Luke 10:1-11,16-20
As I first read this text I immediately focused on the word “go.” Which made me think of one of my favorite
pieces of Scripture, Matthew 28:19, which says, “Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This verse
makes me feel motivated. It lights a
fire within me. It inspires me. Whenever the going gets tough I remember that
Jesus has sent me to evangelize, to make disciples, and that he has sent the
Holy Spirit to empower me for the mission.
I guess that word “go” just really gets me going. This verse took on new meaning while I was on
internship in Washington DC. On Ash
Wednesday Regina, a member from the congregation, and I had made our way to the
Van Ness Metro Station. Regina had her
easel and paints and I had some ashes in a container. Our hope was to remind people that it was Ash
Wednesday and to place ashes on their foreheads reminding them that they are
dust and to dust they will return. As we
began I was very hesitant. I guess you
could say that I was listening to what my mom had taught me as a young girl on
the prairie, “don’t talk to strangers.”
Eventually it became a little easier to greet people walking down the
sidewalk. After all that is the first
step in evangelizing. Of course, we got
a few crazy looks as we greeted people on that brisk morning. But as Regina and I walked back up
Connecticut Avenue later that morning we couldn’t help but talk about how we
had made a difference. Even if we only
put ashes on one person’s forehead, we had begun to make disciples. That was a great reminder of why we had gone
on our mission that day. We were not
expecting to return to St. Paul’s with ten new members or even one. We had gone because I felt like God was
telling me to go. God was showing me
that in this busy city where almost everyone works over forty hours, they may
not be able to make it to church on Ash Wednesday. God was telling me to take the ashes to
them. For at least one moment on that
morning, I imagine that most people were reminded that it was Ash Wednesday and
even if they didn’t know what that meant they asked us, asked a friend, or
googled it on their Smartphone. That day
Regina and I were on a mission. We were
commissioned. We were apostles, sent to
make disciples. We were sent by God to
go.
The point, my
friends, is not about gaining new members or increasing our income from the
offering plate. The point is that we
have been commissioned to make disciples, to baptize them, and to teach them. And it’s not about what we, the church, might
get out of it. It is because God told us
to go.
In our text today Jesus tells us once
again to go. More specifically he says, “Go
on your way.” And with those words he
sends out the 70, in pairs. They are
sent to cure the sick and tell others that the kingdom of God has come near. Really their task was twofold: teamwork and proclamation. Those are both difficult jobs. And as if that isn’t hard enough, throw in
the persistence that Jesus is asking for here.
He tells them whether they are welcomed or not by the people they are
sent to that they are still supposed to proclaim that the kingdom of God has
come near.
Jesus sends them out
in teams, because he expects that there will be some resistance to their
work. That is where the “lambs into the
midst of wolves” part comes into play. As
a team, when one fails, struggles, falls down, or falters the other one will be
there to assist. Jesus didn’t send them
out as lone rangers. I remember that
being a big part of my seminary education: “Don’t be the lone ranger.” Instead I was taught to know that I am
surrounded by colleagues that are doing similar work. They have days of success and days of
failures. The same is true for each one
of us as we go about our work as Christians, as we share the good news; we are not
meant to be lone rangers. Rather, we are
meant to be part of a network of people, a part of the whole church, who work
together in proclaiming that the kingdom of God has come near.
The other part of
being on a team is knowing that others have your back. When we can’t come up with the right words to
proclaim the good news, we can step aside and let another member of the team do
that part. When we are unable to assist
the church in one thing we can use our gifts in another area. We don’t always have to be on the starting
line-up.
That is part of the difference between
being disciples and being apostles. Now,
likely you have heard those words and thought they were being used interchangeably. They are similar words, but they do have
different core meanings. As disciples we
are the learners. As apostles we are the
sent out ones. That being said, there
are times when we need to be disciples learning through personal study and
group study. There are other times when
we are called to be the sent out ones or the ones on the front lines of
proclamation. We are not meant to be
both apostles and disciples at the same time and all the time. We need to have something flowing in and filling
us, in order to have something productive flowing out from us. A life-giving faith requires an inflow of
learning and an outflow of being sent with a message.
Now you might not be
sent to put ashes on people’s foreheads in Washington, DC. But you are sent and commissioned by Jesus to
go. You are called to be a disciple and
an apostle. You are sent to go on your
way as a laborer in God’s vineyard. And
if you know anything about vineyard work or labor during harvest time, you know
it doesn’t stop. Once the harvest is
ready you go 110% non-stop. So, let this
life of faith consume you and let it spill over into all you say and do.
Today you are sent and commissioned to
go, but remember that you are not alone; you are part of a team. You need to be filled and nourished as a
learner before you are sent out to be a proclaimer. So go with these words from St. Teresa of
Avila “Christ has no body on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the
compassion of Christ looks out to the world.
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless
others now.” So, go. Amen.
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