Service sheet, with readings and links to hymns
Who could have imagined…?
Who would have said…?
Any of us could have said these words over the past few months. Who could have imagined that a virus would sweep the world and shut down so much of what we considered normal life: travel, shopping, school, work, and just plain hanging out with people.
Who could have imagined that churches would be closed and we would all be worshipping online, in some fashion or another.
Who could have imagined a St. Patrick’s Day with no parades, no pubs, and no church?
But this has been life for the past few months. Back at Christmas, say, could we have imagined it?
But not being able to imagine something goes in the other direction also — toward events that seem too wonderful, too far-fetched, that you would not have thought they could happen. So when they do, you marvel at how strange it is, and think back to some previous time in your life and wonder how you would have reacted if someone had told you then that such-and-such a thing would be happening now. I have that feeling about being a priest. Who would have imagined? Certainly not me, when I was a teenager, say. Kirk and I can feel that about living in Ireland. Who could have imagined such a thing? I look back at much of my life and think, “Who could have imagined…?”
In the first reading, Sarah might be saying this when three visitors come and say that she is going to bear a son. The Scriptures tell us, “It had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.” Simply put, she’s past child-bearing age. She’s 90, for God’s sake. And yet it is precisely for God’s sake that she bears a son, so that God can fulfil God’s purposes. And it is also for the sake of God’s people, because the son, Isaac, will become the forebear of many nations. Jews and Christians alike trace our ancestry to Abraham through his and Sarah’s son, Isaac. The name “Isaac” means “he laughs,” because Sarah laughed when she heard the visitors’ words. And Sarah wonders, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?”
The visitors have answered Sarah’s question with a question of their own: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” These visitors are often seen as angels, messengers from the Lord — or maybe even as God Almighty. [Because there are three of them, they are even seen as signs of the Trinity.] They certainly bring a divine message. God has promised Abraham before this that he, through Sarah, will be the father of many nations. But how is this to be? And the answer is, “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”
This is the kind of God we have: a God who does wonderful, unimaginable things so that God’s purposes might be fulfilled. After all, God became one of us in Jesus Christ — which is an unimaginable, wild and wonderful thing, but one that allowed people to see first-hand and up-close just what God is like. And when the authorities could not tolerate what Jesus said and did — the promises of new and abundant life, the healing of physical disease and spiritual affliction — when they could not tolerate such a reality, they crucified him. But God made this horrible event became the very means of life, through our own sin being crucified with him. Who could have imagined? For God raised Jesus from the dead — not bringing him back to life, like someone resuscitated in hospital, but risen to a new, never-before-seen kind of life, in which sin and death are defeated. God — through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus — brought an unimaginable power to transform our lives through forgiveness, mercy, and healing.
The disciples in today’s Gospel reading never could have imagined this as they tromped around with Jesus. I suspect they never imagined what would happen to them, and probably later looked back, saying, “Who would have thought…?” Even when Jesus would try to tell them — that the kingdom of heaven has come near, that he would be rejected and killed, and three days later rise again — they had a hard time believing it. Who would have thought that they would become agents of the Lord God Almighty through God’s Son, Jesus Christ?
Yet this is exactly what is happening in today’s Gospel — they are becoming agents of Christ. Jesus calls his 12 disciples and then sends them out to do his work: to proclaim to people that God’s kingdom, God’s realm, is come among them; “to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons.” In short, the disciples are going out to do what Jesus himself is doing — proclaiming a new and abundant life, and healing physical disease and spiritual affliction. Jesus gives the disciples instructions on how to live and work and what to take with them, and he grants them authority for their work. Who would have thought that they would be doing such things?
But it is through God’s grace that such things happen. We depend on the grace and blessing of our God who does wonderful, unimaginable things — things that cause us to look back and say, “Who would have thought…?” God can and does do all sorts of great things — but how much better for us if we participate in God’s purposes than if we turn aside from them, ignore them, or even actively thwart them? [Covid?]
We have been living in an unimaginable circumstance. But the question arises: What might God be doing among us through Covid-19? What might we learn from our experience over the past few months? Can we see signs of God bringing about unimaginable events through his grace, even now?
Jesus is calling on his disciples to participate in God’s purposes. And the same call comes from Christ to each and every one of us. Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” People are still harassed and helpless, in need of Christ’s abundant compassion, even more so now. Jesus calls and commissions his disciples to go out into the harvest to tell of the kingdom of God and to heal. He suggests to his disciples that the work is not easy; they will encounter resistance and persecution and indifference, as will we. Jesus says to them and us, you must be both innocent as doves — which means vulnerable and open to the Spirit of God [Hauerwas, pp. 107-8]. And you also must be wise as serpents, meaning wise to people’s real motivations. But go.
The ethicist Stanley Hauerwas says about being apostles for Jesus, “…the way [the good news of Christ] is known is by one person being for another person the story of Christ. Jesus summons the disciples to him, and, so summoned, they become for us the witnesses who make it possible for us to be messengers of the kingdom. The disciples are not impressive people, but then, neither are we. Their mission, as well as our own, is not to call attention to ourselves but to Jesus and the kingdom” [p. 106].
So we might pray today, Grant us the help of your grace, O God, so that you might work through us and in us wonders that we cannot even now imagine. Help us to be Christ’s agents in this world, that eyes might be opened to the wonders of your infinite grace. Amen.