Henrietta United Church of Christ

Rev. Martha Koenig Stone

June 15, 2008 – Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 9:35–10:8

“Graduation Day”

When my brothers and sisters and I were young, my mother taught us Bible verses by memory. For each verse, we earned a whole nickel, which of course seemed like a fortune to us! We learned the Ten Commandments and the 23^rd Psalm, and we even memorized the order of the books of the Bible.

In preparing for today, I was surprised to stumble across one of the passages that I had memorized as a child. It was almost as if I could hear my mother’s voice, coaching me through the text.

Now the names of the 12 Apostles are these:

Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother

James the son of Zebedee and John his brother;

Philip and Bartholomew;

Thomas and Matthew the publican;

James the son of Alphaeus

And Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;

Simon the Canaanite,

and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Okay, okay, so I can’t really say it all by heart any more. But remembering my mother’s voice as she taught it to me made me ask myself, why is that list in there? Who cares what the names of the apostles were? Aren’t the gospels about Jesus? Isn’t he the big cheese, the one we’re supposed to follow? Who were these men, anyway? Why did the gospel writer make a point of recording their names?

As I studied the passage, I noticed that, at the beginning, these men are called “disciples,” that is, people who are following a discipline, learning a way of life. They were following the Jewish custom of learning from a rabbi, absorbing all that their teacher had to offer, soaking up his wisdom and knowledge, just as Jesus had done with the rabbis in his younger days.

But eventually, they too would be sent out as teachers, to gather their own followers and pass on the traditions and learning of their people. This is how wisdom is passed on from one generation to the next, from one age to the next. Individuals share what they know, and then learners take it the next step. One good idea is shared, and it grows and develops as it is passed along.

Indeed, in this gospel story, Jesus decides to send the twelve out on their own, to share the good news. In fact, this is the first time in Matthew’s gospel where they are called “apostles,” that is, “ones who are sent.” So this story is a kind of graduation day for the disciples. It’s time for them to stop looking to the teacher for instruction, time to think for themselves and take action on their own, time to try out what they have learned and make their own mistakes and pick themselves up again and go on.

Jesus understands that learning takes place person by person, one by one. Change takes place person by person, one by one. Every new idea, every new endeavor begins because someone has an idea and decides to act on it. And if only one person changes, then the change isn’t complete—the next person has to play his or her part as well.

If Jesus had had no followers, he couldn’t have been a successful leader. And if he hadn’t empowered his followers to carry on after him, if he hadn’t sent them out then the teaching would have stopped with him. If his followers hadn’t taken up his cause when he died, if they hadn’t gotten to work and told their stories, then the resurrection wouldn’t have made much of a difference. He needed partners to help him spread his message.

And so each person, each name is important. When I read the names of the 12 apostles, I’m reminded of this insight. Individuals matter. What we do counts.

Still, sometimes when I’m going about my daily activities I become discouraged. Does what I do really make a difference? Sometimes I wish I were a more powerful person—someone with real authority—someone who could do something big, like end world hunger or end war or stop global warming.

We’ve heard a lot in this election season about the “powerful” people, the movers and shakers. We look to see who endorses whom, and what groups ally with one another. We try to keep abreast of power shifts, nationally and internationally. We evaluate who has accomplished what and how much economic and political and social power our leaders have. But every now and then we are reminded that even great world leaders are subject to disease and disaster. Even the rich and powerful can fall from grace. Even they are dependent on the individuals who are willing to follow them, and on the structures of society that support their position and power. And those who do hold power don’t always use their influence for the good of the people. So the closer you look the more you begin to see that prestige and status and money are not the only ways to effect change in the world.

Hillary Clinton recently commented that she wanted to be president so she could bring about change. Truly, the president of the United States does have some significant power to affect the world. The example she gave was Lyndon Johnson—that without his signature, the voting rights act could not have become law—that his position of power had enabled him to bring about change. She was right, of course, in a way. A president’s actions do made a difference. But she got a lot of flack for that comment, because what she forgot for the moment was that President Johnson couldn’t have done what he did if Martin Luther King hadn’t led the civil rights movement and pushed for that piece of legislation. And King couldn’t have done what he did if there hadn’t been marches and bus boycotts. And the bus boycott wouldn’t have started if Rosa Parks hadn’t sat down on the bus. And Rosa Parks wouldn’t have sat down on the bus if it weren’t for a fifteen-year-old named Claudette Colvin who did it first. The actions of that young girl inspired the whole community to begin resisting, systematically, the injustices that were being perpetrated on black Americans.

Each name is important, each person has an impact, each choice we make can make a difference.

Mohandas Gandhi is credited with bringing about the liberation of India, and he was indeed a great leader. But he couldn’t have led his people to independence if millions of Indian citizens—some of them the poorest of the poor—hadn’t taken his teachings to heart and put their bodies on the line.

Vaclav Havel, the former President of the Czech Republic, wrote an essay when Czechoslovakia was still under communist rule. It was called “The Power of the Powerless.” It included a story about a green grocer who had a sign in the window of his shop with a slogan in support of the communist government. The grocer didn’t believe in the message of the sign; he just had it in his window because that’s what all the business owners did. But what would happen, Havel wondered, if one day that green grocer were to take down that sign? What if the other business owners in the town noticed that the sign was gone? What if others who didn’t like the communist system began to take down their signs as well, so that, little by little, the propaganda began to fade away? What if, instead of going along with the system without question, the people began to talk about how their government works, and to suggest ways to improve it? Oh, no, that couldn’t happen. It would be too dangerous. No one would risk it. No humble green grocer could resist the power of the Soviet agenda. Surely not….

And yet we have seen, in our lifetimes, the fall of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the communist system in most of Eastern Europe. Because a whole bunch of somebodies decided that they wanted to try something else. They began to talk about it and act on it and invest themselves in this change.

It turns out that the powerless have quite a bit of power when they start to use it!

When hurricanes devastated Myanmar this month, the repressive government of the country didn’t want to allow relief workers to enter the country. But church groups and diplomats and non-governmental agencies kept offering aid, and little by little help is trickling in to heal and feed and house and clothe those desperate people. In the absence of governmental help, I can imagine that the help that ordinary neighbors are offering to one another in this time of terrible tragedy is crucial for the survival of the people.

Jesus knew something about the power of the powerless. He didn’t look to kings or presidents to do his work; he sent out fishermen and tax collectors. He sent out lepers and grieving women and foreigners. He worked from the ground up. He gathered the confused and aimless. He wanted to empower those at the bottom of the heap. He recruited all sorts of unlikely characters, and told them, “Go! Tell! Baptize! Teach! Pray! Believe!” He gave them a job to do—and their lives were changed in the sending and the giving and the going forth.

Over and over in this world, good things happen because one person decides to step up and take action, and somebody else decides to follow the example. When people align themselves with God’s spirit of truth and grace and generosity, the powerless become powerful beyond measure.

Jesus took the teachings of his ancestors and made them his own, and then he passed them on and shared them with others. Then the word was spread by Peter and Andrew and James and John, and all those guys who were named in our text. And then Mary and Paul and Timothy and Stephen and Salome and Lydia and Phoebe all picked up the ball and ran with it. And when they couldn’t do it any more, they sent out the next generation to heal and serve and organize and pray and work to build up the realm of God.

On Fathers’ Day we honor the love and care of fathers. Fathers get us started in life, and if we’re lucky, they teach us well as we grow. Or if we’re not so lucky, we look to other teachers to guide and instruct us. But at some point the best way to honor our fathers and our teachers is to step out on our own and put what we’ve learned into practice. We have to take our turn and run the next leg of the race. There are disasters to clean up and houses to be built and schools to be run, all over the world.

Sometimes, we’ll do it in a big way, like when we build our Habitat house, or when we make big contributions to One Great Hour of sharing. But we’ll also pay attention to the little tasks. We’ll continue to teach the kids in church school and to visit our seniors. We’ll take some time figuring out where Christ might be leading us, with the Unwrapping Our Gifts program next fall and our ongoing conversations about mission and building and how to be more open and affirming. We don’t have to look far to find work that needs doing. There are lost, confused, lonely, sick people right here in our own neighborhood who need to have a touch of God’s grace, too.

So go! It’s graduation day, and you have a job to do! Show others that the kingdom of God is here. Bring health to the sick, raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Share joy and laughter and sorrow and pain with God’s children!

For the names of today’s apostles are these:

Kaitlin who is called K.C. and Matt & Andy her brothers,

Robbie the son of Markwick and Will & Sam his brothers

David and Carolyn, Joe and Robin,

Cheryl the nurse and Eric the jeweler,

Randall the son of Ronald and Judy the daughter of Wiletta,

and ….add your name to the list.

These are Christ’s apostles! We are sent by God! Every person counts. No act of kindness is wasted. Freely we have received the grace of God in Christ; freely let us go and share our gifts with the world!

Amen.