Matthew 9:35-38
“You are the Answer to Your Own Prayer”
In the book A Generation Alone one of the authors worked extensively with Vietnam Vets, recovering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.
PTSD is a condition resulting from a stressful incident which is beyond our normal functional range of human experience…
…such as combat, terrorism, torture, rape, violence, or other long-term extreme experiences.
Entire generations of soldiers show signs of PTSD.
Author William Mahedy writes about college students he works with who show signs of many of the same PTSD symptoms.
He explains that such high percentages of young people have endured traumas of abandonment due to divorce, psychological or sexual abuse, overexposure to media violence, being brought up in homes which are infested with drugs, and it appears that we have bred a PTSD generation.
Mahedy says, “I can find no other explanation for the widespread problems with stability, self-image, feelings of emptiness, depression, suicidal thinking, fear of the future, and lack of hope among the young.”
He said that “Abandonment is the fundamental component of these disorders…the young have been abandoned by parents, loved ones, teachers, political leaders, even the culture itself.
No one is really ‘there’ for them now…
More than any of their predecessors, they have been since birth a generation alone.”
And as the church, I believe we are called to create a culture of connection for people who are alone.
People value connections with others above everything else, and since Christianity is about relationships—with God and others—what better group is there to create a culture of connection for people who are alone than the Church?
We have both a great responsibility and a great privilege at this time in history and in this particular location.
In his book The Rise of Christianity sociologist Rodney Stark describes how Christianity went from being such a small group to the dominant religion in such a short period of time.
He shows that there were two huge and terrible epidemics during the first few centuries.
And if those who were affected were cared for—there was a good chance they would survive.
But often when a member of someone’s family got the disease, the other family members—in fear—left that person uncared for and left their homes for other places.
The Christians, however, didn’t do this.
They cared for their own family members and also cared for those who were left behind by their family members.
And that willingness to suffer in order to care for the sick had a part to play in large numbers of people turning to Christ.
People respond to love!
This past week I was having a conversation with a friend when I asked him if he and his wife were trying to have a baby.
His answer, “We’re not--not trying.”
And then he added, “But the thought of having a child scares me to death!”
I told him that it is the greatest experience in life, and that he will be amazed that he is able to love another human being as much as he will love his own child.
And then I added, “And it only gets better and better the older they become.”
To this, my friend said, “I really love my dog. He’s always so happy to see me. He loves me so much. I love the way he jumps up into my lap.”
And I was thinking, “Boy we sure do respond positively to love.”
How are we doing, as Christians, at loving…not only one another…but also those outside the fold?
In our Scripture passage for this morning we are told that “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd…”
Not much has changed.
The word used for “compassion” here is the strongest word for pity in the Greek language.
It describes the compassion which moves people to the depths of their being.
Jesus, our Lord and our God, was moved to the depths of His being when He saw crowds of ordinary human beings.
And so Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
In other words, the people were eager and ready for God’s Kingdom, but they didn’t know where to look to find it.
They were ready and waiting for God to act, but who would tell them that this action was already taking place?
It’s really interesting.
Outside of the Lord’s Prayer itself, Jesus doesn’t very often tell us what to pray for, but this time He does.
“Go to the Farmer,” He says, “and beg him to send workers to bring in the harvest.”
And as His followers pray that prayer, the answer comes back quickly: “You are, yourselves, to be the answer to your own prayer.”
During a stay with her grandparents, a five year old girl named Michelle pulled corn on a neighbor’s farm for the first time.
Her grandparents used the experience as a teaching tool, explaining to Michelle that the corn was God’s blessing to them.
At first, the work was great fun, but after only a few minutes Michelle looked at her grandmother and commented, “You know you can buy this in the grocery store, don’t you?”
We Christians are sometimes prone to look for the easy way out of doing God’s will and thus place the burden of responsibility on someone else.
But if we are truly hungry to do God’s will, then we must stop going the fast-food route and begin to reap the harvest!
If we truly want to do God’s will we will look for witness opportunities and go to any lengths to bring others into the Kingdom!!!
For people are “harassed and helpless.”
Who will tell them?
Who will serve them?
This past week I was speaking with a colleague, telling him that the Servant Evangelism Team is interested in having him take and introduce us to the homeless population in East Ridge.
I told him that we had discussed doing this on a Saturday, but then I remembered that this is a lot to ask someone—to take his Saturday…
…his Saturday which this very busy person usually dedicates to his family and ask him to spend it with us…
…working, shall we say.
But his response was, “I think we get too caught up in the mindset of ‘when is it a convenient time for ME to do God’s ministry.’
Shouldn’t we be asking ourselves, ‘When will it be a convenient time for those we seek to serve?’”
It sure is easy to take the “fast-food” route to ministry.
But where do our priorities lie?
What is important to us?
If we think that Jesus only did ministry when it was convenient for Him, we are sorely mistaken.
In Matthew Chapter 14, upon Jesus finding out that His cousin and dear friend, John the Baptist had been killed…
… “Jesus withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.”
In other words, Jesus wanted to be alone in His sorrow and with His Father…
…but…
…but…
…we are told that “the crowds followed him on foot from the towns,” and “when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”
This is how our Lord responds to people.
This is how our Lord responds to us.
I don’t know about you, but I love to go and watch professional baseball.
My parents live across the Ohio River from Reds Stadium.
To go to a game, all you have to do is walk less than a quarter of a mile over a bridge and into the stadium.
When I lived in Georgia, I used to occasionally go see Atlanta Braves games.
Here in Chattanooga, we enjoy taking Mary Ellen out to AT&T field to cheer on the Lookouts.
Mary Ellen especially likes the Choo Choo train and the fireworks…and of course, Bluey!
Avid baseball fans arrive at the stadiums hours before the games, carrying coolers and wearing team shirts and hats.
Many of these fans look as if they haven’t played sports themselves since high school.
Watching professional sports requires a lot of eating and standing in lines for the bathrooms.
Occasionally something happens on the field, and people spill beer as they stand to cheer the player who has just scored one for the team.
But as Christians, are we supposed to be spectators or players—fans or followers?
Being a fan of Jesus is not the same as being a follower.
You and I are invited to step up from the crowd of the curious to join the team of the committed!!!
Jesus’ ministry is a living out of the Good News, and as followers or apprentices of Jesus this is our calling as well.
This is our distinctive way of life.
Thirteen years ago, 30 people attended Bethel United Methodist Church in Seymour, Tennessee.
Now the church has 135 members and recently moved into a new, 5,000 square foot building.
The congregation had tried inviting the middle to upper middle class neighborhoods surrounding the church…
…but the folks didn’t seem much interested.
Eventually they began to reach the places where no one was inviting people to church.
Soon, children, most of whom had never attended worship gatherings before, started filling Bethel pews on Sunday mornings.
At the time, most of the members were in their 60s and 70s.
The kids were unruly, undisciplined, and many times didn’t bathe.
So in order to have these Youth come, it took a lot of older Christians to take them under their wings, to teach them how to be in church.
Each child was assigned an adult who would sit with them during worship.
The mentors taught their mentees not to bring food into the sanctuary and how to quietly bow their heads during prayer.
Most of the children often did without the bare necessities.
Many came to church hungry.
One girl was reprimanded several times for rolling all over a pew.
Though asked to stop, she kept doing it.
She explained that the pew, “felt so good.”
You see, this girl slept on a linoleum floor at home.
The padded pew felt much better than the cold, hard floor.
Church members also transported the children to church on Sundays.
They decided that anyone asking for a ride would be picked up—no matter where they lived!
Members also took the children on outings.
The pastor of the church is quoted as saying, “Love is the key to any growth.”
“As long as any person in any church has the capacity to love, they have the capacity to grow.”
We currently have 3 very dedicated van drivers who pick up folks for worship and drop them off.
But we need more people involved in this ministry.
We need folks to volunteer to drive the vans, to pick people up for worship who have no other means of transportation.
What an exciting ministry!!!
If you are interested in exploring this very vital ministry—please let me know following worship today!!!
According to statistics, the majority of people living in and around our community have no church home—do not have a relationship with Jesus—they are “harassed and helpless,” many are isolated and lonely, some are living with symptoms similar to PTSD.
Jesus has compassion on them…
…Jesus is moved to the depths of His being.
Do we, as the Body of Christ, have this Jesus Compassion as well?
Shall we be the answer to our own prayer which Jesus has taught us to pray?
Let us pray…
