Ordinary people called to extraordinary things

Matthew 10:1-22 | Sunday 3rd October 2021, Evensong

When I was at school, the lesson I always dreaded was PE. I didn’t have any aptitude for sport and didn’t enjoy it… My best lesson was netball, but that was mainly because I am tall and could stand around in goal defence and not have to do very much! Rounders, hockey and all the other team games I wasn’t good at, and as for athletics and anything involving running, forget it!

As a consequence of my lack of sporting prowess, I was seldom picked for a team in lessons. I was usually the last one left at the end, whom neither side really wanted, but one of them had to accept! The team captains knew they needed the good players, the ones with skill and agility to be able to win matches, not the likes of me.

Looking at tonight’s gospel passage I wonder how the disciples felt as they were summoned, chosen and sent out to do Jesus’ work. This was really the exact opposite of being chosen for the sports team! These were not people who were highly competent and trained for the task ahead of them. They were very ordinary men – fishermen, tax collectors and even the man who would end up betraying Jesus. They had no academic background, no natural ability for what lay ahead, no special status in society, no in-depth knowledge – yet they were all chosen and invited to go out in his name to do his work.

With hindsight we also know that Jesus did not choose them for all they would do in the future: Judas was going to betray him to death, Simon Peter was going to deny him three times, and all of them were going to desert him when he needed them the most. And still he chose them, knowing all that was to come.

The activities ahead of them sounded like a mix of the exhilarating and the very daunting. I wonder how many of them had thought to themselves as they travelled around with Jesus watching him heal people: “How amazing! I wish I could do that!” and now they were being given the opportunity. They were going to be doing amazing things – casting out unclean spirits, healing the sick, even raising the dead - and all the while proclaiming the news that the kingdom of heaven had come near. These very ordinary people would be doing extraordinary things.

And then, Jesus paints a picture of how difficult it was going to be. Their actions and message are going to turn the authorities and even their families against them. They are going to be handed over for trial and floggings, even facing death. It’s certainly not going to be an easy ride.

And yet, they are up for it! Despite the risks, they want to go out and do what he tells them. What was it that emboldened them to take up the task?

We know that they had all been with Jesus for a considerable time by this point. Something about him had drawn them to him like a magnet and by now they have seen all that he has done. They have known him long enough to realise that he loves them and believes in them, and they trust him deeply. Now they are ready to take on the task he puts before them.

Secondly, perhaps they sensed this would be an experience of being truly alive. In John 10, Jesus says he has come that we may have life, and have it abundantly. What lay before them was that reality: it was going to be edgy, they would be out of their comfort zone, they were told to take nothing with them, but to trust God to provide their needs. They would be doing things they never thought possible and would be in awe of what was happening through them. And while there was the possibility of suffering, when it came, they would know that they were being looked after. Jesus tells them not to worry about what they should say when they were handed over to the authorities, because the spirit would speak through them. Whatever trials lay ahead, however difficult it might be, God would go with them.

And on that basis they felt able to step out and do it. It was so attractive and compelling they could not say no.

What does this mean for us today? We are not the original disciples, but we are, like them, ordinary people being offered the same transforming experience of life in all its fullness. We are invited to know the excitement of seeing God working through us, doing things we did not think ourselves capable of. Of knowing God’s presence with us in the challenges of that as much as in the easy times.

So what if our lives of faith feel a bit humdrum, a bit comfortable? Maybe this is a sign that we have an opportunity to go deeper in our relationship with God… there is always more to discover.

What do we do to set out on this road of life? Like the disciples, first we have to know whom we are trusting. The more we spend time with Jesus and know how deeply we are loved, the more we will find that we are naturally drawn towards the things that will be life-giving to us. He will put things in front of us that feel exciting and maybe risky, and we will feel drawn to do them out of love for him.. And we will know God’s presence with us in the process.

He wants each of us, ordinary people, to know that we are loved, to do extraordinary things, and to know the thrill of being truly alive, and able to express in our own way that love for others.

It is the invitation of a lifetime, and a lifetime’s journey.

What are we to say – what do you say - in response?

Amen.