Easter Service
Sunday,4 April 10:30a.m.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
John 13?34

Easter 2010

• Rev. Sagara

The lost sheep of the house of Israel

Matthew 10:6

Jesus sent out disciples to the people who were “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). Jesus saw them as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (9:36) They were people of Israel, people of God, but their faith needed to be restored. Jesus had “compassion” (36) for them. It was the compassion of our God. What were the disciples instructed by the Lord Jesus? “Go to them. Proclaim the good news, which is that the kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick. Raise the dead. Cleanse the lepers. Cast out demons.” (10:7-8). Now we are listening to the voice of Jesus talking into our hearts. What do you feel when you listen to these words? We are now being sent out into this world with Jesus’s instructions. This is the life-giving work we are expected to administer among people who are called our neighbors and are lost in the eyes of God. Are these instructions too much for you? But these are what our God exactly wants us to do. We are told we can minister these. We are the ones to present people hope and experience living by the presence of our God in the midst of us. However, it is God, Gods self who lives among us. It is God who reaches and touches people in need. It is our God who comes and finds those who are lost like sheep without a shepherd. Through following and carrying out Jesus’s instructions, we will know who we are. And people will know who we are. Why are we sent out to the people, our neighbors? Why us? Because we know we are loved first by our God and because we are found and embraced by the presence of our God. God already gives us assurance and peace, but also the mission to bring people hope to live out of the reality in our daily lives with the good news of our Jesus Christ at the same time. Some of you perhaps remember the story of the lost coin told by the Lord Jesus. The coin, of course, does not raise any voice when we look for them. *if we hear the voice of the coin, it means we are in trouble anyhow. This parable of our Lord tells us how God looks and finds us when we are lost, even when we lose our voices, such as praise, prayers, and response before our God. It is the love of God which enlivens us and restores hope and joy in ourselves. We know that love is not only an emotion or a feeling, but determination, a choice, and a decision to make. Actually, a decision to love brings difference in our daily lives, the difference which enables us to live together in harmony with the presence of our God as the good shepherd leading us, guiding us, and sustaining us, in our lives. Regardless how our work and our doing seems small and meaningless, still we are a part of the transforming and saving power of God working among us for our neighbors who are lost now in the eyes of God. We cannot and we will not stop abiding in Christ. We are continuously sent out to the world with the promise and presence of our Lord, Jesus. As long as we step forward, even with small steps, this world, and people who are children of God still have hope to renew their lives in the love of God.