ASSEMBLY OF THE DISCIPLES

Sixth Week in the Time of Assembly

This is the last week in the Time of Assembly – the season when we assemble together the seeds that came from this year’s harvest to be planted in the soil of faith next year. Who will take on the work of this ministry next year? Who will stand strong in the face of attacks and repression? Who will be strong for Christ – and for our people? The seeds we seek this week are next year’s disciples.

         The ministry of Jesus began when he called his first twelve disciples. We recall that he came upon some simple fishermen and called on them to follow him. They dropped what they were doing and followed him, not knowing where he might lead. They would learn that it was dangerous to walk with Jesus who spoke truth to power. Day by day Jesus would disabuse them of false ideas about the ministry: they would not be great leaders but faithful servants, they would not gain wealth or power – but they would be given great spiritual powers to heal and to explain the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the poor. They would have many doubts along the way and they would be afraid. Finally, they would gain courage from the Resurrection to form the church Jesus had prepared them to form – and to form these communities of faith among a people who were dispersed throughout the empire.

As Jesus pursued his ministry, speaking to the people, defying the power structure, he must have been watching the development of his disciples. He knew that one of them would betray him. He knew that all of them would deny him at the cross. He spoke to them continually, teaching them, sending them out to work among the people, correcting their mistakes, giving them courage and then calling them to the work of the ministry. Finally, he would rise from the grave to call them to make disciples in all the nations, to make the nations themselves into disciples. They received the gift he promised – the Holy Spirit – and were empowered to establish the churches of Jesus Christ in many communities.

         When Emma was in Tijuana, she saw many veterans. Why were they there and who were they? She learned that they were green card veterans who had been deported. She felt called to support them and to denounce the cruel hypocrisy that separated them from their families and from the country they had fought for. That first calling made her ready when Miguel’s family came to the church – calling us to struggle with them.

         We were called to the ministry of the families and when Elvira and Francisca had exhausted all the legal means of resisting deportation, the church was called to become a sanctuary. The sanctuary movement that resulted spread to other churches and to schools and cities across the nation.

         The church took on these challenges without knowing where they would lead us – and without worrying about the consequences we would face. Like the fishermen, we were called and we came. You see, a calling is not a blueprint. It is not a detailed plan of action – and it does not come with the promise of wealth or power or prestige. It does not come with a promise of success. It is not safe or secure. It calls for a leap of faith. It calls for us to “walk by faith, not by sight.”

         Each of us – whether we know it or not – has been called or you would not be in this church today. In time, each of us discovers that when we go where we are called by God, when we walk by faith not knowing where it will lead, we do not walk alone. In this time of assembly, we discovered again that we are part of a people of God, planted by God in this nation. We discovered that we are part of a community of healers. We discovered that we are surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses”, by our ancestors in the struggle. We found new meaning as a family of families as we took the leap of faith to fight for the right to family. We discovered a new courage and a new energy in the next generation.

         You see when you make the leap of faith to join the struggle for justice you find that you are walking in the Spirit. You find yourself standing on Holy Ground. You may become afraid. You may decide to pull back – but you do not forget the feeling of walking in the Spirit. When you are called again you know better who is calling you and in your heart you want to go where you are called.

         The calling to walk in the Spirit, to walk by faith and not by sight, is the call to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, a servant of the people of God. In this final week of a spiritual journey this year we are asked to pray and to remember the times we were called and the times that God walked with us, sometimes through the fire, sometimes breaking into our daily lives to reach out to our people.

         We had called on this year to be a year of transformation to make us ready for the battle that is to come next year. The nation is in a kind of political civil war, powerfully divided. The demon in the White House is just a symptom of the racist mobilization that has caused this great division. We cannot really avoid this war because that racist mobilization is directed at the Latino and undocumented community – it is directed at us! Whose babies are being put in cages? Whose children are being ripped from their mothers and fathers? And in what community has the President of the United States told 700,000 young people to get out of their country?

Even more than the specific acts of repression, it is the appeal to hatred, racist, demonic hatred, that has swept across this nation. Yes, there are many motives – motives of greed and power – that drive this political war but -- no matter the reasons - it is fueled by the all-out attack on the Latino and immigrant community.

         When Jesus told the parable about the great banquet he reminded his disciples of how he wanted them to build his churches. He told his disciples not to worry about the so-called “important people” who are preoccupied with their wealth and business. He called them instead to bring to him those who were feeling the weight of oppression and injustice.

         The struggle you joined in this church, the struggle here that joined you and supported you in difficult times, has prepared you to be a disciple. The work of the disciple is organize the communities of faith that bear witness to the justice of the Kingdom of God, communities of faith that give hope and courage and love to a people under attack, communities of faith that bring truth in the face of lies and deception.

         Our churches gather together the people in many different ways. The church’s ministries reach out each week to touch new people. Disciples work without judging, touching people where they are with love. Yet together, these churches we are building challenge the very foundation of the evil that controls this country, for that foundation is in those white churches that misinterpret the scriptures to justify racism and hate. You can only fight these false and hateful churches with churches driven by the Holy Spirit, churches organized by disciples.

         What is the transformation we were seeking this year – the transformation that would make us ready for the battle to come? It is this: that we are blessed to walk in the Holy Spirit. This transformation is not a permanent condition. Each season, each week in each season, we will have to renew ourselves. Yet Jesus taught that we had but to knock on the door and it would open, to seek so that we might find. We will receive the power to heal each other. We will find our witness ring out across the land. 

We will begin next week, the first week in the new spiritual year, to be silent and listen for the calling of the Lord. If we have the courage to respond, walking by faith instead of by sight, then we will be found by the Holy Spirit, lifted up by it, surrounded by it. We will be born again and see the Kingdom of God – and we will become disciples.

The seeds of the harvest we talk about from this year, the lessons we have learned, the experiences we have had, actually lay next to glowing embers from this year’s fires. The embers will come alive in a consuming fire when the winds of the Holy Spirit blow, purifying us, compelling us to be strong for God’s people. From the fires, next year’s disciples will be born again – and with them the church of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Scriptures for the Sixth Week in the Time of Assembly

L. As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew

P. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 

L. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 

P At once they left their nets and followed him.

 Matthew 22:1-10 The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:  “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.  He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.  The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.  The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.  “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.  So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

John 3:1-8 Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”  Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”  “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”  Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Matthew 28:16-20 The Great Commission 

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”