The glow of Christmas fades further into our rearview mirror. However that holiday affected us, those emotions have passed. Easter looms on the horizon, but not closely enough to start our hearts pumping just yet. Whether we rejoice in the new life of spring or the fun of the egg hunts or the mystery of the resurrection, we have to wait. We enter the coldest part of winter with little in the church year to warm our spirits. We might as well face it: Society cares much more about the upcoming Super Bowl than it does about this time on the church calendar which Protestants call the Season after the Epiphany and Catholics call Ordinary Time. The culture looks right past the opening of the gospel message to the world, which this church season notes.

            While we’re at it, we might as well admit that the church’s approval rating could use a shot in the arm, even apart from society’s apathy toward the church calendar. We’ve heard the attacks. The rest of the world piles up the adjectives: irrelevant, hypocritical, judgmental, uncool and the most devastating of all: boring. At best, the world considers the church “nice,” but insignificant.

            Rather than surrender to this critique of our mission, we can look at how Matthew describes the call of the disciples. Although we won’t celebrate the real birthday of the church for a few more months, when Pentecost Sunday comes, we see the first stirrings of the church in this passage. Jesus will eventually turn the whole mission over to the church empowered by the Holy Spirit, and here he begins forming it.

God’s initiative

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