Go: Apostle and Disciple

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.