Micah 6:6-8; Matthew 8: 1-13

It was a warm and meaningful Communion service. The Word had been spoken and sung beautifully; the sense of God's presence was powerful; there was a strong sense of bonding as the congregation came forward to receive the bread and the wine. At the conclusion, to make sure no one in the church had been forgotten, the pastor asked, "Has everyone been fed?" And the response of one of the faithful was something many people would remember for a long, long time: "No, Pastor. Millions outside are still waiting."

 
Those words, and that story, convict me and many others whose lives have become pretty much intertwined with the life of the church. When the church is at its best, there are powerful moments; I have experienced it often: maybe through a beautiful anthem, sincerely offered to God; maybe through a well-delivered sermon; maybe through a genuine prayer, or a kind word of welcome, or an unexpected moment of laughter, or the movement of the Spirit during Holy Communion, or a witness of faith shared in a Bible study. To be truthful, it's moments like that that bring many people back to church - the Spirit of God nourishes their spirit, and they feel spiritually fed. I have heard people use that expression when they choose a church - "I looked for a place where I would feel spiritually fed," or, "I left there because I just wasn't getting anything out of it." I think there is credibility in those words - I think we should expect that we will be nourished by God's Spirit when we come to worship together. Just what makes that happen is the subject of another sermon or two.

But today's sermon, and, in fact, the next several sermons, is about something different - it's about that response to the pastor's words, "Has everyone been fed?" Because when we come together in this room on a Sunday morning to turn our sights to God, God's sights are on us, to be sure. But that's just the beginning of God's vision for this service. God's vision, I believe, is that what happens in this place will change the world; that the people who receive spiritual food here will be those who carry nourishment and life to the lonely, hurting, and hungry out there. Someone has said that the church is the only organization that exists for its nonmembers. And, indeed, when we become members here, it's not for privileges. "Gee, I want to join there so I'll get that great newsletter, and those cool envelopes, and a nametag." As cool as all those things are, we offer them (along with all of the other services of the church) to members and nonmembers alike. The real privilege of membership in Christ's church is the privilege to serve; and the specific words in the membership, vows that describe that most pointedly are, "Christ's representative in the world." Will you be Christ's representative in the world?

A more church-y way of asking that is, "Will you be an apostle?" Apostle is not a word we use much anymore, and it has a narrow use in the Bible - an apostle in the Bible, say some scholars, was an eye-witness to Jesus - someone who had actually met him. Therefore, the apostles have all died out long ago. But I'm going to use the word in the more general sense - an apostle is someone who is sent to represent somebody - an ambassador. And, as such, all of us who choose to call ourselves Christians - followers of Christ - are apostles in this world.

The portion of scripture we'll be reading in worship the next few weeks - Matthew 8-10 - has been called instructions for apostles. And the first "A" word we can apply to apostles is Action. Matthew 5-7 are the famous Sermon on the Mount - Jesus sitting and teaching the disciples how to live. They were being fed words of instruction and faith. But the three stories we read this morning from Matthew 8 show Jesus coming down from the mountain and springing into action. In the middle of the crowd there is a leper: "Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean." And Jesus says, "I do choose, be made clean!" And then there is a Roman centurion: "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed!" And Jesus says, "I will come and cure him." And then Peter's mother-in-law is lying sick with fever, and without hesitation Jesus goes to her. And then the parade starts of those who are sick or possessed, and Jesus ministers to each of them, with no hesitation at all.

And from what we read elsewhere about the disciples, it's easy to imagine that they resisted all this action. It was so much better up on the mountain, listening to Jesus' words - being fed spiritually by his presence. But it's not about what food you're being fed; it's about what food you are carrying to others. There is certainly a time to be a disciple, sitting at the feet of Jesus and absorbing his teaching; but there is also a time to be an apostle, sent out into the feverish, hungry world to be Christ's representative. Let's talk about some reasons this must be true:

The first reason is our own health. There was a time in my life when I didn't give any thought at all to what I ate. When I was in college at SUNY Oswego, there was an open cafeteria; you could go back as many times as you wanted. And man, I did. They had to invent a higher math to calculate the calories I put away in those days. And desserts; greasy foods; you name it. And no matter what I ate, I stayed a svelte 160. Boy, those were good days. That lasted, oh, maybe five minutes.

The day came, not so far down the road, that I had to start paying attention to what I ate, and start sorting out foods that were good for me from foods that weren't. And not only that. Even if I ate nothing but the most healthy foods, if that's all I did for my health, I would still have big problems. There's another side to the equation. My body needs exercise to thrive. I can't just keep feeding it; I need to be actively burning off those calories, and developing strength and flexibility.

It's no different with my soul. Over the years, I have sorted out what feeds my spirit from what makes it slow and lazy. And I love to be spiritually fed - by good reading, by good teaching, by quiet, peaceful moments alone, by great worship. But that's only part of the picture. My soul needs exercise; it needs to build up endurance and strength and flexibility by being out in the world where it is challenged and stretched and pushed to the limit. That's how I find out who God is; and how I find out who I am. And that's what being an apostle does.

The Bible tells us that Jesus reached a moment with his disciples when he sent them out to witness in the neighboring towns. He gave them instructions, he paired them up, and out they went. I can only imagine that they were nervous and uncertain. When they came back, it was, "Wow! We cast out demons! We healed the sick!" They had discovered what they could do in the power of God's Spirit because they had exercised their souls as apostles sent out by God. We need that challenge, too, in order to be complete in our spiritual lives.

The second reason we need to be apostles in action is that it is the only way our words have credibility. 1 heard one unchurched person put it pretty graphically; he said, "I don't care how high you jump when you hear the name of Jesus. I want to see what you do when your feet hit the ground." And I think he speaks for a lot of people today. I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes 1 think we've had almost enough Christian pronouncements for a while - Christian preachers spreading hate from pulpits or on their television shows, Christian politicians putting their partisan messages in holier-than-thou terms, Christian activists twisting the biblical message to their particular cause. We are drowning our society in words that are not backed up by hearts of love and deeds of grace that represent Christ in this world.

Did Jesus preach to the leper? No. He healed him. Did he debate right doctrine with the centurion? No. He answered his prayer. Did he demand a statement of faith from Peter's mother-in-law? No, he touched her hand, and the fever left her.

The prophet Micah said it very clearly to people who loved to worship and bring their sacrifices in the Temple. "With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow… before God on high?  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? ...He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." Justice, kindness, walking humbly with God. Faith in action. Representatives of Christ in the world.

And the third reason God is looking for apostles in action is the most obvious - the world is hurting, and there is so much Jesus wants to do. He needs apostles carrying his love into the world. Recently I read a devastating phrase -- 'practical atheism.' The writer claimed that churches today are filled with practical atheists. Of course, an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in God, so how can churches be filled with practical atheists? Christians come together and sing hymns of praise to God, and pray to God, and read God's Word - so obviously we believe in God, right?

But then when it comes to the practical side of things, we become atheists. We don't really live like people who believe. We put our trust in money and bombs and governments and experts; we absorb ourselves in entertainment and worry. We say, Well, God is okay in here; but out there in the real world, you've got to be practical. Believers in church; atheists in the world.

Meanwhile, the world goes to the dogs because for 2000 years or so, no one has really tried what Jesus taught and demonstrated with his whole life and his whole death - and that is the power of faith-filled, love-filled apostles doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God in this world. Jesus believed that just twelve people like that would change everything.

So here's a thought to grapple with the next time you see something at work or at school or at home or in the news that makes you cry out in frustration, "God, why don't you do something about that?" God's answer is alarmingly simple: "I did; I sent you." Be an apostle of God's love - for the sake of your own spiritual health; for the sake of having a credible witness and purpose in this life, and for the sake of a hurting, hungry world, where millions are still waiting to be fed.