What if?

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore spray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Matthew 9:35-10:4

What if we?

What if we took off the collars
set aside the vestments
and rolled up our sleeves
took up the tools and
went out in the fields?

What if we honored
the migrants and day laborers
the anonymous many
who stock our groaning tables
with the abundance of their toil?

What if we set the table
and the honored guests were
those from the field from the kitchen
from the scrub sinks and the vacuums
the ones that serve silently
and who make our lives ease?

What if we were called to serve
to labor besides the poor
the indigent the rejected
the infirmed and those who ride
the midnight buses?

We have been called by name
we have been given power and abundance
what if we shared that with those
who were really in need?