June 14 2020 "How Does A Garden Grow - Disciples?"

June 14 2020 Matthew 9.35-10.8 “How Does a Garden Grow – Disciples?” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

This is our eleventh week of quarantine! We have celebrated graduations in ways that we could not have imagined, we have weathered thunder storms and power outages leading to interruptions in what some in the world experience as luxuries – running water, television, air conditioning, phone, and computer usage. In all things, we give thanks for the God who loves us and never leaves us empty handed. We are always, always blessed.

Our June series of messages focuses on discipleship. Last week it was “Go – Make Disciples.” We make disciples by being a good example. This week the focus is “How Does a Garden Grow – Disciples.”

In the church we are glad when others offer a helping hand. Someone approached me one evening after a big church dinner and said, “Pastor, I am going to help wash dishes today because I realize every time I come to a church dinner, I just eat and fellowship and go home. This time I am going to help with the cleanup.” That was a delight to hear. There is always room for more people to help clean up. Another time, someone mentioned that they had shared good news tracts on a busy street corner and invited people to come to church so more people knew about the good work in the church and may want to participate. Others invited their friends and neighbors to come to church and some even joined. More than anything else, positive affirming relationships working in unity to do the good God gives us to do helps to grow disciples, and helps the church to grow.

There is always, always enough to do in the church. As Jesus reminds us in  Matthew chapter 9 verse 37, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. There are many acts of kindness that are needed. There are many souls who would be blessed, enriched, and healed in a relationship with good Christians who are involved in good works that build God’s kin-dom 

Jesus had twelve disciples that he counted on to study his teachings and to meet regularly in a garden and plan their steps for ministry and mission. They were all men on the front lines, but we know that women had a key role. 

We know that women displayed much physical strength, creativity, and ingenuity in their ministry, too.

Just like Jesus sent the early disciples to minister, he sends us to minister. Many of us think that we have no right and no authority to speak for God and to do certain jobs. We may think we are not good enough or we may fear that we will be rejected or criticized.

There are certainly enough examples to inspire us not to give up. Martha Stewart went to jail for fraud and came back with a new cooking show.

Theodor Seuss Geisel, whom we know as Dr. Seuss, was rejected by 27 different publishers. Now the world can’t seem to get enough of him. His books have sold in the millions.  A few weeks ago Kim offered a series of our Sunday morning Facebook lessons using Dr. Seuss books to teach the children how to share, care, and to be inclusive of people from all places.

Oprah Winfrey was fired from a job as an anchor before she owned her own network and became a billionaire. 

Of course, there have been countless missionaries and ministers who have flourished when they could have given up and made excuses for not doing good. 

Rev. Jarena Lee among the first women preachers was born free, though she preached in an age of slavery. Dr. Eric Law an Episcopal priest

 founded the Kaleidoscope Institute that, among other things, trains communities and police forces to burn with passion without consuming each other. Missionary Jim Elliot was sharing the gospel in Ecuador in 1956. He was killed in the process,

 but his wife Elizabeth Elliot forgave the Ecuadorian people and decided to leave her home in Brussels and go to South America to the same people who killed her beloved husband, and she served as a missionary there for two years. Rev. Lydia Moore

has pastored several churches in our Conference. She still rises after taking many lumps and bumps caring for immigrants who suffer.

It is good to keep on keeping on and to not allow fear or failure to knock us off course. We know God has a purpose and a plan and it is so good. If we would just give God a chance.

The gifts and talents God gives to each of us, the bible says, make room for us. They take us in a certain direction and grant us opportunities to earn a livelihood, to be encouraged, and to build others up and to build up the kingdom of God. Romans 14.17 says, the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. What can be better than that? It’s like the Garden of Eden that God designed from the beginning of time.

We all know right living, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit is beautiful and we ought to do our best to tend to them and help them grow wherever we can.

Our Christian journey may have a few potholes, a few detours, a few discouragements and disappointments, but there will always be joy in the journey. There will always be a result that shows God loves us, cares for us, and has never left us.

As members of the church, you have a certain authority given you by the church. You represent the church because you legally, according to the laws of the Church, are a member. You know you have gifts. You know you are called to serve, and the church authorizes you to do so, just like Jesus gave authority to the 12 disciples.  Peter and his brother Andrew; James and his brother John; ³Philip, Bartholomew; Thomas, Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon, and Judas.

Jesus gave them authority, according to verse 10, over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. That is certainly a lot of authority. Medical doctors can cure every disease and every sickness, but not always every time or everywhere and to every degree possible.

Whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, healing is a process.  Just as we are growing in our understanding of the Corona virus, we are growing in our understanding of ways to protect ourselves. We all have a part to play in healing and restoring and helping the world to be a healthier place to live.

In one way or another, we are all healers. We all have been given something that repairs and restores others. We endeavor to daily let go of anything we have in our hearts and minds that hurts and hinders the hope of God’s good will.

There may be Christians and others with reputations for having authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. They may be doctors, psychologists, ministers. Still, I believe that all of us have healing in our hands and in our hearts. To one degree or another, at one time or another, we are called and authorized to use our words, our information, our insights, our actions, and anything else we have to cast out an unclean spirit and to heal sickness and disease. All the good we do makes a difference. All the good we do heals and helps somebody somewhere. The bible even tells us how to overcome evil. Romans 12.21 says, overcome evil with good. 

We do good with the understanding that not everyone wants to be healed or delivered. Not everyone wants a cure for what ails them. We all know from personal experience that at times we hold on tightly to heavy burdens that weigh us down and keep us from receiving God’s peace and wholeness we so desperately need. Like a child with a splinter, we pull back from the remedy after we realize that pain and discomfort may come along with healing.

There is a price to be paid for healing. That cost may be emotional or financial. Gaining healing may mean losing face, prestige, position. Or it may mean letting go and letting God or the doctors or someone else be in charge. Healing has a cost.

This one thing is sure, if we want to grow to be the best disciples we can be, we will pray and study and stay in healthy relationships until we find the hundreds of ways God has for us to heal from our broken heartedness and to help others to heal. We will surrender to God’s will and restore the beauty that God designed for all of us to enjoy.

Are you ready to answer God’s call to heal and restore? Are you willing to repent of the way you may have torn down instead of building up? Are you ready to be healed? If so, pray with me now.

Wonderful God, every move we make reminds us that you are the God who heals and restores. Reveal to us this day ways we can build one another up, and if there is any wicked way in us, cleanse us and make us whole. We pray for preachers, teachers, leaders, and missionaries of every nation and station that you would use them to build and restore as you make all things beautiful in your time. We pray as you taught the disciples:

Our father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 

Benediction – Go forth and grow something beautiful for God’s sake and the sake of all who are hurting and in need of healing.

Next week on father’s day, a father of 6, and a grandfather as well, will share a wonderful Father’s Day message.

If you would like to make your contribution to the ministry and mission of Bethel, the website is  Bethelumchurch.com 

Or you can send to 952 Bethel Church Road, Spring City, Pa. 19475. God bless you!

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