Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
July 6, 2022
Invitatory
Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him.
Reading: Matthew 10:1-7
Then Jesus* summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Meditation-Winnie Smith
This is my second week here at Church of the Redeemer, and I feel a bit like the disciples might have when Jesus commissioned them in this text from Matthew’s Gospel. “Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and “proclaim the good news.” Who are these lost sheep? Is it really on me to go to them? Why not start somewhere more comfortable, with the Gentiles and Samaritans, those who maybe already see that “the kingdom of heaven has come near”? Can I ease into this work of ministry?
No. One cannot ease into the work of the kingdom.
As a newly ordained deacon, I tend to suffer from a bit of imposter syndrome. I have something to say? No way - they’ve got the wrong person. But the reality is, I am just the person to do this work because God called me to it and continues calling me. I will not always have the right words, or all the answers, but I know that the kingdom of heaven has come near. I feel it coming near at times every day. I feel the goodness and love of God daily and the call on my life is to share that with everyone I meet. That is the call for all of us who feel God’s presence - to go to the lost sheep and bring them into the fold of God.
So, who are these lost sheep? In the Gospel text, Matthew is likely referring to the Jews of Israel, repeatedly exiled from their homeland. But in a broader sense, we can think of lost sheep in a few ways: the forgotten, the neglected, the defeated. Often, understandably, these people have the hardest time sensing the kingdom of heaven. They have not felt the comfort and stability that I am fortunate to feel from God (not to mention family, friends, and colleagues) each day.
A year ago, when I was interning as a hospital chaplain in Dallas, TX, I encountered another kind of lost sheep. I was shadowing a chaplain in the emergency department when the victim of a particularly gruesome crime arrived. Without going into detail, a young child had been killed, and as we, the chaplains, and the medical team tried to make sense of the evil we had just seen, I was surprised to find myself praying for the killer. That person needs the most help, I thought. I sense the kingdom of heaven drawing near every single day, and this man clearly doesn’t. He is the one who needs my help, my prayers, my sense of the kingdom. Praying for the victim comes naturally. But Jesus prayed for the perpetrators as well, understanding that they are the ones who most need God’s presence in their lives. Praying for all, proclaiming the good news to all: that is how we build the kingdom.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
