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July 8, 2007 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Rev. Steve Gehlert July 8, 2007 - Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Jesus began his ministry by calling disciples. With a simple "Follow me," he called a group of 12 ordinary people with whom he'd share the Good News of God's love and who would, eventually, share the good news of that love with others. To begin with, through stories, parables, and sermons he taught them about God's kingdom and God's love. He also made that kingdom and that love real to them in their personal lives and in their relationships, through his acts of radical acceptance, compassion, and hospitality. Those are the things we'd expect a great teacher to do – share the truth and live it. But Jesus also did something else. Very early on, he gave his disciples the responsibility of doing what he did – share the Good News of God's love. He did more than teach and demonstrate the Good News, he gave his disciples the opportunity to put it into action, to begin to live it with others. He did this before they had learned everything or understood everything. He did this before they had been completely transformed into grateful, eager, joyful, and obedient disciples. We see that happening in today's Gospel, where he sends out 70 people, empowering them to be his disciples. It seems that 12 was too small a group for what he wanted to do; he needed 70. What's amazing is, that he found them. It's difficult enough to get a dozen people to join in an important task (just ask Carolyn Shroyer about recruiting for Vacation Bible School) but 70, that's something! You know, the average-size church has less than 60 in worship. That's not a huge number but even that many is no select group. Jesus made enough mistakes in selecting those first 12 disciples, what with their misunderstanding, their eventual betrayal, and denial. So it's surprising to see him now call so many more to work with him. But that's the way he works. His first 12 disciples have already shown, by their lack of comprehension and half-hearted discipleship that they're not going to be great assistants. Yet, even with that sad experience, he entrusts his work to a larger crowd. You and I, here in church this morning, are part of Jesus' willingness to entrust his work to others. Despite his past unfortunate experiences with us, he continues to call more of us, and entrust his mission in the world to us. That's what he did with his disciples. He entrusted them with responsibility when they still needed to learn and grow and, would still make many mistakes. Why? Why would this holy man, who surely had the highest standards, entrust the wonderful, holy Good News to those who not only were far from perfect but not even as good as they could be? Because he knew that we don't fully learn about God's love by being told about it (even in the most powerful ways) or by receiving it (even with the greatest compassion and grace). We also need to struggle with its meaning in ways that are only possible when we're called to live it and share it with others – just as Jesus did – by teaching, demonstrating, and granting the responsibility to live and share it. The Church, the body of Christ, is called to nurture disciples in the same way, by not only teaching and demonstrating our faith, but entrusting responsibility to live it and share it with others. That's just what Bethany tries to do with our youth. We try to share the Good News, demonstrate its meaning, and grant the responsibility of making its wonderful truth real in the lives of others. Just as was true with Jesus' disciples, our young disciples have much to learn and will make mistakes and, therefore, need patience, forgiveness, guidance and mentoring. But just as was also true with Jesus' disciples, they also need to be granted the grace to try, to make mistakes and be granted the forgiveness and grace that allows them to learn from them, and continue to grow as disciples. If we're serious about making disciples then Bethany must be a school of discipleship with Jesus as our model. We can't be content with just teaching. Nor is it enough to demonstrate the goodness of God's love to those we seek to nurture. We must care enough, to grant them the responsibility of themselves teaching, demonstrating, and sharing that love with others. And we must also grant them the grace that allows them to make mistakes and grow from them. This means many things. It means trusting that God's Spirit can work in young people to help them grow in faith and make faith real to others. It means not being afraid – not of the missions that they have an opportunity to share, nor of entrusting them with sharing the faith. Ultimately, you don't learn the faith in a classroom. You learn it by having to think about it enough to put it into your own words and share about it. You learn it by having to live it in relationship with others, and, with guidance and mentoring, being helped to see, how it conflicts with, and confronts the world's values. Dominic grew up in Anacostia, the poorest, most polluted, crime ridden area of Washington D.C. His street name was "the Big Hurt," given to him because of his size and his temper. He sold crack on the street, $10,000 worth a day. But something happened to him, he was drawn into a neighborhood group that teaches troubled teens to care about their environment and do something about it. They began by clearing trash from streets and vacant lots. Then they raised enough money to buy a boat to take out on the horribly polluted Anacostia River. They began by going upstream far enough to see what it's like before polluters begin pouring toxic waste into it. That inspired them to do even more, to rescue wildlife, to take water samples and get them tested, and confront those who are doing the polluting. It also inspired them to want to teach children to care for their environment. Now they've raised enough for a larger boat, on which they take young children, to show them the river, and the animals struggling to survive in and around it. The children are delighted by the fish, "the survivors" as Dominic calls them, that they're shown, and by the owl he's rescued. The fact that it's him, a kid from the street, who's showing them all this, is a powerful witness to those kids. It's also powerful for Dominic. He's been rescued, too, because somebody cared enough to nurture him, and to know that nurturing means trusting, trusting with the responsibility to nurture others. What can we, young or old, who've been entrusted with Jesus' mission expect? Well, to get an idea, we have to look at what Jesus did. When I do, here's what I see: First, we are to do miraculous, divine things. Jesus tells those disciples, when they show up in a town, or at the office, or at school, they're to show that, "The kingdom of God's come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons." They're to show that the world is under new management. There's been a major shift in the leadership up at the front office and it's high time that the world knows it and gets used to it. All the actions that the 70 are to do are the very same acts that Jesus himself has been doing. These 70 ordinary people are being empowered to do big things, great things. Not small things. Too many of us seem too content with doing small things - palliative care, institutional maintenance, fixing a leaking roof, handing out the bulletins, opening the door in the morning, closing it in the afternoon. But here Jesus calls us, not simply to maintenance of the status quo but to nothing less than a revolutionary fellowship with the unclean, and to welcoming the outcast, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, yes, even to raising of the dead. Second, they're to stop worrying. Jesus tells them up front that they're not to worry about where they will get the means to do all this revolutionary work. "Give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff." In other words, they're to go forth just like Israel went forth on the Exodus, with no provisions, nothing to fall back on other than the miraculous manna from heaven. They're to go out, relying only on God and on the compassion and the goodness of others. Jesus calls them to a huge task and doesn't give them anything to fall back on! That makes them terribly dependent upon both Jesus and other people. A historian recently wrote a history of begging. Begging involves asking people for food or money in order to survive. He asks, "How did Jesus live?" He is never reported as having a job, punching a time clock, or plying a trade. He must've been a beggar. And, he called his disciples away from the work they were doing to follow him along the road. So, they must've been beggars too. That's a jolting thing to think about in our society of self-sufficiency and self-reliance. But what does begging do? It makes you dependent upon the generosity and goodness of other people. It forces other people to respond to you, to feel some responsibility for you or else turn and go their way. Begging builds a small community between the one in need and the one who responds to that need. I don't know what to make of all that except to say that you should note that Jesus sends the 70 out to live lives of interconnectedness and dependency, characteristics little valued outside God's kingdom. In some way, all of us want to make a mark on the world. But it's sad that, in our culture, too often the only way to do that is to go out and find a job that will enable us to make lots of money, build a big house, accumulate a great many things, and thus "make our mark on the world." Jesus is saying that the way to do that is just the opposite of what we think. Third, Jesus says they're to be in mission. The only way to make that mark, the mark that gives him glory and brings us peace and joy, is to remember that you're on a mission. That means you're doing it for someone else (God and others), rather than yourself. It also implies that it's important, something to give your all to, do your best for. Nice sentiments and good intentions don't make a mission, actions do, actions focused on the purpose of the mission, that honor the one on whose behalf it's done, actions that come from your heart and soul. You can't be in mission and just do enough to get by, to say "that's good enough, or, "someone else can do it," and then never show up to support it. Mission means accepting the responsibility to do your best, and doing it. Fourth, they're to be faithful in the face of rejection and resistance. Jesus warns them up front that they'll encounter both. "They will hand you over to councils and flog you . . . you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me." The 70 are not called to withdraw behind some safe, clean fortress. They are being sent into the world, into the real world. Those who profit from the old world, from conventional arrangements and the present power structure will not receive them well. The 70 are sent on a perilous, challenging mission. They will struggle, suffer, get dirty. Even Jesus - Son of God, Savior of the world – doesn't work alone. He entrusts us with his mission, instructing us, giving us what we need to do his work in the world. The question he asks each of us is, "Will you go? Will you take the risk, step out, move out with the 70 and go where I'm about to go?" There's risk, yes, if you take it seriously, if you really put your heart and soul into it, but there's also joy, the joy of doing what God means for you to do. Jesus is looking for ordinary people to do his mission in the world, to do the very same things he does. Will you go? Will you go and invite others to join you, no matter what their background, their status, their history, their ability or their age? Will you trust that just as he as entrusted you with the good news of his kingdom, he wants you to entrust it to others. Will you go? Will you trust others to go too? |
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