This morning's gospel is easily divided into three enjoyable instalments which make up a complete mini series.Episode one is “Jesus gets busy.”In this episode, Jesus goes on an extensive visiting programme and He sees the great need of the people. We are told quite simply “He had compassion for them for they were like sheep without a Shepherd.” So He responds. He teaches and he cures.
Afterwards Jesus thinks. This is madness! Here am I, scurrying around, like a publican who has just reopened his business after the COVID restrictions have been lifted. There’s no way I can get round all these people and tend to them on a regular basis.Mmmm … What to do? End episode 1.Episode 2“Jesus does something about it.”The Master puts out an ad on career.dotcom and He gets heaps of applications. He shortlists this down to just 12 who make the grade. We are given their names starting with the foreman Peter and finishing with Judas who decided to later resign. These 12 are given the equipment they need. ‘Authority over unclean spirits and the ability to cure.End episode 2.Episode 3 The thrilling final chapter. “What happened next?”
The 12 are given instructions about where to go and where not to go. They are also handed a rather extensive job description.
- Proclaim the good news Cure the sick,
- raise the dead,
- cleanse the lepers,[d]
- cast out demons.
Then comes the remuneration clause.
You received without payment; give without payment.
And off the 12 go and you have to buy the next compelling set of DVD’s at $49.95 to find out what happened to this motley crew.But you see the overall picture, the basic outline of the story??Jesus perceives the need, calls the 12, gives them what they need and sends them out.And there is a mighty fine homily which runs like this.That Jesus continues to call people to the service of others. He gives them all that they need and choofs them out knowing that all will stumble and skin their knee. All will experience their apparent triumphs, successes and futility. All will never really know just how fruitful they have been, until the harvest at the end of time.
But dig a little deeper friends. Where did the story start?It started with the Master's astute perception of the needs he sees before him. If He had not seen the need, then nothing may have happened and perhaps you and I would not be here today.So too with us. We have to be able to discern the need that is before us. That is not always easy to do. Something may present as a need, but often there is something else going on as well.For example, the person who weeps quietly in the back pew at a funeral, may not actually be mourning for the person who has just died, but someone close to them who died years before. The person who presents as hungry, may also have escaped an abusive family home. You get the gist. Pastoral diagnostics 101.Another question ..who are the lepers, the dead and the ill in our society today?They are not just those who are afflicted outwardly and physically but also emotionally and spiritually. Those who are hungry not for what can be brought at the supermarket, but those who ache for companionship, community, fellowship. The dead are those who have shrivelled up inside and those whose prayer life has been extinguished by neglect and doused with secularisation.
I was thinking about this at morning prayer the other day. And I had to ask myself.“Is it not possible that I too need cleansing, healing and raising?” Have I been perceptive and honest about my own need of ministry? Again, remember how it all began. It began with Jesus seeing what was really before Him? Surely his clarity of vision is where I need to begin. And once I acknowledge my own blindness, then I can go more fruitfully and with more potential to the cities and villages of Western Victoria. Perhaps that might be true of you as well.When I was a school chaplain we used to pray ….“For those whose needs escape our notice… Lord have mercy” It was particularly appropriate in the busy school yard because there were many needs that escaped our notice. But it is also an appropriate prayer in parish ministry and therefore it is something for you to ponder and use as well. I offer it for your own reflection and use. No copyright ….no charge “For those whose needs escape our notice… Lord have mercy.”