PEOPLE'S CHURCH OF DOVER

Matthew 9:35 – 10:8                                                                                  Freely Give

Sermon June 15, 2008:  People's United Church of Christ, Dover, DE:  The Rev. Dan Griggs

 

            Jesus told those who would be his followers, "You have received freely, freely give."  Reminds me of the aphorism "The best things in life are free."

 

            It has often been said that the West was tamed by women.  Mining camps and clusters of saloons and bordellos do not a town make:  it was when respectable women arrived in Dodge City and Abilene, in Denver and Flagstaff that real "civilization" began.  The arrival of wives and daughters placed new requirements on a community:  there had to be a dry goods store.  Their protection was important, so towns built jails and hired sheriffs.  They deepened the spiritual life of the town, so churches were built.  Education was often the most public work women did in the West, so they had to have a school for the "school marm" to teach in—although there were plenty of men educators as well.  They built theaters where nice young men could meet respectable women. 

Muddy, mucky streets had to be drained if not boarded—even today there are roads among the byways of America with the name "Plank Road"—an early American form of paving.  "I'm sorry, ma'am, but there just isn't much more we can do with Main Street.  We could lay some planks across it to walk on," to which came the reply, "That's not good enough; plank the whole street." 

And it was no longer acceptable to keep your money in a bag beside your gun:  there had to be banks, and therefore accountants.  Doctors, ministers, judges, politicians, painters and patent medicine peddlers all piled in.  Within twenty years somebody started talking about electric lights. 

            Who was it that cut down the trees for the plank roads and the churches?  Who stopped the reckless firing of pistols and sharpened the plow-shares?  When the women arrived, who responded to their needs, and in the process became part of a settled community?  Most men in the West weren't banditos or cowboys:  most men wanted wives and children, desired to please them, protect them, clothe them in beauty, and—well, yes, wanted to avoid their anger over muddy shoes and nowhere for a teenaged daughter to meet nice men.  So the men gave freely, generously, sometimes put their lives on the line, created the great American bread-basket out of the prairies.  "You have received freely, freely give." 

            Not that the women were one whit less industrious, creative or giving.  In the old West "women's work" included plowing, harvesting, gardening, teaching, and organizing to get something done politically.  In a lot of denominations it was the women who were the first to organize missionary societies, and the denominations realized it was something that needed to be supported.  Many women went West as missionaries.  And as far as alcohol is concerned, the name says it all:  the Women's Christian Temperance Society.  The American form of Sunday School is not what the English started out with:  the American form was created by women, as were the Sunday School songs—the ones you still remember decades after you last heard them.  So I'm not trying to downplay the role of women in American life:  it's just that this is Father's Day; and the theme is Jesus' words:  "You have received freely, freely give." 

 

            In that earlier time, which was mostly agrarian but not completely, both sons and daughters received a very special gift from their fathers:  the gift of presence.  The poet Robert Bly has written about this, saying:[1] 

 

 

What is this gift of "presence" that a father gives?  It's the smell of a leather watchband that has been saturated with perspiration.  It's the feeling of safety just being beside him.  It's a recognition of appropriate power when power is called for.  It's the realization in your bones that there is communication even in silence.  It makes peace with the scars each one of us has on our souls.  And these gifts, "freely given," can not be replaced by toys—not even cars and computer systems; can not be replaced by rules, or by the father pulling strings to get something for his child; can not be replaced by property.  Nothing can substitute for a father's presence.  And this gift is so valuable it can only be given:  it can't be earned or bought--"You have received freely, freely give."  

 

            These are Jesus' words, part of his instructions to his apostles when he sent them out on the Limited Commission—the preaching tour within Jewish territory only, a kind of practice run for the Great Commission.  The word "freely" is about as close as the Gospel of Matthew ever comes to using Paul's favorite word "grace."[2]  I think it's a pretty good definition:  grace is what God in Christ has given you freely.  It's a gift so valuable it can only be given:  it can't be earned or bought.  It's the message that whatever your sins were, God has already forgiven you, and invites you to be in the divine presence and be fed by the bread of life.  It's the message that this journey you have taken—maybe that you're on right now—that journey through the valley of meaninglessness, is not a journey alone:  that God's presence sustains you like the manna from heaven sustained the Hebrews in the desert.  "Freely," "grace" is the message that because you are beloved of God, you can have courage to deal with what lies ahead:  there is "salvation."[3] 

            Jesus called his apostles by name, just as the Spirit of Christ has called you by name:  you are known where it counts.  Jesus told his apostles, "Announce that the reign of God is near."  In another place Jesus said that "the kingdom is within you,"[4] and so this journey is a journey to show—or maybe, better, to discover how God's reign is already working in you. 

            And then Jesus told them:

 

 

All these verbs are plural:  "heal" together, "raise" together, "cleanse" together, "cast out" together.  There are no heroes in the church's mission, but plenty of fellowship.  And as a fellowship of Christ's people we are privileged to be witnesses of God's marvelous blessings to other people.  "You have received freely, freely give." 

 

            One more thing I want us to notice about this text is one little verb:  verse 5:

 

These twelve Jesus sent….

 

It doesn’t look like it in English, but the word “sent” here is the verb form of the word “apostle.”  An “apostle” is a person who has been “sent” on a specific mission.  That’s why the Bible can call other people “apostles” even though they were not among these first twelve—the word just means someone commissioned and “sent” to do something.  Historically the church has called any project or program for evangelism or Christian service an “apostolate.”  It doesn’t have to mean just these twelve men named here.  In that sense the first apostle was a woman, Mary Magdalene, who was the first to see the risen Christ; and Christ “sent” her on a job—to tell the men where to meet him. 

            In public school they taught us that our forebears came to America for “freedom of religion,” so they could worship God the way “they wanted to.”  That’s a very secular interpretation of the Pilgrims and the Puritans, the German Reformed and the Evangelical Union of the West.  If you were able to ask them, they wouldn’t say they came here to do as they pleased:  they came here to fulfill their mission, given to them by the Spirit of Christ through the study of the scriptures and prayer.  William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Colony, called it “a mission in the wilderness.”  Well it isn’t a wilderness anymore!  It’s the United States, and it needs Christians with a sense of commissioning to serve, to love, to bless, to speak and to heal like nowhere ever before in human history.  That means that we also have an apostolate—a mission right here in Dover.  If People’s Church is called to an apostolate of worship, healing and hospitality, we have received a purpose, a task, a reason for being here in the name of Jesus Christ. 

            You help sustain our church’s mission with your presence here in church, with your daily prayers for the people on our sick lists, with your financial support for the whole project, with the ethical way you conduct business and relate to your neighbors and give to help the poor.  Our youth help sustain our church’s mission in their fellowship and learning here, and in their moral and spiritual growth as they go through all the experiences of school and sports and friendships.  This building is not a monument to those who have gone before (although they do “surround us as a cloud of witnesses”):  this building is a holy tool for mission and ministry.  We have been “sent,” to use that verb in the text.  Is this not our own joyful fulfillment of Jesus’ words:  “You have received freely, freely give.”  Oh, I think so!

 

            So in the name of Christ you have been chosen by name, you have been blessed in wonderful ways, and you have been sent here to announce in word and deed the healing, welcoming, inspiring work that Christ is doing through your own hands.  As we seek ways "freely to give," may the Christ Spirit sustain us. 

AMEN