Act before you speak may seem like an odd sermon title. Some of you might even be wondering if I made a mistake. Nope. It is what I intended.

Act before you speak seems like strange advice. Advice I do not think that I have ever heard. So why am I entitling the sermon that way?

From our parents, to our teachers, coaches, mentors, and counselors, we have often been advised to think before we speak, especially when emotions are running high and we are caught up in the heat of the moment. And that is very good advice and one we would all do well to remember and practice.

But today’s text from Matthew puts a spin on that advice. Both the recounting of the way Jesus treated the people who flocked out to see, hear, and be healed by him, to the directions he gave to the disciples as he sends them out to extend the reach of his ministry are examples of how important it is that we act before we speak.

There is a commercial out right now for insurance that has the speaker tell the watching audience, “People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Very true. Both our Gospel lesson and the video clip we just saw speak to this same truth.

Background to the Star Trek video we just watched (with special thanks to Dane who helped explain to me what I was watching!): In Star Trek, the Federation had a policy called “First Contact.” (As an aside, I love that name for a policy and think it would be a good idea for us to have a similar policy as to how we engage with those who come to us for the first time.) Anyway, back to Star Trek: this FIrst Contact policy would be initiated when the Federation believed that another world had evolved enough to be invited to join the Federation. In other words, they had to act before the spoken invitation to join was given. 

Once welcomed into the Federation, they would be granted all the rights, privileges, and resources that came with membership. The scene we saw came when Earth was welcomed into the Federation. This was the First Contact between earth and the Federation. And this First Contact and acceptance into the Federation changed everything. According to the Star Trek story, where earth had once been a warring, broken world, they/we were now made into a peaceful, prosperous world. NOTE: the world was made better; not individual countries. It took everyone coming together to make earth into a better place, a safer place, a healthier place for all persons to live, work, play, and love.

But, again, action had to be taken before the invitation to join could or would be spoken and extended. Act first, then speak.

In the Gospel story, Jesus sent the disciples out with an extensive laundry list of what he wanted them to do: at the top of that list was the instruction to teach and preach in the synagogues announcing that the kin-dom of God had came near to them and inviting the people to join with them in that kin-dom building work. But Jesus knew that the people would not hear and believe much less sign up for the movement if they did not see in real and concrete ways that meant for them personally. So he gave them authority and power to cast out demons, to heal, and to show compassion for them. Once they could see how much the disciples cared, once they could experience in their own lives the liberating and redeeming power of divine love, only then would they be ready to hear, receive, and believe the good news of God’s inbreaking realm of justice, love, and liberation ~ offering them the new and abundant life they longed to receive.

Act first, then speak. BE the church before you invite people to church.

Here is a post that I read on Facebook this week. Interesting how sometimes things I read online align with what I am writing and reflecting about at that time. Listen to this FB post:

Don’t invite people to church.

Invite them to lunch.

Invite them to your table or patio.

Invite them into your life!

Be there for them.

We ~ not our building ~ are the church.

One more thing, people are not going to want to come to your church, if you, individually and collectively, are not acting as the church in the world, in your every day lives, and in your relationships. Act first, then speak.

It really is good advice and one that we would be wise to follow.

Amen.