Is Anything to Wonderful?

When I was fourteen, my parents moved our family from the city to the country. After the move, My mom told me that if I wanted to earn some money, she would buy me some strawberry plants that I could grow and raise strawberries to sell.

· I did not know then that when she said some strawberry plants, she meant One thousand five hundred of them.

· As I look back on that experience, I think Mom, in her wisdom, gave those plants to me to keep out of trouble because I spent hour upon hour taking care of them.

Harvest is a demanding time. Some crops, like fruit or vegetables, have a very narrow window of time when they can be picked.

· For me, the end of May to early June was strawberry season.

· There’s nothing like those field-ripened strawberries!

o The season doesn’t last very long, but you pick strawberries for all your worthwhile it’s here.

o Picking strawberries demands that you get down low. If you want to enjoy those sweet berries, you must stoop over or get down on your knees to pick them. It’s very physical.

If you purchase your strawberries from a local stand, you don’t see the all-field hands who come in to help with this very special season.

· When the strawberries are ripe, they need picking right now!

· Strawberries can’t be picked with a machine. They need to be picked by hand.

· So many people are needed to bring in that harvest.

Jesus uses a lot of agricultural images to describe the reign of God.

· He lived in an agricultural society, so he spoke in terms the people of his day could relate to.

· Today’s gospel reading includes two agricultural metaphors, one with livestock and the other with crops.

o Jesus looks at the masses of people he encounters, and they’re like helpless sheep without a shepherd to care for them.

Whether you are speaking about crops or livestock, what ties these images together is NEED.

· The people, like sheep, need a shepherd.

· And the need to harvest a crop is right now, whether it is strawberries or something else. Plenty of hands are needed.

So there’s a need. But there’s also compassion.

· Compassion is what motivates Jesus. As he goes about his ministry, he sees so much suffering. The people he meets are suffering; they’re harassed and helpless.

· Compassion that’s what Jesus feels for them.

o Our word compassion literally means “to suffer with.”

o When we see someone languishing in some way, we feel their pain; we suffer with them.

o The Greek word for compassion means literally “to have your guts move.” You know what that is. You get that gut-wrenching feeling when you see someone else suffer or struggle. It’s like a gut punch.

That’s what Jesus feels when he sees so much suffering all around him.

· He feels their pain.

· There’s a sense of urgency. They need help now.

· It’s this urgency that launches the ministry of Jesus’ disciples.

o More hands are needed!

o So he sends them out to bring in this harvest of compassion.

Today we hear the calling of Jesus’ disciples. We hear the names of the 12 disciples. A few of them we’ve met before.

· Matthew has told us about the four fishermen, Peter and Andrew, James and John.

· And we’ve met Matthew, the tax collector.

· For the other seven, this is the first we’ve heard of them in Matthew’s gospel.

Where did they come from?

How did Jesus meet them?

Their call story must be similar to Peter’s and Matthew’s.

· Jesus encountered them one on one and invited them into fellowship and ministry.

· And this is important: those whom Jesus called into a ministry of compassion first received his compassion firsthand.

Last Sunday, we heard the call of Matthew.

· Matthew sat in his tax booth, scorned and cut off as an outcast.

· But Jesus approached him. Jesus embraced and accepted Matthew with compassion.

In the same way, Jesus had approached Peter and the other fishermen earlier.

· They personally experienced his loving presence.

· Peter additionally witnessed Jesus’ tremendous compassion when he healed Peter’s ailing mother-in-law.

Those whom Jesus sends out in ministry first receive his compassion.

· Every one of these twelve disciples has experienced Jesus’ love and compassion. And that makes all the difference.

· Jesus’ love has personally touched them.

· Jesus’ compassion has affected and transformed them.

o They’ve experienced his compassion firsthand.

o So when they go out in mission, that seed of Jesus’ compassion has already been planted within them.

The love of Jesus has filled them, and now it extends through them. Jesus sends them out in his compassion.

Jesus sends us as his present-day disciples into his harvest.

· And nothing has changed since he commissioned his first disciples.

· He sends us as workers in his harvest of compassion in the world.

· And he sends us as individuals whom he has first touched with his compassion and love.

The basis of our ministry – of all ministry in the name of Christ – is the EXPERIENCE of God’s love through Christ Jesus.

· His compassion plants a seed and takes root in each of us.

· Jesus’ divine compassion sets us free to love and serve.

o Without that, we’re in a continual cycle of trying to measure up.

o We’re like the tragic Greek figure Sisyphus, who was condemned to roll that huge boulder up a hill every single day. And just as he neared the top, that boulder would get away from him and roll all the way down the slope.

· Left to ourselves, we do our best to perform and shine.

o Our days are filled with a futile race for perfection.

o We yearn to be seen and accepted.

o We chase after praise and validation.

o We’re crushed by the sense that we’re invisible and do not, nor will we ever, be valued and worthwhile.

But when we encounter the fountain of love emerging from the heart of Jesus, then, at last, we are filled.

· We perceive our true value as God’s cherished and beloved child.

· The amazing grace of Christ touches us. I

o t fills us with a sense of acceptance so full and complete that we finally can be freed from the perpetual and fruitless pursuit of acceptance.

o For in him and his boundless compassion, WE ARE MADE WHOLE.

This new center, this assurance in Christ’s amazing love, makes us new.

· And now we have a new heart, our spirit is vibrantly transformed.

· We’re left with a renewed and overflowing love that will not let us go.

It’s vital for us to return daily to this divine love.

· It reveals our true self.

· The world sends us so many alternate notions of our identity and worth. But these all lead to compulsion, not to freedom.

· They lead to doubt and despair, not to our joy and acceptance in divine compassion.

· These many false voices lead us away from our true and authentic self in Christ.

So we must be immersed in our true identity in Christ’s boundless love. This is who we really are; we’re being made new in him.

Jesus’ compassion renews and transforms. His love fills what was empty for so long within. And that’s when we become the instruments of his love. In the words of St. Francis:

• where there is hatred, we sow love;

• where there is injury, we bestow pardon;

• where there is doubt, we speak faith;

• where there is despair, we instill hope;

As St. John said, we love because Christ first loved us.

· His compassion fills and renews us.

· And now in him, we are extensions of his compassionate energy for a world harassed and helpless.

· The harvest of compassion is plentiful. The Lord of the harvest sends out his laborers into the fields.