June 15, 2008

Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:
"Included In God's Love, Included In God's Mission"

The good news that we find in our scripture for today is that: We are included in God’s love and we are included in God’s mission.

Sometimes growing up, we think we have to earn our dad’s approval. Dad’s expect us to do things right, don’t they? When you are little, and even when you are almost grown, dad’s praise can be worth more than anything else in the world. We try to get things right, but our best effort is not always good enough. He doesn’t say anything, so maybe we think ‘Does dad love me?’ We even begin wondering if we are included in dad’s love.

In the song about her father’s generation, Barbed Wire Boys, Susan Werner writes: “Where do the words go, that you never said?” Those are powerful words indeed. Not only because they could be asked of so many of our fathers, but because they could be asked of us as well - especially when it comes to expressing our faith. Listen carefully now to all the words of this moving song:

BARBED WIRE BOYS From: New Non-Fiction (2001) Copyright © Susan Werner
Well I come from the rural Midwest
It's the land I love more than all the rest
It's the place I know and understand
Like a false-front building
Like the back of my hand
And the men I knew when I was coming up
Were sober as coffee in a Styrofoam cup
There were Earls and Rays, Harlans and Roys
They were full-grown men
They were barbed wire boys

They raised grain and cattle on the treeless fields
Sat at the head of the table and prayed before meals
Prayed an Our Father and that was enough
Pray more than that and you couldn't stay tough
Tough as the busted thumbnails on the weathered hands
They worked the gold plate off their wedding bands
And they never complained, no they never made noise
And they never left home
These barbed wire boys

'Cos their wildest dreams were all fenced in
By the weight of family, by the feeling of sin
That'll prick your skin at the slightest touch
If you reach too far, if you feel too much
So their deepest hopes never were expressed
Just beat like bird's wings in the cage of their chest
All the restless longings, all the secret joys
That never were set free
In the barbed wire boys

And now one by one they're departing this earth
And it's clear to me now 'xactly what they're worth
Oh they were just like Atlas holding up the sky
You never heard him speak, you never saw him cry
But where do the tears go, that you never shed
Where do the words go, that you never said
Well there's a blink of the eye, there's a catch in the voice
That is the unsung song
Of the barbed wire boys

After a while we realized that dads love us no matter what, at least those of us fortunate to have dads that do. They just don’t always tell us. We were included in dad’s love all along, even when we fell short of his expectations, and even when we didn’t know it.

And then there are times when dads let us help with things he’s doing. Those are special as well. It may be washing the car or handing him a wrench from the toolbox or holding the fence wire while he pounds in the staple– whatever it is, when we are included in something dad is doing, that’s a big deal. So when we hear Jesus tell his disciples (and tell us as well) to go and do the Father’s work – that is very special.

We are included in God’s love and we are included in God’s mission.

Being Christians means being included. We are included, all of us. And that is our mission as Christians, to go where he leads – even when where he leads is right here – to unconditionally love those who need to be loved.

Catherine Marshall once told about a couple named Mary and Harold Brinig, who moved to Chicago many years ago. They had no friends there and were lonely. Irritable and unhappy with each other, they sought help from the Bible. They found it in John 15:16, where Jesus said: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide." They wondered what mission Jesus had included them in. The first person they encountered after this discovery was the waitress who served them in a nearby restaurant, who also was new in the city and miserable. They invited her to their apartment after work. Next they befriended a lonely widower and soon a dozen people were meeting once a week for conversation and prayer. This was the mission of love Jesus had included them in. Makes you wonder what mission we have been included in right here, where we have been led.

We are included in God’s love and we are included in God’s mission.

The history books tell us that in America's early years our land was filled with evangelism. That’s why there are Methodist churches in most towns today. Methodist Circuit riders were so relentless in their ministry that on stormy days there was a proverbial saying: "There is nothing out today but crows and Methodist preachers." We may not all be Methodist preachers, and surely we are not, any of us, crows, and yet we have all been included in God’s mission to “Go out and tell others…”, the same mission these early circuit riders responded to.

So, "Are we going, or not?" Because like the unsung songs of the barbed wire boys, the message of the gospel may never be heard as well… if we don’t go now.