The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on February 7, 1988. The title is, As the Father Sent Me. And the scripture reference is the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verse 21. 

When Carla Neves designed the cover for our outreach service leaflet, She brought together two different events from the ministry of Jesus and put them into a powerful juxtaposition with each other. You recognize the sketch, of course, at the close of the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus stooped down and took upon himself the job of the lowliest of servants, that of washing his disciples' feet. Incredibly humbling thing to do.

You saw Sundar Clark on the slide there. I remember being in Singapore with him in the midst of a meeting in which the Lord spoke very clearly and said, Wash Sundar's feet. And I was horrified and ignored it as best I could until somebody else said, I think the Lord is telling us to wash Sundar's feet.

And Michael Harper immediately said, Oh, of course he means that spiritually. We'll pray for him. The Lord didn't let us just do that.

We literally washed his feet with great tears on everyone's part. If you've ever done that or had it done to you, you know that that is very humbling and yet very powerful. Very powerful moment.

All the more dramatic when you realize that Jesus was fully aware that within a matter of hours, he was going to be betrayed, deserted, and denied by the very men whose feet he was now washing. That's the sketch. But the words that Carla has quoted beneath the sketch from the 20th chapter of John's Gospel were not spoken in the midst of that foot washing.

They came three nights later, an eternity later. when the horrors of the crucifixion, death, descent into hell were swallowed up in the glorious victory of resurrection. And Jesus bursts into a locked upper room where his disciples are huddled in fear for the Jews that what happened to him might also happen to them, unwilling, unable to believe the rumors that are already circulating that he's alive again, and suddenly there He is in their midst, saying, Peace, it is I. Don't be afraid.

And He shows them His hands and His side, and He breathes the Holy Spirit upon them, and then He declares, As the Father has sent Me, so I send you. I think Carla has captured something remarkably profound in bringing those two things together. We are sent.

into the world with the very same mission, priorities, purpose, goals, objectives as Jesus was sent into the world. We are sent not to minister in our own strength any more than He did, but under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But what this cover suggests to me is that we're sent not just to preach and teach and baptize and make disciples, but we're also sent to serve.

As the Father has sent me. We're to take upon ourselves the role of servanthood, even as Jesus did. How many of you know that we're men and women under orders with a gospel to proclaim to the nations?

Do you know that? It's not an optional extra to be sent out into the world. You are my...

He didn't ask you what you thought about that. We are, by definition, the sent ones. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.

St. Paul said, woe to me if I don't preach the Gospel. You are my witnesses. That's what it means to belong to me.

Now for some, that's going to literally mean going around the world, either on short-term or extended ministry. For some, it might mean taking the Lord Jesus with you when your company sends you around the world on secular business. I shared with you last fall that we have a renewed sense within the vestry and within the staff that God is calling us to be a sending church to intentionally put together teams of men and women to go out literally every week.

And so far, we're batting a thousand. We're hitting 100% on sending teams out every week in this new year. Let me ask you another question.

How many of you know that you don't have to go around the world to be a witness for Jesus? How many of you know that you have been sent into your neighborhood? or your office or your school?

Let me take a little test. How many of you saw the Super Bowl last week? One or two of you did, yes.

I said to Jessica, Jessica, these are the redskins. You've got to watch this. She said, Daddy, I don't like football.

I don't understand football. I don't want to see it. I said, I'll make you a deal.

You sit in my lap for the first quarter and I will explain everything that happens. They said, after that, if you want to leave, leave. Well, she got hooked.

In spite of everything going wrong in the first quarter, by the end of the second quarter, this little 11-year-old was cheering, jumping up and down, waving her arms, screaming. None of you did that, I know. how many of you have had at least one conversation this week about the Super Bowl you see Darrell Green on Monday he said I hope that those who bet on the Broncos don't commit suicide they need God let me ask you this why is it that I can go crazy over a football football game and I'm considered a fan but if I mention the name of Jesus to my neighbor I'm considered a fanatic.

And why is it that so many of us so much of the time are afraid of being called that so afraid that we don't take the risk of mentioning his name to folks for whom he came and died. Think of it, the guy sitting at the desk next to you is going to hell. And you've got the words of eternal life, and for fear of maybe being laughed at, you don't tell him that good news.

As the Father sent me, even so I send you. There's a statement in the 13th chapter of John's Gospel that I think is one of the most wonderfully freeing things I've ever read. On the evening of that last supper, after three years of intensive ministry in which Jesus had tried time and time again to explain to them what it was He had come to do and what that was going to cost Him when He got to Jerusalem and they nailed Him to a cross, three years in which the disciples hadn't once grasped it, the moment came when Satan entered into the heart of Judas and he went out to betray Him.

And Jesus knew that before daybreak, Peter would have denied Him three times, and all the others would fade into the darkness, and the crowd would demand His execution. He knew the physical pain that lay just ahead, and that by the next morning He'd be hanging on that cross. But He knew something else as well.

Listen, listen. John chapter 13, verse 3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garments, girded Himself with a towel, poured water into a basin, and began to wash His disciples' feet.

Did you hear that? He knew who He was. He knew where He had come from.

He knew where He was going. And in spite of all evidences to the contrary, He knew that then the Father had already given all things into His hands. He was, even then, Lord of all.

He knew it, and He was secure in it. He was so secure in His relationship with the Father that He could afford to be misunderstood, betrayed, deserted, mistreated. He didn't care what other people thought about Him.

Jesus Christ played to an audience of one. He could afford to be a servant because He knew that His Father considered Him King of Kings. He could go to a cross because He knew the Father had already made Him Lord of life.

He could face the mockery of men because His security lay in His relationship with God. His self-image was a matter of what the Father thought of him. Do you get it?

I want to tell you about a lady in this parish. One of our family's dearest friends. The Lord has healed her of a number of maladies.

And her grateful response to God's goodness is that she's determined to tell everybody she meets, Jesus loves you. and she does it to everybody doesn't matter who the paper boy the hairdresser clerk at McDonald's the lady in line at the supermarket the guy on the corner waiting for the walk light to change she just comes up and says Jesus loves you and a lot of people think she is nuts may God grace this parish with more nuts like that one Jesus loves you. Do you know that those three little words have opened up countless conversations?

Some people laugh. Sure they do. Others are arrested and they want to talk about it.

Some of those conversations have led to a sharing of the Gospel in depth with folks from literally around the world, from every imaginable national and religious background. Some of them have visited this church because that lady and her husband have brought them here. Some of them have become committed Christians because one lady was willing to risk being laughed at or called a fanatic or considered a religious nut for the sake of Jesus.

Reminds me of Daddy Hall. I've told you about him before. an Episcopal minister back in the 20s who used to go out on Wall Street at lunchtime, set up a little portable pulpit, speak to anybody who would listen, and in order to attract attention to himself, he wore sandwich boards.

On the front it said, I'm God's fool, which was fairly obvious. On the back it said, whose fool are you? you are my witnesses that's who you are you are my witnesses and I have already sent you to be my witnesses maybe to Madras, South India or maybe to the supermarket.

If you're not going to be a fool for Jesus, whose fool will you be? Let's bow our heads together. Lord, I'm available to you.

send me where you want but don't send me anywhere unless you'll help me to speak and witness and serve in your name Amen