Called and Sent: Preparing for an Open Day

Romans 5:1-8, Matthew 9:35-10:8

Jesus said to his disciples,

“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”

At harvest time in the ancient world, everyone got involved. Everyone mucked in. That image says something important about who we are as a congregation and how we share in the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. This is something we do together! It is certainly not something that I can do alone!

Our congregation’s vision is Growing Lifelong Disciples of Christ. Let’s say those words together out loud: Growing Lifelong Disciples of Christ.

This is who we say that we are. But this vision raises some questions.

Why would anyone want to be a lifelong disciple of Christ?

Why do you follow Jesus?

What is the good news of Jesus Christ for you?

And why would anyone want to belong to the church?

These questions matter, because if we understand and can articulate our personal experience of the good news then we will have a reason why we might want to invite others to join us and for them grow lifelong as disciples of Christ.

Remember, though that one of the chief lessons from the last four weeks and The Stories that Shape Us was that each of us has a personal and unique experience of God’s love and faithfulness. Each of us will answer these questions differently. Our diverse experiences of God are a gift. We each carry our own story of God’s grace.

This morning, I want to pause and invite you to reflect on these questions. 

What is the good news of Jesus Christ for you?

What is so valuable about your experience of God that you keep coming, keep worshipping, and keep seeking to grow in faith as a disciple?

If we are Growing Lifelong Disciples of Christ, we should be able to explain to each other and those in the community why this is important for us. This is about learning to go out into the harvest and share the good news of the coming kingdom just as the disciples did: both in words and loving actions.

Let me model something of what I think. Personally, one of the things that I would point to when I share why I follow Christ and seek to continue to grow is found in the reading that we heard from Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul says, “while we still were sinners Christ died for us”. And “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit”. Before we had done anything to earn it, God loved us. It is that love that renews us, draws into communion with God and each other, and sends us into the world to share that unconditional love with others. I find this message so compelling and hopeful for the world that I want to try to be part of it. What is it that you find compelling about your faith?

Thinking again, about Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims the good news of the kingdom. He cures every disease and sickness, and then he sends his disciples to heal, restore, and announce that the kingdom of heaven has come near. Following Jesus has always had practical, real-world implications. Yes, faith may give us hope in what comes after this life, but Jesus’ mission began by helping people in their earthly existence.

We should also remember that when Jesus sent the twelve, he sent ordinary people. Among their number were fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, a carpenter, and others whose everyday lives were interrupted by his call. They were not perfect, polished, or powerful. They were people learning to trust Jesus, and through them God’s mission moved into the world.

William Loader in his commentary on Matthew reminds us that our context is different from Jesus’ context, but the mission remains: to proclaim hope, to share good news with the poor, and to help restore people to right relationship with God, with themselves, and with one another.  

The harvest is plentiful; the labourers are few. We are those labourers who share in the task of proclaiming the good news of the kingdom in this context. In The Gap and the surrounding suburbs in 2026.

Last week I announced that we are going to have a Congregation Community Open Day on Sunday July 19^th. The Strategic Plan of our congregation has many elements that can be drawn directly from this idea of the sending out of the disciples.

Our strategic plan names clearly that growing faith, growing worship, growing our congregation, and growing leadership are important. It also says that every member is encouraged to contribute to the life and growth of the church through serving and giving. This Community Open Day belongs to all of us.

This is not simply an event to organise. It is a small, practical step in the vision of our strategic plan to offer intentional invitations for people to begin or renew their faith journey, to discover worship, community, belonging, and service, and to see what God is doing among us and in their lives as well.

What can we do as the Community Open Day approaches? I want to suggest four simple actions: pray, reflect, invite, and serve.

First, pray. Pray for the Open Day, for our congregation, for the people who already gather here, and for those who may be looking for hope, community, or a place to belong. We know that loneliness and disconnection are big problems in our contemporary world. So, pray for the ones who the Bible story described as lost sheep. Pray with openness and be discerning las you listen for what might God be stirring in you.

Second, reflect. Think about how you would can speak about the good news of Jesus Christ in your own life. If someone asked why faith matters to you, what would you say? You do not need a perfect answer. You simply need an authentic one. Today I have asked you to reflect o this as part of the sermon so maybe this gives you an opportunity to practice with one another ways you can talk about your faith.

Third, invite. People are more likely to come when they receive a personal invitation from someone they know. This week, consider who you could invite. It might be just one person: a family member, a neighbour, a friend, or someone connected with one of our community groups. When you invite them you might say, “I’d love you to come with me. I’ll be there, and you can sit with me.”

Fourth, serve. Many groups and ministries are part of the life of this congregation, and the Open Day is a chance to help people see who we are and what we do. If you have an idea, an offer of help, or a way to make the day welcoming, please come forward. We cannot do everything, and this does not need to be bigger than Ben-Hur, but we can each take a small faithful step.

This week I suggest that you might think about doing two actions. First, we can all take the first simple step, which is to pray for the Community Open Day. And second, if you feel led to serve, contact me to join the group that is already involved. Next week, we will have invitations for you to be able to take and share with others.

I want us to pause in a reflective and prayerful moment and invite the Holy Spirit to implant a vision of how the day might look. Close your eyes. Imagine for a moment that every person here today brought just one other person, maybe a stranger, maybe a friend. Imagine double the number of people in the room. What would it look like? What would it sound like? What would it feel like? Capture this vision of the Holy Spirit and pray that God might be at work in what we are doing.

This idea of having a Community Open Day is something new. It involves taking a risk. Taking the risk of being involved may seem daunting but we should always remember that the church did not begin in strength, but in a locked room. A group of disciples who were afraid and uncertain because their teacher had been put to death. Yet, the risen Jesus came among them, God’s Spirit renewed them and God sent them into the world to proclaim the good news.

We are part of the heritage of a long, long story. You and I have received the good news passed down through 2000 years of history. For many of you this place here at The Gap has been your primary place of worship. So, we give thanks for the people who have worshipped, served, built, rebuilt, extended, taught, prayed, led, and loved in this place for generations. Their faithfulness and yours has brought us to this moment. For others of us our pilgrimage of faith may have included many places but wherever we have been God has been with us. In each of those place people of faith and helped us grow and formed us in our relationship with Jesus.

Pause and reflect about a person who has been an inspirational part of your faith story.

We have four more Sundays to be in this liminal space as we pray, reflect, invite, and serve this vision together in preparation for our first Open Day. Then we can celebrate what God has already done here: the people who have served before us, the gifts already among us, the life of this congregation, and those who may yet join us.

As a congregation we stand in a new season. We are seeking the renewal of life and faith that can come from God alone. The future may not look like the past, and that can be unsettling. The Basis of Union of the Uniting Church reminds us that we are a pilgrim people, always on the way towards God’s promised future. We are not asked to control that future. We are invited to wait on God, listen for the Spirit, and respond faithfully.

The harvest is plentiful. The labourers may feel few. But we are not alone. God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and Christ sends ordinary people like us to share that love in practical and hopeful ways. As we prepare for the Community Open Day, may we pray with faith, reflect honestly, invite bravely, serve generously, and celebrate joyfully. And may others discover among us a community where the kingdom of heaven has come near.

I invite you now to take a few moments in silence: to reflect on the good news of Jesus Christ in your own life, and to consider how God may be calling you to pray, invite, serve, or celebrate as part of our Open Day. After a few moments I will lead us in a prayer written by Jono Ingram and found in one of the new books for our library, Edge Walkers.

A Prayer for Walking the Edge (Edge Walkers)

Jono Ingram

 

God of the wild places,

of narrow paths, rocky ridges,

and deep forest valleys –

 

here I am

standing on top of a mountain looking out,

no longer in the centre fenced in by certainty,

but balanced on the edge,

where faith feels thin.

 

Standing on the margins of belief and belonging,

I discover that you are already here

not calling me back to safety,

but beckoning me forward,

an invitation to traverse with you further along the spur

 

teach me, O Creator, to listen

To the ground beneath my feet,

to the rhythm of breath and heartbeat,

to your quiet voice

that does not shout directions

but invites attention.

 

Shape me into one who trusts the edge itself

not because it is safe,

but because you meet me here.

In the name of Christ

Amen.