“Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers” …these Twelve Jesus sent out [saying]…“Go to the lost sheep. As you go, preach…and heal” (Matt. 9:38, 10:5-7, emphasis mine).

It’s easy to see our church’s core value of being “outwardly focused” in action: donation drives for local schools, homeless advocacy groups, or the food bank. Small groups go into the community to fix up houses and yards. Individuals meet needs in their subdivision, workplace, or community groups. You don’t have to attend services very long here to know our heart is for people in our county. 

And it needs to be. 

It wasn’t just Jesus’ community which was sick and diseased, “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (9:35-36). What community isn’t? Just as Jesus couldn’t meet all the needs of those around Him and commissioned His disciples to go out, so does He expect us to go and do likewise. 

But…sometimes it’s hard to go outside our comfort zones.

Being “sent out” (9:38) involves work: getting up close to people. It's easier to stay safe in the church body and write a check for this missionary or that cause. Easier still to give online at home: no finding the checkbook, getting a stamp, walking to the mailbox. It’s easier to pray than to go to the nursing home because that means I might have to talk to someone. 

When I’m convicted enough about being sent out, though, I find it’s easier to take a meal to a neighbor than to also explain why I’m standing at the door with a casserole. It’s easier for me to go and volunteer at CORA but say nothing when I could also be asking the family who’s shopping if they have a church to attend.

It’s easier to stay a “disciple,” a learner, than to become an “apostle,” because that means being sent out to help someone AND share the gospel. Jesus told the Twelve to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse [lepers], drive out demons” AND to preach “the kingdom of heaven is near” (10:7). Our communities don't have lepers, and I imagine 9-1-1 is called before we could get near a corpse, but loneliness and depression make people sick, and substance abuse is demon-possession by another name. Our communities do have all that. They need healing, and that means we have to go. AND they also need to hear about the Master Healer.

Most of us have studied long enough to be equipped to go out into the harvest (9:37-38). “Freely you have received,” Jesus tells the Twelve (and us). So, then, “freely give” (10:8). It’s wonderful to receive, but we must not dam up our reservoir of knowledge. 

It’s time to stop being safe. Open the spillway. 

As we go and do for others, to help whatever lost sheep we see, we must also share the gospel. When you take that casserole or stock the food bank shelves, tell someone why you’re motivated to help. I know it’s hard moving beyond being a disciple to being an apostle. But I also know Jesus empowered His disciples; He’ll give us the inner strength to speak up, too. The more strength, the more resilient we’ll be, the better equipped to be sent.