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July 16, 2006,  Pentecost 6, All Souls' Episcopal Church

Here I am, Lord. Send me.

     Just the other day, I was explaining to someone why when it comes to politics I consider myself a moderate. Our Lord Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, said: “Woe unto you when all men speak well of you.” Well, I’m not a moderate because I want all men to speak well of me. In fact, given how the political realm these days are divided into warring, rival camps, being a moderate pretty much insures that you will be hated by all the right people, a thing I’ve always considered my sacred Christian duty. As a moderate, I find myself neither cursing the present not longing for the good old days. The present isn’t all bad and the good old days were not all good. However, I will confess that at least once a week I find myself truly missing and even longing for the church’s traditional lectionary, in particular, the Gospel readings appointed for Sundays as printed in the 1928 Prayer Book. These readings were used by the church for roughly fifteen hundred years, give or take a century here and there. For the most part, and with few exceptions, on the same Sunday of the church year, year after year and century after century, one could hear Father Shaw, employing three points, Bishop Casady, Bishop Seabury, Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine of Canterbury, St. Augustine of Hippo, and the Church Fathers preach on the same Gospel reading. It made my work so much easier.

     On this Sunday, the traditional reading in the traditional Prayer Book is from the sixth chapter of Luke’s Gospel. It tells us of the miracle in which our Lord Jesus had St. Peter launch out into the deep and let down his fishing nets. St. Peter and his companions had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. He was tired, discouraged, and fed up. However, Peter says to his Lord, “Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the nets.” They catch so many fish that their nets break. When they get back to land, Peter falls to his knees and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Jesus tells Peter, James, and John that from now on they will “catch men.”

     Today’s reading, as it is printed in our bulletins, ties in rather nicely with the traditional gospel for this Sunday. Our Lord Jesus gathers the twelve Apostles together and sends them out two by two to preach and to heal people. He tells them to bring only what they will need to get them where they are going and nothing more. They are to receive whatever hospitality is shown to them, preach, and leave off matters of ultimate judgment to God.

     If we take these two readings together, we can learn much about evangelism. The word “apostle” means “one sent forth”. The Apostles were sent by our Lord. But, before the sending, they came to know something of the awesomeness of God. In the sixth chapter of the book of Isaiah, the prophet has a vision of the glory of God within the Jerusalem temple. At the sight of God, he cries “Woe is me, for I am undone.” The prophet is utterly humbled by the holiness of God. He is also transformed. God says, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” The prophet responds, “Here I am Lord, send me.” The prophet experienced something similar to what St. Peter went through on the shore after the miracle of the fishes. An evangelist is not someone who thinks he has the market cornered on truth and who is compelled by his own need to publish his own superior views on the world to the world. That would be a radio talk show host. An evangelist is one who is sent by God. An evangelist is someone who has been touched and humbled by the awesomeness of God. An evangelist is one who knows better than to trust simply in his own ability and in his own understanding. An evangelist does what he has been sent to do and trusts the results to God.

     The Apostles are sent, and they are sent two by two. Liturgical custom requires that when lighting candles on the altar, we light the ones on the Epistle side first and the ones on the Gospel side second. They are extinguished in the opposite order so that the candles on the Gospel side never burn alone. This custom is meant to remind us of the Apostles being sent out two by two. Biblical law required two witnesses in agreement for admissible testimony in certain offenses.  Sending the Apostles two by two might relate to this. They were witnesses, after all, to the good news of the Gospel. They were witnesses in support of one another and in support of the truth.

     The Apostles were told to bring only what was necessary to get them where they were going and to trust God with the rest. In other words, preaching and teaching is always something done in faith. If you try to force the results, it gets personal and one can very quickly get “off-message.”  It is not for nothing that the Apostles are told that they will catch men after our Lord causes the fishing miracle. An evangelist knows that God gives the growth.

     We are not apostles. Some may be called to the ministry of an evangelist. But whoever you are, if you are a Christian, you are one who has been called and sent. You have been called by God. Your faith in God is a grace-inspired response to His love. Wherever a Christian finds himself or herself in life, there ought to be a sense of being there because that is where God wants you to be. You have been sent. You have been put somewhere for a purpose. You have a purpose.  You might not know what that purpose is and you might wish to be somewhere else in other circumstances, but we live in faith. We are, all of us, under the mighty hand of God. Let us always be ready and willing to say, “Here I am, Lord.” Use me.       

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