Jesus sent out these twelve. They were the ones Jesus had so they were the ones he sent. He wanted to send out more. “Ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Two thousand years later Jesus has more, he has us. Jesus sends out us, you and me. We are the laborers, we are the apostles, we are the missionary disciples who Jesus commissions to bring the good news of God into a hurting world. We might not be the pick of the litter, but Jesus trusts us to bring hope and consolation to those who feel “troubled and abandoned.” Notice that Jesus does not send the twelve out into the unknown. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Look in your own backyard, in your own house, in your own family for those who need to hear good news. That same message applies to us. Jesus does not send us to go knocking on doors or standing on street corners. No, if your family is anything like mine, all we need do is look at our own house, our own people. My nieces and nephews are the nicest people in the world. Yet, for many of them, despite twelve years of Catholic education, being Church is not part of their lives. Jesus sends the twelve out, sends us out, not to get people signed up on the rollbook. Rather, we are sent because people need his message of love, compassion and forgiveness which is what the kingdom of heaven is all about. If twelve years of schooling didn’t do it, how are we supposed to bring the message to the world of today? Jesus gives us a hint: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” Let’s see if we can name some of the things that we have received from God and decide how we might give those blessings to others.
At the most basic level what we have received is God’s great, big, beautiful world. The awesome nature of creation brings us face to face with God’s bountiful hand. Lightning and lightning bugs, cats and cattails, stars and starfish all speak of the creative hand of God. Scientists tell us that there are two trillion galaxies in the universe and since each galaxy has billions of stars which means that are more that a quadrillion stars – that’s a one with twenty-four zeros after it. And on the smallest scale, the basic building block of matter, the quark, is so small that if it were to expand to the size of a grain of sand the human body would be larger than the solar system. There are over 10,000 species of beetles in the world. (God must really love beetles.) And if you weighed all the ants on earth they would come to 12 million tons – more than all the birds and mammals combined. Look at a flower, contemplate the sun rising over the late, examine a baby’s tiny fingernails. We have received a world full of variety and wonder. Let us give that sense of God’s grandeur to inspire others.
We have also received life. No one asked to be born. No one deserves to be born. No one earned the right to be born. We received life as a gift. Look at Victoria to the beauty of life newly come into the world. What we do with our lives is on us but being alive is something we simply have to accept and say thanks. The life we share flows from the source of life in God, Since we have received life let’s give away our understanding of how precious every human life is, how wonderfully made we are as the image and likeness of God.
We have received love from the people who God has woven into our lives. Family, friends, acquaintances, fellow students, co-workers. All people who might get on our last nerve but who enrich our lives simply by being themselves and accepting me as I am. Let’s give away to others the understanding that love is stronger than death, that what unites us is more important than anything that divides us, that there isn’t anyone out there who isn’t brother and sister and mother to me.
We have received Jesus. In the words of the Bible we hear his message that human life is about loving God and loving our neighbor. We see in Jesus that a life of love and healing and compassion is possible. We see that the forces of violence can do their worst and still Jesus trusts that God is with him. We look at Jesus and understand that God is not far off, glorying on the divine throne but shares in the joys and sorrows of human life. And we give thanks that Jesus is not an historical figure from the past but someone who is still with us, really present to us as we gather around this altar and break the bread and share the cup as he showed us. We must give Jesus away so that others will come to see him as the key to the mystery of a life lived with meaning and purpose.
We have received St. James. From twenty-six different countries and forty different zip codes we come together to pray, to celebrate, to enjoy one another, to laugh and cry together. How does the expression go, we came on different ships but we’re in the same boat now. Having this community gives us a secure anchor on which to rely. We know that there are hostile forces, divisive forces, ugly forces out there. But having this community tells us that forces of belonging and fellowship are stronger than all of the death-dealing stuff we hear about. We need to give St. James away, let others know that there is plenty good room in my Father’s kingdom, just take your seat and sit down. We have received so much. Let’s give it away.
