First Reading:
10After this the Lord appointed
seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town
and place where he himself intended to go.
2He said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the
laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out
laborers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am
sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry
no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the
road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this
house!’ 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your
peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to
you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking
whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not
move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town
and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you;
9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The
kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10But whenever
you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets
and say, 11‘Even the dust of your town that clings to
our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the
kingdom of God has come near.’
Second Reading:
6My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. 2Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. 4All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor's work, will become a cause for pride. 5For all must carry their own loads. 6Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher. 7Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. 8If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. 10So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
There are all sorts of things that play a role in our faith journey, but I don't think that any of them are more influential than the people who walk along that journey with us. There have been two times in my life where the people around me have shifted the entire direction of my journey… The first one happened when I was in seventh grade. We had just moved from Panama up to Washington State and I started to get involved with a midweek youth group. It met nearly every Wednesday night and it was made up of normal middle and high school students. We played games and did activities and the leader talked about the normal things that youth leaders talk about and after the leader talked for a little while we would break into small groups and discuss the night's lesson… It was on a Thursday morning after maybe the fourth or fifth time that I had gone to be a part of this group that I decided that the group wasn't for me. It wasn't that there was anything in particular wrong with the youth group… in fact I kind of liked it… it just didn't seem to have any bearing on life… You see I went into the hallway at school on that Thursday morning, and the same people who spent the night before in a small group with me talking about how important it is to love your neighbor, were ganging up to tease and torment a kid who was smaller and weaker than any of them… and I thought to myself the message of Wednesday night either didn't mean anything or it didn't have the power to do anything… and either way, it was a waste of my time. It wasn't long after that that I walked away from church and didn't darken any church's door for nearly 8 years.
The second story comes from the time when I did eventually come back to the church… It was a big church… I hung around anonymously for nearly a year while I tried to look around and to get a sense of how much the message that was being proclaimed matched up with the lives of the people who were listening… I was trying to see if my prior experience was the norm or if there was something more; if the message, and by extension the one who gave the message, really did hold some sort of power and meaning… And what I saw when I looked around was entirely different from my earlier experience. I saw a community that cared for one another. I saw a place where people weren't afraid to stand up and say this is what's going on in my life, would you pray for me. I saw people who were part of a common cause. It wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it was authentic, it was genuine and it made me say I want to be a part of community like that. So I got involved and it was over the next few years in that community my call to ministry developed.
Having those two divergent experiences of people and their influence on my faith journey has led me to think that it really is impossible to over-estimate how important the way we live is when it comes to life in community and the witness that is to the world.
Throughout our scripture it's clear that followers of Christ are
expected to express their relationship with Jesus in ways that'll be
relevant and reflective of who Jesus was. He came bringing peace. He
left giving peace and he blessed those who would do likewise. In our
gospel passage, he sent seventy people out ahead of him giving them
the charge to travel light and to be good guests wherever they're
received. But he also sent them saying I know you won't always be
received
And still their reception, or lack of reception can't get
in the way of who they are and who they're invited to be because it's
the way they live their lives as Christians that's going to be the
display of God's will and God's grace to the world and to those who
don't yet believe.
Now many of us have an understanding that the essence of what it means to be God is that God can do anything, anywhere, anytime God wants to… And if Jesus is the Son of God, as the voice said at his baptism, then why doesn't he just make the people welcome him and his disciples and his message? Well, I tell you what… I don't know the answer to that question. At least I don't know the full answer to that question… I mean, after everything is said and done, God is God and if God wanted to work like that I suppose God could… but from the first stories we get in our scriptures to the last, and in the stories of our lives and the history of the church, it doesn't seem like that's the way God chooses to work very often. Instead, God calls people, sends them out and commissions them, that seems to be God's mode of operations. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, the prophets, the people of Israel… when Jesus came, he started his ministry by calling the twelve disciples and then in our gospel text today he sends out a crowd of 70 to go where he was going to go and do the same kind of work that he was going to do.
Every step along the way it seems like there's something about our God
that refuses to work alone. Even in the creation story scripture
tells us that God said let us make humanity in our
image…
And people have been wondering about it
forever. When Moses was called his first response was surely God,
you don't want me… I'm not a good speaker, pick someone
else.
There was a rabbi in the middle ages who wrote that he was
astonished that God would choose to work through the disparate and
desperate people of Israel… and the same thing could be said
about the disciples and the same thing could be said about the early
church and the same thing could be said about the present church. As
one author put it: Really? This forlorn collection of inept
hangers-on, they are the body of Christ?
It's outrageous for God
to limit God's self like that… sometimes we can hardly
represent ourselves well, let alone representing God's desires for
other people and the world by our lives… but that's the way our
God works, and that's the way our God always has worked.
So Paul, in his letter to the Galatians gives instruction about how to
live in community and how to be a witness to God's grace in the world
and he ends by saying remember, you reap what you sow… So do
the right thing. It may take time to see results… it may take a
whole lot of time but don't give up… I love the way Eugene
Peterson translates verse 9 and 10 in the Message: let's not allow
ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will
harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Right now,
therefore, and every time we get the chance, let us work for the
benefit of all….
You see, sowing care and accepting mutual
responsibility will eventually reap the benefits of an authentic
community based in love, and there's no way around it… that's
attractive to people, just like it was to me.
Paul starts by saying if anyone is detected in transgression… which means if anyone is breaking the rules, or overstepping boundaries or simply doing something wrong, teach them… correct them… restore them to community… don't turn the other way as if you don't care… don't let them keep on doing whatever it is to the detriment of the community. But when you do correct them, do it in a spirit of gentleness because their behavior – and yours – says something about who we believe God is… and we're all part of this community together. It makes me think that maybe the right thing to do would have been to say something to those guys back in seventh grade…
And what stood out to me most in what Paul had to say in these verses
is Bear one another's burdens, and carry your own load… the
community of the church is a place where people must be able to come
in need… whether it's emotional, spiritual, physical or some
other kind of need… the sense of the Greek word that's
translated burdens is that which is almost to the breaking point. We
all get there from time to time and when we do, it is essential to
have people who care enough to walk alongside us… And when
someone else reaches that point, it's essential that they do too. The
sense of the Greek word that's translated load is more along the lines
of usual cargo.
It's the day in, day out normal stuff of life
that we get to carry, and I got to thinking that perhaps what Paul's
encouraging here is that part of the normal stuff of life for those of
us who are followers of Christ is at least in part to help carry the
things that are weighing others down… perhaps part of carrying
our own load is bearing other's burdens. And we can all contribute
because everyone of us has gifts and strengths and talents that can be
offered up for the good of the community if we so desire…
After all that's part of why we need community in the first place… none of us has all the gifts, the strengths and the talents… none of us alone can carry everything. But together, as the body of Christ, we just might be able to do good, to offer restoration to the community and to bear one another's burdens… and whether we like it or not, the world is watching to see the power of God come alive in our community of faith. So to my mind it is good news that when Jesus sent out the seventy, their gifts and experience aren't listed and their qualifications don't really seem to matter because there comes a time when the only thing that matters for the work they do is that fact that they were sent and the fact that they pressed on. Friends, as a congregation, we have been sent to be good news. Thanks be to God. Amen
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on June 27, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
