"He had compassion on them"
MINISTER'S MOMENT
CHARLOTTE AUSTIN

"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'" (Matthew 9:35-38)

As a local pastor, I devote much of my professional life to institutional infrastructure - - membership development, communications, giving, church wellness I love the challenge of nurturing better systems. But I am reminded -- in ways large and small, in an intense session of pre-marital counseling or comforting the grieving, and in greeting strangers on Sunday and building bridges of care -- that we are ultimately in the healing business. Jesus didn't send out his disciples to launch an institution. He sent them out to heal the sick. They were to do what he was doing: healing people's bodies, healing their spirits, healing their minds, giving them hope, inviting them to repentance, proclaiming a better day. Sometimes I find myself impatient with churches and denominations because we seem to spend so much energy maintaining inherited buildings, hierarchies of power, definitions and doctrines, as if right-opinion or splendid vestments or correct procedures could speak to the agony of a failing marriage, the panic of a lost job, the shame of adultery, the hunger for meaning in a difficult world.

But then I see us getting it right. I see believers sitting with the sad and lonely. I see clergy wading into the wilderness with their flocks. I see an anxious couple asking for counsel. I see the world getting a little better, because we are being ourselves, as Jesus called us to be.

"As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick,raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:7-8)

Rev. Charlotte Austin McCary's Chapel United Methodist Church