In Word and Deed

Matthew 9:35-10:8

Then 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. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.”

Sermon

Everything feels up in the air.

Wealth and political power is concentrated into just a few individuals, who work the levers of power to concentrate power and money even further.

Immigration is transforming society, with mass demographic and cultural changes.

The poor have become increasingly poor, as many people struggle to make ends meet.

Workers have become increasingly overworked, with little possibility of upward economic mobility.

There’s pollution, political corruption, and social ills everywhere. Families are in shambles. Religious life feels complicated.

But… the year isn’t 2026. The year is 1908. Cities lack the necessary infrastructure to provide clean drinking water to their populations. The unpaved streets are crowded and dirty, carrying overworked, exploited workers among whom disease is spreading unrestrained. Researchers estimate that one in three citydwellers are close to starvation. Meanwhile, John D. Rockefeller, one of the wealthiest Americans to ever live, has a wealth equivalent to 1.5% of the entire country’s GDP [1].

American Christianity has reached an impasse in its complacency and sentimentality. Because any Church unwilling to transform itself or society is not the Church of Jesus Christ; it is a self-serving analgesic. The Church cannot stand by as an anxious bystander to the suffering of society; it has to live into a vision and mission that is even more deep-rooted than the challenges it is facing, whether it is 1908 or 2026.

And so, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Church evolved through a grassroots movement called the Social Gospel. A variety of interdenominational organizations and denominational agencies start growing. Just as the Presbyterian Church couldn’t enact the far-reaching social changes it envisioned, the Methodist Episcopal Church was similarly stymied on their own, as were the Episcopalians, Baptists, and Congregationalists. So they partnered with one another, to figure out how to address the challenges of the world head-on.

Together, they formed the Federal Council of Churches, whose member denominations adopted a social creed. This creed was striking, not only in its understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but also in its specificity: it denounced child labor, inhumane working conditions, grueling working hours, non-living wages, and lacking protections for the elderly and disabled.

“Any Church unwilling to transform itself or society is not the Church of Jesus Christ; it is a self-serving analgesic.”

But these Social Gospelers did more than proclaim the good news; they worked to carry it out. During this time, we see the founding of the Salvation Army, the YMCA, and the Christian Business Alliance. Pew rentals were abolished, intercultural dialogue was established, and historically-Black parishioners found themselves organizing for equity alongside predominantly-White denominations.

So this social creed was proclaimed, not for the sake of PR, but for the coordination of mission. The gospel was not limited to an abstract vision to be shouted from the pulpit; the gospel was a living, breathing mission that put boots on the ground.

…

In our Gospel lesson for today, we hear Jesus commission his disciples to more than the social vision of the gospel. He also commissions his disciples to a living, breathing mission, instructing them to go be laborers for the kingdom harvest.

After all, this passage begins with Jesus’ instruction to pray for more laborers for the harvest, and implicitly within that instruction, to go and be those laborers. Go, and make yourself the hands and feet of God in the kingdom harvest, and while you do so, pray that God will bring others alongside you. Bring others into this mission of God—this farmworking of God—because there is much to do. The mission is never going to be complete. You will always have work to do.

We should also be careful to note that Jesus is inaugurating a twofold mission: his disciples are instructed to first, “proclaim the good news [that the] ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’” And secondly, to heal, resurrect, and restore the communities they enter. Jesus commissions them to turn back the natural processes of death and decay, to undo the machinations of disease. Go and turn back the clock, reverse what sin and death are doing in this world, and make it whole once again. 

Where there appears to be nothing but emptiness, go and reap a harvest. Because there is one, planted in the most unlikely places there could ever be a harvest.

Neither part of this commission can be given greater regard. The instruction to proclaim the kingdom of heaven deserves no more attention than the instruction to heal, resurrect, and restore. And vice versa.

This is a mission like the one found in the Federal Council of Churches: proclaim the gospel in creed, while proclaiming the gospel in deed. Not one or the other, but both. Word and act.

“Jesus commissions his disciples to… go and turn back the clock, reverse what sin and death are doing in this world, and make it whole once again. ”

God’s twofold mission is the animating foundation of what it means to be a church. I think this is partly what differentiates a worshipping community from a church. And yes, there is a difference. 

A worshipping community gathers on Sunday mornings. It engages in corporate worship. It finds its calling fulfilled in celebrating the word and sacrament. In short, it focuses on one part of Jesus’ instructions: to go and proclaim the gospel that the kingdom of heaven is near.

A church, however, is a little different. All churches are worshipping communities, but there is a little bit more to it. Like a worshipping community, it finds its center in the word and sacraments. But unlike a worshipping community, its calling is fulfilled in its mission. It finds its calling fulfilled when it carries out both parts of Jesus’ instruction to his disciples. So what happens on Sunday morning isn’t the culmination of its calling. Its heartbeat is service, and action, and transformation — its heartbeat is the work of healing, restoring, resurrecting. It finds its strength in collaboration, and it finds its hope and joy in flinging its doors open to its neighbors, rather than closing itself off to a cloistered, inner faith. A church is a church only when it lives out both parts of Jesus’ instructions.

To put it another way, as Presbyterians, we affirm that the presence of the true Church requires a “commit[ment] in the present to solidarity with the marginalized.” It requires “participat[ion] in the new creation,” of God, and “giving itself in service to God’s mission.” To live and breathe as the true Church, we have to do more than proclaim the Word of God, or to take Communion every once and awhile. We have to live as a covenant community of disciples. 

These are the marks of the true church. Not administrative operations. Not denomination. Not having staff members, whether it be a pastor or office manager or sexton or educator. 

Being a church might not look like what we think it means to be a church. It takes vision and mission. Not one or the other. Both.

And God’s vision is not our own. God’s mission is not our own.

Our preferences and wants aren’t a mission. What we want with our building, or our pastor, or our staffing model, or the people we serve aren’t our mission. Because we don’t get to choose it. God does, just like God chose the mission of the 1890s and 1900s and 1910s. God is the one who brings about a harvest, and knows what was planted, and watered, and grown, and coming to fruition. We’re just the laborers and the harvesters. And God is the one who calls us, and directs us, and guides us into the ministry that God has chosen for us.

But I guarantee—I promise—God has placed a vision and mission before us. Because God is always planting. God is always watering. And growing things. And bringing about harvests. 

“[The Church’s] heartbeat is service, and action, and transformation — its heartbeat is the work of healing, restoring, resurrecting. It finds its strength in collaboration, and it finds its hope and joy in flinging its doors open to its neighbors, rather than closing itself off to a cloistered, inner faith.”

So grab a friend. Let go of your spirit of cynicism and pick up a spirit of possibility. You don’t have to let go of your grief, but you do have to start exercising your imagination, too. Get ready for the hard work it takes to be a church, even if it doesn’t look like what you want. And just as importantly, get ready for a harvest festival. Because though the workers are few, the harvest is plentiful. It’s good. It’s joyful. It’s here. Listen up — God is calling you and me today.

Sources

“Cities During Progressive Era,” https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/progressive-era-to-new-era-1900-1929/cities-during-progressive-era/

“John D. Rockefeller: The Richest Man in the World,” https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=47167

George Thomas Kurian, and Mark A. Lamport. Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States . Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/plink/dd373147-103c-3abc-8711-63dcc9d1ce90. 2148-2158.

[1] As of June 2026, Elon Musk is approximately twice as rich as John D. Rockefeller, with a net worth equivalent to 3% of the United States’ GDP. About one in five Americans live under the poverty line in the poorest states. “Elon Musk Becomes the World’s First Trillionare,” 12 June 2026, New York Times,https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/12/technology/elon-musk-trillionaire.html;  “Top 10 Poorest States in the U.S.,” 10 March 2026, Friends Committee on National Legislation, https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2024-09/top-10-poorest-states-us