Scripture Lesson

From the Book of Genesis, Chapter 18:

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. ²He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. ³He said, ‘My lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant. ⁴Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. ⁵Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’ ⁶And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ ⁷Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. ⁸Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

⁹ They said to him, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ And he said, ‘There, in the tent.’ ¹⁰Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. ¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. ¹²2So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’ ¹³The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” ¹⁴Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’ ¹⁵But Sarah denied, saying, ‘I did not laugh’; for she was afraid. He said, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’

From the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 10:
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. ²These 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; ³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

"Summoned and Sent"

A Communion Meditation Preached by
The Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

Today our worship service is jam-packed – celebrating Father’s Day, receiving five new members into this church, and commissioning the youth and chaperones who will be leaving on their mission trip to North Carolina next Sunday. And as different as these three occasions may seem, they all have, at their core, the same elements: being summoned and sent.

Today’s Old Testament lesson features Abraham, who is a wonderful Biblical figure to lift up on Father’s Day. Abraham’s name means “Father of a multitude of nations, and he was the first convert to the one God we all worship today.

In the passage from Genesis, the angel of God appears to Abraham as one of three men who visit his tent by the oaks of Mamre. Hospitable as always, but not yet knowing that one of his visitors is actually the angel of God, Abraham gives them water for refreshment and food to eat. As they sit outside in the cool of the late afternoon, the guests tell Abraham, who is 99 years old, that he will soon be the father of a child. Abraham’s wife Sarah, who is eavesdropping on this conversation, bursts out in incredulous laughter at this preposterous idea, but God indeed blesses them with a child, whom they name Isaac.

This is not the first encounter between God and Abraham. When Abraham was a mere 75 years old, he was summoned and sent by God, who told him to “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Abraham went out in faith, turning away from his pagan beliefs and his old way of life to the way of God, leaving everything and everyone he knew on the basis of God’s promise alone.

This theme of being summoned and sent out is echoed in this morning’s Gospel passage. We read that Jesus called “his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. The names of the twelve apostles are these….”

Something happens between these two verses, something important, but it goes by so fast you may not even have noticed it. In the first sentence, the twelve are "disciples." Then, suddenly, in the next sentence, they're "apostles." Even if you caught the change, you may not have paid much attention: "disciples," "apostles" -- what's the difference? They're just interchangeable names for the same dozen guys, right? Well, not exactly.

The word “disciple” comes from the Latin word to teach. Disciples are students who learn the disciplines of their craft or trade or profession from their master, or teacher. But then, at some point, they start doing; that’s when “disciples” become "apostles" – “apostle” in Greek means one who is “sent out,” and when disciples are "sent out" into the world to do what they've been "discipled" to do, they become apostles.

When he embarked on his Galilean ministry, Jesus summoned – called – twelve men to follow and learn from him. And in the ensuing years, Jesus has been their Master and Teacher, and they have been his disciples. But this morning’s Gospel passage marks the moment when Jesus decides that these twelve disciples know enough and are formed and shaped and changed enough to be sent out to share his mission and ministry with him. To use another theme of this season, the disciples “graduate,” becoming apostles.

And off they go, to do work in Christ’s name. They don’t do it perfectly, and sometimes they don’t even do it well. The Scriptures tell us over and over again of the ways they miss the mark or drop the ball. They can’t understand the parables, they don’t know what he means when Jesus predicts his own death, they sleep through his last agonized hours, and then desert him. And then when he appears to them as the Risen Christ, they barely recognize him.

And yet -- and yet.... Without the twelve, the Gospel would have long ago been forgotten. Because of them, there exists around the world today a Church which witnesses to the Good News of God in Christ. We are here today because the twelve – imperfect as they were -- answered the summons of Jesus; and then, after learning and listening as Jesus’ disciples, they were sent out as apostles to spread Jesus’ mission and ministry. And he calls us out to do the same.

Jesus summons each of us and we answer “yes” at our baptism. And it is those baptismal vows which Ellen, David, Anita, Steve, and Karlyn have all affirmed today as they have been received into membership with us. All of us who have been baptized, and all of us who have been received into membership in a church, have promised before God to “further Christ’s mission in all the world.” Jesus summons all members of Christ’s church as his disciples, and he sends us out into the world to be his apostles.

And it is those baptismal vows which our mission group will be living out on their trip to North Carolina. In a few minutes, we will be commissioning 4 young people and two adults for their mission trip to North Carolina. They have been summoned by Christ, and now they are being sent, to be the hands and the feet of Jesus, doing what Christ would be doing if he were still here in earthly form.

Like Abraham, the Father of the Multitude of Nations; like the disciples; like all baptized Christians and members of the church, the body of Christ, we are summoned and sent to share in Christ’s mission in the world. May we witness to God’s purpose with renewed integrity, and may the Spirit’s gifts empower us for the work of ministry. Amen.