- Strawberry Social on June 27th at 2pm with a 50/50 Raffle to benefit North Quabbin Animal Control.
- Summer Death Cafe on July 11th at 4pm (no rsvp needed).
- Discussion Circle is on the last Sunday of June after Church. These discussions are here to to inspire, teach, guide, and challenge us–all are welcome to join us (we often explore sacred passages, poetry, and other words to inspire us toward freshness, surprise, and wonder).
- Village Fair and 5K is on August 15th this year (third Saturday of August); mark your calendars. Please message Charlotte to register for the Race.
Visit our Calendar of Events to explore our upcoming dates and times
All are Welcome. If you are uncomfortable with the word God, please feel welcome to insert your own word for the divine or Mystery in your life (Universe/Grace/Spirit/Divine).
These Reflections are written to be read aloud, please forgive any writing errors. You can find the recording HERE later on Sunday morning.
SUNDAY REFLECTION: Reading: Matthew 9:36-10:8
Let’s start with a moment of personal reflection.
Take a moment to reflect on this past week. Take your time, it’s not uncommon to have a hard time remembering what happened yesterday, let alone throughout the whole week….
What did you do to “be helpful”? What happened that you were “helpful”? Did you do some big helpful things or small helpful things? Did you do easy helpful things or challenging helpful things?
How did you “go out” into the world this past week? What went well? What didn’t go so well? What did you learn?
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I like that Jesus needed help and asked for help.
Jesus called his disciples (learners) and sent them out two by two to be apostles (to go do; to be helpers). Even Jesus didn’t try to “fix” the world alone. He was led by compassion to to send his helpers out to help in this world—a beautiful “dividing and conquering” for peace, love, and healing. We need each other, even Jesus needed help and asked for help.
It’s okay, you can choose to agree or disagree, but I like to think that he sent out not just the twelve, but others as well (maybe not at this time in the story, but somewhere along the journey). I like to think that he sent some of the women too. Because Jesus never left anyone out and they could reach places the men couldn’t. There are hints of this to be found within the passages and it brings me comfort to know that Jesus truly did welcome all and sent all out to be helpers in all places.
Regardless, notice that they don’t go out…alone. They go out in pairs to support one another and help one another. Sometimes the help needed most is help to the helpers. PAUSE. We’re not always the one doing the front lines “work”, sometimes we’re the helper to the helper.
Notice, also, that this is the first time the apostles are sent out on their own and Jesus sets them up for success. He sets them on an easier path. In modern terms, we might say he set them up for “small wins”. He tells them not to go to the Samaritans or to the pagans, but to go to the people who are familiar and comfortable. This is their first task, it’s still a challenge, but he doesn’t want them to fail…that doesn’t help anyone.
Come back, for a moment, to your assessment of your week. We so often leap in to fix things and rush in unprepared and fall. Where, maybe, did you rush in, push too hard, or take on too much? PAUSE Where, maybe, did you hold back when you were needed? PAUSE Where, maybe, did you find your “just right” for this week? PAUSE
And for clarity, Jesus isn’t excluding anyone from being helped. He’s sending the disciples out to help where they are most likely to be competent enough to help. They are still learners and learning. They’ll grow, just as we do, into the more challenging “stretch goals” (to use another modern term).
Just as we do. We learn, we start small, we practice, we learn some more, we practice again…and we keep on learning. We keep on doing. It’s a never-ending infinity loop.
The task is hard enough. Go, two by two, and spread love. Heal where there is need of healing. Cast out demons where there are demons. Raise the dead.
We, too, are called to these tasks: heal where there is need of healing. Maybe this is physical healing where we support those who are ill or injured and on the path toward recovery. Maybe we comfort and hold one another as we move toward the next journey beyond this life (gentle pause). Healing isn’t always a cure. Healing is bigger than that. Quite often, no one got “better”, but there comes deep, incredible healing and Grace.
Cast out demons. I imagine we all can think of our own demons (even if we don’t want to). Those things that cling to us and won’t go away and we don’t want to look too closely at. I imagine we have watched others struggle with their own demons. Often the demons we notice in others are the ones we most avoid seeing in ourselves. Demons aren’t always the monsters from the stories, sometimes they are something within. Something that needs acknowledging, tending, and help. Often big help. Something in need of support, not judgement. Beings/souls in need of our deepest love.
Raising the dead isn’t a Lazarus moment, but those small tender moments that bring us out of the tedium and monotony of every day into moments of absolute awe and wonder and…Life. We are pulled back into the incredibleness of it all! The amazing, unknowable Mystery!! We can help draw people back when they have gotten so lost, it seems impossible to find the Goodness. We need to be seen and heard and loved to embrace life to its fullest. We need to feel safe to live our lives to our fullest. This is the aliveness of our lives and the Beauty and awesomeness of Creation. We can help others, and ourselves, to remember the interconnectedness of it all, our part in it all, the awesome network that makes us all kith and kin. Life is pretty amazing. Life is a gift not to be wasted.
There are echoes from the stories. Jesus is not just calling the twelve, but also to us across time and space. We are called to go out two by two into this world for healing and love.
We are called to be fully alive to life and the potential that we have to enliven one another to the beauty and grace of this world and this life. Maybe part of the “kingdom of heaven” is not only something that we have freely received, but something that we must also work to freely give. Maybe part of our own “kingdom of heaven” is in the here and now, as the work of healing and love. Maybe we are part of building of that heaven.
Maybe it’s both, and…
When we truly live and heal and love and have compassion for all beings, we become protectors of one another, the whole created world, and what matters most.
We may be small, but we are an important part to the greater story. Jesus cannot heal the world alone. Jesus needs help and he is asking for help.
If it all feels overwhelming and “a lot”. It is. It is a lot to wrestle with the practice of being in the world. To wrestle with people, ideas, and ourselves. But, remember, the apostles come back and become disciples yet again—to rest at the feet of Jesus. We too, go out into the world and then, we too, come back to rest our weary souls together.
Come home.
Come home to rest and learn. Come home to sing and pray. Come here to share. Come here to laugh. Come here for the coffee and the coloring pages. Come here to connect and reconnect to kith and kin.
Come home to remember that while we have a lot to do, there is a greater Mystery that holds it all together. Remember that we are not meant to go alone…it is not solitary work…yes, there are solitary times, but always, always, always we have one another and something greater than ourselves.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 