FRANCHISING THE BUSINESS

 Sermon preached by the Rev. Michael Anderson Bullock

[Genesis 12:1-9; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26]

You may recall that I raised this question with you in last Sunday’s sermon, applying it as we followers of Jesus enter the long, green season of Pentecost.   This six-month season of time (something the liturgical tradition refers to as “ordinary time”) – this season concerns what followers of Jesus do after experiencing the reality of the Resurrection.  This is to say that having gone through the pinnacle seasons of Lent and Easter and then beginning the second half of the year, this is the telling time when you and I and folks like us don’t just follow Jesus.  We represent Jesus.  So it is that in today’s lesson from Matthew’s gospel, this same question of “where are we now?” speaks to a specific sense of what it means and what it takes to shift from just following Jesus to representing him.

What strikes me in particular about this sense of representing Jesus is how today’s gospel describes the way Jesus begins to “franchise” the business – that is, the business of being the “Body of Christ”.  So, in this sermon I’d like to focus on Jesus’s “franchising” the business of being his Body in and for the world and also mention how this “franchising” applies to where we are now in our transition at St. Philip’s.

As I did last week, let me set the biblical stage with some gospel context because the way Matthew tells the story provides the point of his message.

In terms of context and for those of you who are keeping score, last Sunday was the first time Matthew was our gospel since Easter Day.  John’s gospel took us through Holy Week and into Easter’s 50 days.  Yet, last Sunday we jumped back into Matthew’s account, as if the seamlessness of it all is self-evident.  But there are questions – questions of the story’s sequence, which is not seamless and (in fact) is a bit confusing.  Hence, the question: Where are we now?

The answer to our question is that we now find ourselves at a tellingly important “hinge point”.[1]  And the clue to this “hinge point” lies in how chapter 9 of today’s gospel lesson opens.  The opening verse says: “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.” [9:35].  Beyond such succinct and stunning news of Jesus’ amazing activity, the telling clue is that this description is (word for word) how Matthew introduces Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” in chapter 4.  The Sermon on the Mount, as you know, stands as Jesus’ depiction of what life with God is like: “Blessed are the poor…”  “Blessed are the merciful…”  “Blessed are the peacemakers…” [4:23]

The point is that with this repeated description Matthew creates two verbal bookends that contain a summary of all the wonders of Jesus’ mission and ministry; but after the summary Matthew guides us to the “hinge point” where Jesus’ mission and ministry are “franchised”, first to the Twelve Apostles and then to the likes of us.  In this literary style, Matthew signals the movement from following Jesus to representing him.

Let me show you what I see in this and how it pertains to us now at St. Philip’s.

As I say, the franchising of Jesus’ life and ministry occurs immediately after Matthew summarizes what Jesus is and what he does.  Jesus heals the brokenness and disease of the people he meets.  While we easily refer to these actions as “miracle”, they indicate something more than that.  They announce by way of demonstration not only what life on God’s terms is like; Jesus’ healings also make the stunning proclamation that the promised God-life has actually begun in Jesus, who is the Christ, the anticipated Messiah of the Covenant.  It is the beginning of the new age: the age of God at the center.

But this is not the full point.  The full point is that in seeing the need for the peoples’ healing -- the overcoming of all that fragments and sickens their lives, Jesus compassionately recognizes that they are like “sheep without a shepherd”, which in his discernment means that the time has come for his mission and ministry to be expanded beyond the singular limits of what he can do in terms of time and space.  Jesus seeks help in doing his ministry of redemption, healing, and hope.

This is the “hinge point” of today’s gospel proclamation: that the God-life that Jesus has embodied needs to be expanded if increasing numbers of “sheep” might know Jesus’ shepherding care and God’s new life.

The franchising first begins with Jesus’ judgement that the time is right to expand his ministry and mission.  The second stage occurs straightaway, as Jesus immediately calls the 12 disciples together and gives them his power and authority.  This is to say that Jesus bequeaths to the 12 the same power he has revealed in his own life and mission: meaning that they, too, are called to cure the sick and cast out addicting spirits that enslave God’s people, even raise the dead.  In all of this, the disciples are to represent the Risen One, and they are named as “Apostles”.  The 12 “Apostles” are named and accounted as the heads of the 12 tribes of New Israel.  Jesus’ life and ministry have just been expanded and developed – franchised for all.

These 12 are “sent” by Jesus to God’s covenanted people (to what he calls “the lost sheep of Israel”) to announce and share that the messianic promises have been fulfilled – fulfilled in God’s Christ, Jesus.  The proclamation is this: “the kingdom of God has come near”.  Therefore, the 12 are no longer disciples but “apostles” – a Greek term that means “the sent ones”.  The 12 are to go to the “lost sheep of Israel” and provide the shepherding that brings them back to the covenanted life and hope.

This stage of Jesus’ franchising of the Body applies to where St. Philip’s is in our current transition; and it surfaces among us primarily in the issue of parish leadership.  Specifically, who among this parish membership will function as the “apostolic” presence?  Who stands as recipients of the Jesus’ franchise at 128 Main Street, Easthampton?  Who?  Who is it?  Who will it be?  There are “sheep” who are lost – some with no hope of being found, and there are sheep who don’t even realize that they are lost.  Who among St. Philip’s will embody and act in the tradition of the Apostles?

Of course, there already are some here who represent the apostolic quality of this church.  There are leaders and those who assist in the execution of the God-life in Jesus.  The parish has (for instance) trustee leadership that guides and tends the “sheep”.  Trustees are people in an organization who are legally appointed to hold, manage, and distribute assets or property – in our case, those who are responsible for Christ’s Body, known as St. Philip’s?

In the governance of the Episcopal Church, the Vestry are the trustees, elected by the membership to a ministry of “shepherding” care of what it means that this place is faithful in its franchise.  In the absence of an appointed “Rector” or “Priest-in-Charge”, the Senior Warden is directly responsible to the Bishop for the life and development of this singular franchise in Easthampton.  In addition, the members of the Vestry need to recruit other parish members to execute and develop the trust and obligations of this franchise.

Your prayers – both personal and corporate – and your involvement in sharing the ministry speaks to the purpose and function of this church’s “apostolic” life.  Keeping the “eyewitness” experience of Jesus alive and thriving is at the very heart of what St. Philip’s always needs to be about.  Who will continue to do this?

The last scene in today’s gospel is a marketer’s nightmare because if this apostolic work were easy … You know how to fill in this blank because when Jesus tells the truth and says, “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves…” he speaks of what he personally knows and what many of us fear.  At the cross, the wolves have their day; but no matter how much resistance surfaces in your midst (again as Jesus says), it is by our endurance that we will be saved.  In other words, always strive to finish well.  You and I are not on our own.  The work of the kingdom is that important, that hopeful, that rewarding.

It is the fundamental sickness of the human condition that we rise up against the gift of the very life we need and cannot provide for ourselves.  It is a testimony to the power of God’s love that we kill such a threat to our idolatrous sense of control, but God’s life and love remain.  So, the antidote to such deadly fear is to build our endurance.  For the race is long.  Sprinters fold amidst its demanding mileage.  And, as any runner knows, running with others not only helps us keep a good pace, but if we or a companion falls in weakness or injury, there is always someone to stop racing and to pick us up from the fall, helping us toward where we need to be – across the finish line -- together.

Remember, the good news is that Jesus has already won the race.  We simply need to complete the race and cross that finish line, where true joys are to be found.

In the imminent transition you and I now face, there is the opportunity to allow God to franchise the business of being Christ’s Body in an expanded way, building upon what we have learned and done together.  In the time of this transition, we can deepen our spiritual endurance along with our emotional maturity; and in so doing, allow God’s business – God’s life – to grow and deepen for us and for all those around us.

“Lord, hear our prayer and let our cry come to You.”  May the business of being your Body continue always to grow and thrive in this place and among its people.  Amen.

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[1] Andrew McGowen. “Exclusive, Expanding Mission of Jesus”, 6/9/26.