I believe that our humble community, St. Thomas', is being called together by an ever-deepening sense of God's radical hospitality and offer of wholeness, despite our culture's competing values of entitlement and division, driven by fear and anger. We are being sent out, as Jesus' followers before us, to take God's message of peace into the world, to announce the in breaking of God's reign in our very midst. Jesus knew just how hard this simple assignment could be, for though some will invite us in to eat and sleep and share our stories of God's love and compassion, others will treat us like lambs who have been sent out to herd up the wolves. We don't need to try to envision missionaries in foreign lands-just try being an out Christian Monday through Saturday and at work, a parish vestry member, or asking for volunteers to visit the House of Ruth-and you'll know what Jesus meant when he told his followers, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few". Suggest that the budget or the building is too small, that the amount of the parish's money being sent to the national church is not enough...and you may receive an instant economics lesson about the theology of abundance vs. the marketing advantage of scarcity. There are at least 20 more cards on the outreach bulletin board downstairs so that we can fully support a family in their first transitional housing home...grab one on the way out!

Jesus had some good and surprising advice for those who try to reach out with the Good News of God drawing near, of peace rather than war, of the vulnerability of compassion for the world's undesirables rather than the safety of privilege that buffers us from knowing first-hand the horrors that many endure in other parts of the city and the world this morning. He doesn't tell his followers to stock up with food and drink- arm themselves to the teeth and start the trip only if the destination is certain. Rather Jesus advised those he sent out to carry no coin purse, and to remember that the point of the journey is to greet each one you meet saying, "Peace to this house" and proclaim the reign of God. Travel light and remember the essentials.

His advice suggests that we need to ask what is essential about St. Thomas'? What can be dispensed with? What must be retained? Essentially, Jesus is asking us, why should St. Thomas' stay in business? And I would answer, because we are striving to arm ourselves with God's peace and demand of others simple hospitality. The great Rabbi Hillel, who was a contemporary of Jesus, was once asked to recite the entire Torah with contains 613 laws, while standing on one foot. So he lifted one shoe from the ground and said, "Love God, as God loves you and your neighbor as you would be loved-everything else is commentary". This is the essential!

Remember the essentials, Jesus reminds us. You will know when the reign of God has drawn near when the sick are made whole. Healing is not just for doctors and the pastoral care team. Healing happens when those who are broken find a way to wholeness again-when relationships that have been shattered are reconciled-when the lonely are visited, when the fearful have a hand to hold, when the dying do not die alone. When forgiveness is no longer an option. When this becomes the world we live in, we will know that the reign of God has drawn near.