Proper 8, Year A (at the 8 o'clock Mass)

Matthew 10:40-42

Today at the 10 a.m. Mass we shall be celebrating the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Apostles and Martyrs at Rome. At this Mass, however, we keep the Proper of the Sunday – which, as it turns out, is closely related to Saints Peter and Paul precisely in that it emphasizes theme of apostleship.

This morning’s Collect is the one appointed for Proper 8, the Sunday closest to June 29. Let’s listen again to what it says:

O Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee …

So, on the Sunday closest to the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the Church prays that we may find our unity in the apostolic teaching, and so be built up into a holy temple acceptable to God. What’s more, the Collect for Proper 8 is used throughout the year at Votive Masses of the Holy Apostles.

What, then, are apostles? The Greek noun apostolos comes from the verb apostellō, “to send,” and simply means “one who is sent.” The apostles are those whom the Lord sends.

Today’s Gospel comes at the end of a long discourse in Chapter 10 of Saint Matthew's Gospel in which Jesus sends the Twelve Apostles out on a mission to the cities, towns, and villages of Israel. It begins with Jesus calling them and giving them authority to cast out unclean spirits and to heal every disease and every infirmity. Then he charges them to go out preaching that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, taking nothing with them but the clothes on their backs. They must thus rely completely on the hospitality of those to whom they are sent.

As for those who offer them such hospitality, at the beginning of today’s Gospel, Jesus declares, “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.” The underlying Jewish concept here is that of a shaliah, a Hebrew word meaning a legal emissary, representative, or agent. The key characteristic of a shaliah is that he is empowered to speak and act in the name of the sender so that in dealing with the shaliah one is virtually dealing with the sender himself.

Now, it just so happens that the standard Greek translation of shaliah is apostolos, or “apostle.” In the New Testament, the apostles are those whom Christ has sent into the world, empowered to act in his name and with his authority. On this basis, he tells them: “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.” An apostle is thus not only one who has been sent, but is also a representative person, one in whom the sender is virtually present. When we receive the apostle, we receive the one who sent him.

This basic idea grounds the doctrine of apostolic succession. That is, just as Christ sent the apostles into the world in his name, so the apostles eventually transmitted their authority – to preach, to administer the Sacraments, and to govern the Church – to their successors, namely the bishops. And by means of prayer and the laying-on-of-hands, the bishops of the early Church transmitted this authority to their successors, and so on, down through the centuries to the present day.

When I was ordained to the priesthood, twenty-one years ago, I knelt before my bishop as he prayed and laid his hands on my head, and I received the commission to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments as a priest of the Church. But I wasn’t receiving this commission from the bishop per se – or from the local congregation, or even from the Diocese or the Episcopal Church – but ultimately from Christ himself, via a long line of bishops going back to the first apostles.

Similarly, when we receive the bishop in this church, as we shall have the privilege of doing this Fall, we are receiving not merely the Chief Executive Officer of the Diocese, but rather a successor of the apostles, one sent to us by Christ as his emissary, and in whom Christ himself is virtually present in our midst.

By the Sacrament of Holy Orders, bishops, priests, and deacons are the public representatives of Christ in the Church today. Deacons represent Christ the Servant; priests represent Christ the Great High Priest, and Bishops represent Christ the Chief Shepherd.

This is emphatically not to say that ordained ministers infallible or perfect; on the contrary, we are all profoundly unworthy of such a high calling. It is to say that despite our many imperfections and shortcomings, Christ has promised to be present and active in his Church through those whom he has called and sent.

But it doesn’t end there. Through the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist, Christ calls all Christians and sends us into the world in his Name. The reason why God calls some of us into Holy Orders is precisely to build up, strengthen, and equip the laity for their mission and ministries in the world.

So, in a manner corresponding to our many and varied vocations, Christ calls and sends each one of us. As the members of his Body, the Church, we are an apostolic people: his representatives and emissaries in the world. And to each of us alike, Christ addresses his words in today’s Gospel: “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.”