Mission Impossible

Rom 5:1-8  Matt 9:35-10:8

I was once asked if I would like to walk on hot coals for charity.

Apparently there would be nothing to it.

I would just spend the afternoon with a man who understood about “mind over matter” and then in front of the local press and maybe a regional television camera or two I would be filmed walking over red hot coals and in the process raise a good sum of money for a good cause.

My heart sank at the suggestion as I was not sure that I would have the courage for such a thing. I’m not sure that I really believe in mind over matter when it comes to plunging into fire. The truth was, that I was rather frightened  and  in the end I was able to waffle my way out of it by saying that I didn’t think it would be a good idea for a Vicar to be seen pretending that pain doesn’t exist when right at the heart of ministry and what I understand to be the Gospel – is that pain is real and suffering can be intense.

But I think of those for whom life takes them to the place where walking on hot coals, or its equivalent is something over which there is no choice.

The disciples of Jesus, for example, in our Gospel reading this morning.

The mission to which they were called must have seemed incredibly dangerous, if not totally impossible. To undertake tasks which were surely reserved for God alone.

“The kingdom of heaven is at hand” Jesus tells them “So, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers and cast out demons – and take nothing with you to help you”

This would have seemed an overwhelming commission to those who had only just been called to follow. How could fishermen aspire to something like this?

We live a world of smart targets – of goals and aims which have to be defined and achievable – sometimes I think our churches are empty because the Gospel is being preached rather than because it is being sold short.

 For here is a commission to send everyone running for the shops in the Belfry – if it’s true that the challenges the disciples faced are laid down at our feet too.

Our Epistle reading shows us the only way we can deal with mission impossible.

It is by living our lives at peace with God so that we have access to his grace, so that through the trials and testings of our lives we actually come to know his glory.

 In his glory we become purified by fire rather than destroyed by it. Through endurance we come to know the very character of Christ present in our lives.

Jesus continually lays before his disciples conundrums which seem impossible and he concludes his challenges by looking them in the eye and saying “With men this is impossible but not with God, all things are possible with Him”

This teaching may mean different things to each of us here, for we all have different mountains to climb, different aspects of our lives, the problems of which seem insurmountable to us.

Jesus does not promise a magic wand solution, or a by pass round Calvary, but he does promise to be with us to take us through the impossible thing until it is resolved.

The problem with walking on hot coals was that it was not God’s mission impossible that was being undertaken, but something rather different – a sort of sensationalism, and therein lies the rub, is the task to which we are called something which helps make his kingdom a reality or something that promotes our own.

With the former we can look to his help and strength – with the latter we may well be on our own.

RH 15.6.08