPEAKER_00: You will be like sheep in the midst of wolves, he says, so beware.
SPEAKER_00: Learn how to react.
SPEAKER_00: Be wise like snakes and be uh innocent like doves.
SPEAKER_00: They will try you and they will flog you because of me.
SPEAKER_00: But don't worry how to act or what to say, because the spirit of your father will speak through you.
SPEAKER_00: Also, you probably will be betrayed by friends and family, hated by all because of me.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a good chance you will be put to death.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that sound like a job offer nobody can refuse?
SPEAKER_00: But you see, Jesus works in truth and transparency.
SPEAKER_00: He tells it like it is right up front, all the expectations, what you are gonna run into, what you are gonna confront, what you are gonna have to endure.
SPEAKER_00: The mystery of it all is that they don't refuse.
SPEAKER_00: They get up and go.
SPEAKER_00: They follow the instructions, they travel from town to town, healing and casting out demons and preaching, and they go because of the promise that Jesus has given them.
SPEAKER_00: The one who endures to the end will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a promise of sticking it out until you get your ticket to heaven when you die.
SPEAKER_00: It's an assurance that wherever they go, Jesus will be with them always.
SPEAKER_00: They are beginning to understand what they are preaching.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of heaven has come near.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans this morning echoes that need for endurance in his letter.
SPEAKER_00: He says, suffering produces endurance.
SPEAKER_00: Endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
SPEAKER_00: Hope.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering surely covers the tribulation that Jesus has predicted for these disciples.
SPEAKER_00: All that they're going to have to go through, if they follow his instructions, they will be afflicted with distress in many ways from people they fear and even people they love.
SPEAKER_00: Surely constantly dogged also with a threat of death.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering.
SPEAKER_00: But suffering produces a need for endurance.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's translated as patience, but more accurately as persistence, persistence.
SPEAKER_00: The difference between patience and persistence.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering that leads to passive waiting cannot work in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: With an endurance that is more like confronting, it is more like walking to and into the fire and through it than trying to avoid it.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of endurance produces character.
SPEAKER_00: Character.
SPEAKER_00: It's a test, you see.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of endurance is a test of one's ability to prove one's integrity.
SPEAKER_00: Who am I encountering this as a child of God?
SPEAKER_00: And once the test is passed, the way to hope is clear.
SPEAKER_00: You see, hope is not wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Hope, Webster's dictionary says, hope is an optimistic state of mind that combines the desire for specific outcome with a confident expectation that it will occur.
SPEAKER_00: Bible translator Miriam Beckham is not content, however, with the word of hope as an abstract noun.
SPEAKER_00: She wants to see it used in context, and in this case, in biblical context.
SPEAKER_00: What does biblical hope mean?
SPEAKER_00: And she says, biblical hope is God's response to human suffering.
SPEAKER_00: But to be a true antidote to suffering, biblical hope taps into three key assumptions.
SPEAKER_00: First, it relies on the fact that human beings base their trust on past experiences.
SPEAKER_00: We learn from what we've been through.
SPEAKER_00: Second, it relies on the unchanging character of God as a promise keeper.
SPEAKER_00: And third, its scope is eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Hope is forever.
SPEAKER_00: Hope says, God promised, and he will redeem.
SPEAKER_00: We have a right to ask, will you fulfill your promise when God says I promise?
SPEAKER_00: Now all this sounds kind of technical, but see, I kind of prefer Emily Dickinson's expression of hope in her poem.
SPEAKER_00: She calls it the thing with feather feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds more like the dove of the Holy Spirit within us, promising Jesus' presence and God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: It's a gentle song that hope sings, but it pierces through the chaos, through the circus of kleaglites and roaring crowds, through the shouts of protest and the anger of division, through all the bombs and through all the lies, God keeps God's promises to redeem.
SPEAKER_00: God proves God's love for us in the person of God's Son, whose spirit abides like a thing with feathers perched on our soul, singing eternally the kingdom of heaven is near.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we are to preach.
SPEAKER_00: That's the good news.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we sing as we go into the world, offering healing hands to the suffering world.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.