Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. Yesterday our passage ended by Jesus instructing his disciples to pray that the lord of the harvest would send out workers into his harvest field. I wonder what Jesus does next?

REFLECTION:

Chapter 10 verse 1 says: “Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”

Then there is a list of the 12 disciples’ names, ordinary men… then V5-8:

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “…Go to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

Jesus asks us to pray for more workers and then, with his next breath, he calls his friends over and sends them out into the harvest field. You can hear some of them saying “Er, Jesus… I was asking that you would send some workers… send some other workers… I was asking that you would send someone … not me!”

Let me tell you a story about a postal worker, Aleksey Germash.  In April this year the New York Times reported that the post office service Inspector General had received a tip off about a Nissan Pathfinder parked in Brooklyn with mailbags stuffed inside. When Postal Service agents visited the location, they found 20 blue post office bags packed with undelivered mail inside. Agents determined Germash, who worked at the post office in the Dyker Heights neighbourhood of Brooklyn, was the employee who lived closest to where the vehicle was found.

The amount of undelivered mail investigators retrieved was staggering: 10,000 pieces inside his vehicle, 6000 in his apartment and 1000 in his work locker. At least one item was postmarked in 2005.

When investigators interviewed Germash, he said the vehicle was his and that he had hoarded the mail because he was “overwhelmed” by the amount he had to deliver. He told investigators he… “made sure to deliver the important mail.”  Germash was released on $US25,000 bail.

This is not a new phenomenon: In 2014, a Brooklyn mail carrier was discovered to have hidden 40,000 pieces of undelivered mail – a total of 1.1 Tonnes – over nine years. The carrier, Joseph Brucato, blamed excessive consumption of alcohol and depression. In 2015 a postal worker in Philadelphia failed to deliver more than 20,000 pieces of mail on his route and instead stashed them in his car and home.

In an article headlined “A Lazy Letter-Carrier,” The New York Times in 1874 reported on the arrest of a Maryland mail carrier who dumped 200 letters into a dock “to avoid the trouble of delivery.”

This is scandalous! Imagine not getting mail that is addressed to you! What must this man be like? A Lay-about? Lazy? Messed up?

Jesus says, “freely you have received; freely give.”

Jesus has given to us so abundantly. Jesus has filled our mail bags but often we get a little confused and think that it is all about me. Thank you Jesus, Thank you for my home and my job and my family and my clothes and my food… The problem that we have is the word ‘my’. And just as the letters that Mr Germash received were not his to do with what he liked, nor are the abundant gifts that Jesus has showered upon us.

Now, we might not have received healing, we may not have been raised from the dead, but we have all experienced the kingdom of God coming near… That is why we are listening to this podcast…

It says in 2 Corinthians 1:4 (from The Message) He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. …

We all have received from God. And just like Mr. Brooklyn postman,