Isa. 61:1-9
Eph. 4:1-13
Matthew 9:35-38

‘This is not a time for safe hands and faint hearts’.

I’m grateful to a friend of mine who is a school and a priest, for pointing me to these words of Archbishop Justin Welby.  He said them recently as part of an address given to a New Wine conference; referencing the words of Jesus to the disciples during the calming of the storm: Do not fear, but looking beyond that to what discipleship demands.

(My thanks indeed to Fr. Richard Peers, head of Trinity All Through School, Lewisham London, for drawing attention to ++Justin’s speech.  Fr Richard used these words to frame a talk he delivered to a gathering of the Sodality of Mary on March 12th, 2016). 

Uncertainty abounds in our world; the free market rules; dog eat dog; every man, woman and child for themselves; who dares wins.  The slogans are all around us, pressing in on us, threatening to overwhelm us, if we aren’t careful.  It’s at times like that, the church can go into panic mode: we need new people; we need more money; we aren’t getting any younger; who cares anyway?

“This is not a time for safe hands and faint hearts”.

Over the past year of so, at regular intervals, one of those moveable speedometers has appeared in our street, right outside our drive-way, to be precise.  The first time it happened I found it quite a novelty, as I watched how my speed got slower and slower right to the point I turned into my drive-way.  Then the speedometer went; but then it came back; then away again, and so on; and so it returned last week.   Since its initial appearance, Bishop’s House has become something of a transport hub in Flagstaff, since the City Council in its wisdom decided to place a bus-stop right outside.  In this past week, groups of children waiting for the school bus have a go running at it and compete to see who hits the highest speed.  While you won’t see this bishop sprinting down the pathway, it has made me reflect on my own busyness and speed during any given day when I am literally going from one thing to the next.  Because the speedometer has appeared outside my drive-way I have taken it quite personally (in a good way!).  Slow down, you move too fast; well sometimes anyway!

Jesus in his ministry had times of intense busyness; in our Gospel ‘Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and sickness’.  But we know also that he had times of retreat, of prayer, and of being apart from his companions the disciples.  The reality is we actually need both these things in our lives, in balance: proclamation and prayer.  Whatever ministry we inhabit in our various roles, we must be giving attention to teaching and preaching the good news about Jesus Christ, and we must also nurture the inner spiritual life, if you like, we must kindle the Christ-light within us if we are to allow it to shine into the lives we connect with daily.  There’s a reason why both supervision and spiritual direction are requirements of holding a bishops’ license!

“This is not a time for safe hands and faint hearts”.

Karen Morrison-Hume, the Missioner at Anglican Action recently allowed me borrow an icon by Robert Lentz – the icon is of Christ the Good Shepherd, but he isn’t holding a sheep, he’s holding a goat.  Karen and I struck up a deal that the icon would live it’s life in transit, in an itinerant ministry of care, sometimes I would have it; but there would be times it would return to the Mission, to Karen’s office.  Our Gospel reading starts with the crowds, and Matthew does something really interesting here: instead of passing over their presence with a brief comment, we are invited to look at the crowds, maybe even finding ourselves amongst them.  They (we) are lost, like sheep without a shepherd; Jesus’ response is compassion, expressed through a very rural metaphor of a harvest with not enough reapers.  The response to that is the call of the ‘Twelve’, and after that, a reality check on the difficulties of discipleship.  Which is why the goat of the icon that hangs in my office currently is important.  Following Jesus is not meant to be easy, not at all, not one bit in fact.

“This is not a time for safe hands and faint hearts”.

The goat, stares out of the icon, almost poking its head out into my space.  The icon painter writes: ‘The goat is my favourite part of the icon.  He took a week to paint, and I sweated blood until I got the hang of painting his hair.  I wanted him lustful and full of energy…I hope others understand the goat as the smelly, life-filled symbol of ordinary sinners, embraced by a Christ who came not to call the virtuous, but sinners.’

Ministry calls us to be in risky places; certainly places well beyond our comfort zones; it demands much of us; we need to be courageous, with a sense of overwhelming love and outrageous hope.  We travel together, even when it seems impossible, we do not give up on one another, or go our own way.  Our focus is on Jesus, and if we manage that, then we are being faithful to his calling.  Jesus does not ask us to have safe hands or faint hearts; we are to have hands that will take the hands of those who are unloved, unwanted, considered unclean – for who are we to judge?  Our hearts must be strong, and bursting with love for each other, for all whom we encounter (even when that seems like too much to ask), and for the creation entrusted to our care.

Kathy Galloway, former leader of the Iona community and now head of Christian Aid Scotland writes:

“Jesus modeled a different kind of giving and receiving of service, one rooted firmly on mutual acceptance, respect and love for one another in all our frailty.  This embodied act of grace, more clearly than any other in Scripture, awakens, confronts, embraces and transforms our fear of loving and being loved” 

Jesus washes the feet of his disciples to remind them that they are called to be his feet in our world.  Jesus takes the hands of sinners to remind us and them that all are beloved of God.

So let us go, do, and be likewise.

Amen.