‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’  In the name of One God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

A few years ago, a movie came out called ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ It is set in my home state of Mississippi in the midst of the Great Depression. The soundtrack of the movie sparked a revival in bluegrass gospel music. The Foster family children sang one of the songs – ‘In the Highways, In the Hedges’ at the 8:45 service. The words of the song are pretty simple: ‘In the highways, in the hedges, I’ll be somewhere a-working for my Lord. If he calls me, I will answer. I’ll be somewhere a-working for my Lord.’ So I got curious - what is the origin of the phrase ‘highways and hedges’? As you might expect, it’s from the Bible, Luke 14:23 in the King James Version.

In Jesus’ parable of the great dinner, Jesus describes a host who invited the wealthy folks in town to a dinner at his house. But one by one, they came up with excuses why they couldn’t be there. So, the host tells his servant to go out into the highways and hedges, and compel folks to come in.

You won’t find this in the Bible at your seats. The New Revised Standard Version translates the phrase - ‘road and lanes.’ This is one case in which the King James Version is not only more poetic, it is also more historically accurate. The hedges were the fencerows around houses & towns that separated them from the highways and byways. The hedges were the bushes where the vagabonds and beggars and foreigners hung out -the ones now invited to this dinner, and through the parable, we’re now invited to Jesus’ table.

The phrase ‘in the highways, in the hedges’ was also used in a popular sermon by a preacher named Thomas De Witt Talmadge around the late 1800s. His use of the phrase seems to fit better with the second line of the song – ‘I’ll be somewhere a-working for my Lord.’

His sermon went like this: ‘Here is my pulpit and I preach in it. Your pulpit is the bank. Your pulpit is the editorial chair. Your pulpit is the anvil. Your pulpit is the mechanic’s shop. I may stand in this place, and through cowardice or self-seeking, may keep back the word I ought to utter; while you with sleeve rolled up and brow besweated with toil, may utter the word that will jar the foundations of heaven with the shout of a great victory. I tell you, every one, go forth and preach this gospel. You have as much right to preach as I have, or as any man has. Only find the pulpit where God will have you preach and there preach. You say you are not licensed. In the name of the Lord Almighty, I license you. Go preach this Gospel – Preach it in the Sabbath schools, in the prayer meetings, in the highways, in the hedges. Woe be unto you if you preach it not.’

Brother Talmadge preached in a style in which we in the Episcopal Church are unaccustomed. In the wake of Brother Talmadge’s final admonition, I better get to preaching today’s Gospel in John.

In each of the four gospels, the resurrected Jesus gave a Great Commission to his disciples. John’s version of the Great Commission is unique. Like the others, it involves Jesus’ words. Unlike the others, it involves Jesus’ action. Jesus said the very important words, ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And then, he breathed the Holy Spirit on them. Easter Great Commission and Pentecost are rolled into one.

In Hebrew, the word for spirit also means breath. In Genesis, we learn of the creative power of God’s breath. It reads, ‘Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.’

Creation thus becomes not a remote cosmic event somewhere in the distant past, but an intimate mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from a loving God to us, God’s creatures, that takes on a timeless quality in which we reflect upon each breath we take as a breath given to us by God. Today’s passage in John describes the intimate way in which the Holy Spirit is given to the disciples. Jesus breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ Jesus, the Son of God who is God, shows us that the intimate breath of God not only has the power to create - It also has the power to renew.

Jesus breathes not only new life into the disciples. He breathes the Holy Spirit, God Godself, into them. This gift of breath is not one to be held within, but one to be breathed outward.

As the modern-day inheritors of this mantle of discipleship, the modern-day recipients of Jesus’ breath, we’re sometimes sent to the highways and hedges of other countries like Kenya, Honduras, and Peru. But on a day-to-day basis, most of us are sent to the highways and hedges of our workplaces - the places where we earn a living, where we volunteer, where we shop, where we live most of our waking hours.

How do we breathe the Holy Spirit into these workplaces? How do we preach the Gospel at work? In essence, how do we integrate our faith with our work? These are questions with which we need to wrestle. Especially now.

The talk in the news is we’re in a recession. Gas hit 3.34 a gallon this week in places. The stock market and our homes have lost a lot of value. Here in Wichita, Boeing didn’t get the big tanker deal. And people in many of our workplaces are being laid off. We’re not seeing a lot of Easter hope in the workplace.

But, the risen, living, breathing Jesus still brings that hope. And, we, his disciples empowered with the Holy Spirit, are called to bring that hope. There is a new movement afoot in our workplaces. It’s called by different names - “faith in the workplace”, “workplace ministry”, “God at work.” It’s a movement in which people are finding ways to integrate our faith with our life at work.

One of the ways is through evangelism. As Jim pointed out a few weeks ago, our workplaces are great places to tell co-workers about the exciting things happening at Good Shepherd and invite them to a church service or event. We can start workplace Bible study and prayer groups.

This movement is also about doing our jobs well. We’re called to breathe every breath of our God-inspired creativity and renewal into our work. In our Book of Common Prayer, there is a Collect for Vocation in our Daily Work. It’s a great prayer to start your workday. It begins:

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, you declare your glory and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of him who came among us as one who serves.

In the second half of today’s Gospel passage, we learn that one of the co-workers missed the meeting. Thomas didn’t get the memo. Jesus, ever the Good Shepherd, came back for this one. Jesus teaches us that faith at work is shepherding others. It’s praying for, investing ourselves in, fostering the development of, and mentoring co-workers.

Thomas then became the disciple that finally gets it, giving the boldest confession of understanding Jesus’ true identity: ‘My Lord and my God.’ In less than 23 hours, it will be Monday morning –8AM. As far as us truly being Easter people, that’s when the rubber hits the road. Jesus is sending us forth in the highways, in the hedges, and come Monday morning, let’s all be a-somewhere a working for our Lord.