Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading

Exodus 19:2-6a

In those days, the Israelites came to the desert of Sinai and pitched camp.
While Israel was encamped here in front of the mountain,
Moses went up the mountain to God.
Then the LORD called to him and said,
“Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob;
tell the Israelites:
You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians
and how I bore you up on eagle wings
and brought you here to myself. 
Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant,
you shall be my special possession,
dearer to me than all other people,
though all the earth is mine.
You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”

Second reading

Romans 5:6-11

Brothers and sisters:
Christ, while we were still helpless, 
yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though perhaps for a good person
one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood,
will we be saved through him from the wrath.
Indeed, if, while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son,
how much more, once reconciled,
will we be saved by his life.
Not only that,
but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Gospel

Matthew 9:36—10:8

At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them 
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”

Then he summoned his twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits
to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.
The names of the twelve apostles are these:
first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector;
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;
Simon from Cana, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

Sermon

Sisters and brothers!

In conversations about baptism, when I ask why a child should be baptized, I sometimes hear the answer: “... so that it has a name.” In fact, the term baptism - “Taufe” has become established in the German language for naming ceremonies in other contexts as well: For example, the christening of a ship is called a “Schiffstaufe”. Now, of course, we know that such a ship or wine christening has very little in common with the meaning of the Christian sacrament of baptism; and one might even smile a little at the somewhat naive response of some parents at a christening—after all, even unbaptized people usually have a name.

And yet, upon closer examination, this connection between Christian baptism and the giving of a name cannot be entirely dismissed.

After all, the entire baptismal liturgy begins with the simple question to the parents: “What name have you given your child?” When parents bring their child for baptism and are asked first and foremost about the child’s name, it means this: In baptism, we celebrate not only the reception of the baptized person into the Christian community but also God’s unconditional acceptance and affirmation of a human being. The mention of 12 names also appears in the middle of today’s Gospel. They do not actually contribute to an immediate understanding of the text. And so we must ask why this list of names is included.

What purpose does it serve for us to know the specific names of the apostles? Is it perhaps a kind of roll of honor, a tribute, so to speak, to the significance of the leading figures of the early Church? Perhaps…—we do not know and can only speculate. What is interesting, however, is the placement of this list of names within the rest of the Gospel text: The Twelve are listed by name between the empowerment and the mission, between the gift and the task they receive from Jesus. On the one hand, they receive the authority to proclaim the Kingdom of God: to heal people in body and soul, so to speak. On the other hand, however, they simultaneously receive the mission to put these gifts to use: “Freely you have received; freely you are to give,” it says at the end. In this context, the list of names thus appears almost like a signature, a sign of a binding commitment: the gift and the task are not given to an anonymous crowd that happens to be listening to Jesus but—precisely because it is anonymous—cannot be held accountable. No, gifts and responsibilities are entrusted to specific people with names and faces. For it is only in this way that dignity and responsibility, rights and duties, can be transferred and accepted: through people who are called by name and who take personal responsibility for them.

The number 12, however, does not refer to a closed group. In Jewish culture, 12 is a special number: it symbolizes the 12 tribes of Israel, whom God chose as His people, a “holy people” belonging to Him, as stated earlier in the reading from the Book of Exodus. When Jesus now selects 12 of His companions by name, these 12 are certainly meant personally, but at the same time they are also a symbol for the people of God as a whole; and according to our faith, this people of God—that is, all of us—is not a closed ethnic group, but encompasses all who are baptized in His name, that is, all who have a name with Him. The commissioning of the twelve apostles to bear witness to the Kingdom of God and make it tangible in Jesus’ name likewise expresses the mission of all the baptized. “What name have you given your child?” This is the question parents are asked at the beginning of every baptism. It was no different at our own baptism, and I assume that our name was not kept secret at the time. This means, then, that each and every one of us has a name with God. And having a name with God—on the one hand, this is the inalienable dignity promised and given to all people, and specifically to all the baptized. Having a name with God—on the other hand, however, this is also an inalienable obligation and responsibility—at least for those who invoke the name of God, as these thoughts by an unknown author describe:

Christ has no hands, only our hands,
to do his work today,
Christ has no feet, only our feet,
to lead people on his path.
Christ has no lips, only our lips,
to tell people about him.