Pentecost 3A2023
Matthew 9:35-10:35

At age 23, I was about to marry Ben. We had met at a Lutheran Bible camp in Wisconsin where we were both working for the summer. When it came time to ask a pastor to officiate at our wedding, we decided to ask Pastor Reggie, a pastor who had come to the camp with his church kids and who later became the camp director. The day of one of our pre-marital counseling sessions, we had just gotten out of the car in the camp parking lot when Pastor Reggie shouted out a welcome and then said: “It’s always good to see you two. I know that, wherever you are, God is opening up a branch office of the kingdom of God.” My story is a bit of a humble brag, so I apologize for that. But Pastor Reggie’s words took my breath away. Wherever you are, God is opening up a branch office of the kingdom of God.

Today in our Jesus story from the gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ twelve disciples are named and then sent out by Jesus to do the very work Jesus had been doing. Proclaiming the good news. Curing the sick. Raising the dead. Cleansing the lepers. Casting out demons. Jesus tells them to go empty-handed and rely on the hospitality of strangers. He continues his instruction to the disciples through the rest of the chapter and then heads out of town, apparently by himself, to proclaim the message in other cities. Jesus meets up with the disciples later, but for the moment, they are on their own. To go and do what Jesus has sent them to do. To go and minister in branch offices of the kingdom of God.

What I love about today’s story is that Jesus finds the disciples worthy and not only worthy but capable and not only capable but effective in doing his work. Even while empty-handed and relying on the hospitality of strangers. The disciples are called and equipped by Jesus to proclaim the good news, to cure the sick, to raise the dead, the cleanse the lepers, to cast out demons. They are able to do these things for, if they weren’t, Jesus wouldn’t have sent them. And so, they go—not to fulfill their dreams, not to follow their own agendas, not to declare themselves possessors of great power and might. They go as ambassadors of Jesus. The places they go and even who they are are branch offices of the kingdom of God, opened by God for God’s work.

Now two decades older and wiser than I was the summer I got married, I see that Pastor Reggie could have been speaking to any of us Jesus followers. For we are each of us called and equipped to do Jesus’ work. To do Jesus’ work. This involves giving up our own agendas, our own plans, our own pet projects—in order to be available for what Jesus has for us. It’s not us opening up that branch office of the kingdom of God; it’s God opening up a branch office of the kingdom of God. We are just the workers or the “laborers” as Jesus says in today’s story.

If we accept that we are workers in God’s kingdom and that God is setting up branch offices of the kingdom wherever we go, what exactly do we do? And how do we get it done? Likely much to the chagrin of the disciples, Jesus specifically sends them out with nothing but the clothes on their backs. No extra provisions. No tools of any trade. Nothing but themselves. In a lecture on this text, my seminary professor Rev. Dr. Linda Thomas reminded us of what Jesus did not instruct them to take as they went about the work of the kingdom. No right answers. No doctrine. And even, no Bible. This is a good news, bad news situation, friends. The bad news is that we don’t need anything but ourselves—open to the Holy Spirit—to do the work of God. The good news is that we don’t need anything but ourselves—open to the Holy Spirit—to do the work of God. Basically, we just show up and let God work through us. Which, on the granular level, means we show up and love people. We show up, fully present to the person in front of us. We show up, listening attentively to the person in front of us. We show up, practicing generosity of spirit, ready to see the gifts of others. We show up, seeing every situation from the perspective of the other person or, in another word, compassion.

As workers in God’s kingdom, there are programs and strategies and goals. There are creativity and innovation. There are mission plans and finance teams and a lot of old-fashioned hard work. There are mission statements and guiding principles, and you know I am a big fan of all of that. Even more so, in our individual lives, we are workers in many fields, engineering and medicine and business, and we contribute in significant ways to the life of the world, work that is also the work of God. We may be tempted to hide behind church programs or the tasks of our jobs instead of letting go of all the things—the actual material things and the busyness of doing—we are told to leave behind. For to be a worker in the kingdom of God is first and foremost about showing up and loving people. All those strategies aren’t going to help us, and our careers are not going to be meaningful if we aren’t loving people. But by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us, we are worthy of this work, completely capable of loving people, and apparently effective enough that Jesus sends us out empty-handed.

Lest I end this sermon and we start singing and I fail to be absolutely clear, here’s your literal take-home message: We are all workers in the kingdom of God, and wherever we go, God is opening up a branch office of the kingdom of God. I invite you, therefore, to take a sign and hang it up in your home or at your workplace to remind you that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we get to do the work of God with our very own hands. For the amazing grace of that message, we can say: Thanks be to God! Amen.