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This Sunday’s Gospel reading is Jesus sending out his disciples into the mission field.  The reason?  Because he looks at the crowds, looks at all the people he encounters, and “he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).  And then failing English class, Jesus mixes metaphors and tells the disciples that “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (vs. 37).  In danger of failing English too, I’m going to mix metaphors and apply all this to the World Cup.  As a soccer fan who hasn’t followed it in a long time (long story), I imagine the crowds trying to get tickets, trying to navigate the brackets, getting torn in different directions because of the politics and drama, being like “sheep without a shepherd.”  What is a soccer fan to do?? 

            Well, the harvest is plentiful—people just waiting for something or someone to crystallize all these big moments into an event, a happening, a movement, to focus it all into a coherent whole, to fill or satisfy the “what’s missing” I sense in our society.  Will the US team play well together?  Will a tiny nation become the Cinderella of the tournament?  Will tickets suddenly become available at rational prices?!  One can hope and pray.

            WE have a mission from God to step into the breach.  To provide some “shepherding” and bring in GOD’s harvest that GOD has already made ready.  How?  By naming and claiming what is inside of you for the sake of sharing it with others, moved by compassion.  Sharing the new life that God spoke into being in your heart.  For me that was years ago, and it was another scripture reading that we’ll hear on Sunday, Romans 5:1-8: “Therefore, since our relationship with God is made whole through faith, we have peace with God… suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope…”  What will you share with those you encounter who are “harassed and helpless”?  I never scored a goal where I didn’t receive a pass from someone else first.

Peace,

Pr. Christian