Luke 10:1-11,16-17
After this the LORD appointed 70 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 any one is there who shares in peace, your peace shall 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 the 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.
16Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me. 17 The seventy returned with joy, saying “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
Perhaps some of you know the book, Marvin K Mooney, will you please go now- that I talked about with the children. In it, as you heard, Marvin K Mooney is to go—somewhere. We don’t quite know where- but the time for going is NOW-
In this section of the Gospel according to Luke , Jesus is sending some 70 people out—apparently for the, the time is now as well. These are 70, besides the 12 disciples. So the Jesus movement has grown. It’s sort of a mission trip writ large. The mission team went out earlier this morning, with 3 vans, and lots of people, and a huge list, and many, many months of planning and preparation. It was necessary, to do all that planning. With that many people, you need to make sure all the documents are in order, there is food enough, water enough, bathroom stops along the way, band aids, medicines, games for the car, Bibles, music- Kleenex, sunscreen, bugspray, Twizzlers, you name it, I’m sure it got brought along.
But when Jesus sends out the 70 (or 72, some versions say) they don’t have a packing list. They don’t have an itinerary. They don’t even have a map, or a gps, or a AAA trip-tik, or even a plan that we know of. Jesus seems to give them, in fact, a sort of anti-list- a list of what not to bring- no bags, no purse, no extra sandals. No money, no food, no juice boxes or water bottles. They are not to greet any one along the way. (meaning, they are not to hang out with friends, but are to get on their way, like Marvin K.) They are to make their way through Galilee, proclaiming “The kingdom of God has come near”
Would any of us travel like that? Suppose we started out- no extra gas, no cash, no credit card, no water or food, no toothbrush or spare socks….would we dare to do that? I sure wouldn’t. But that’s just what the disciples did-
In other places in the Gospels, we are told things like this. “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear…strive first for the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Same idea- no packing list. Just proclaiming “The kingdom of God has come near to you. Peace be to you. God’s grace is present among us”
And listen to the description- “I am sending you out as lambs among wolves…” Note that in that anti-list that Jesus gave the travelers, there are also no weapons for defense- not even a stick or a staff- Sounds great, huh? How many of you would sign up for that?
But that is just what you signed up for—every day of your life—or, rather, what your parents signed you up for—long ago, or not so long ago, in your baptism. In the waters of baptism, God claimed you as one of God’s own. And God called you- at that time, and every day since.
As part of my seminary education, I did an internship as a chaplain at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. I have never, ever, felt so unprepared for anything in my life—unless it was parenthood. And I have to say I was probably too dumb, 25 years ago, to realize what I was getting myself into. This time, I knew better- or at least I thought I did. I knew there would be death, and grief. I knew it would be hard to stand at someone’s bedside, to comfort the grieving families, to be the one who had to sit with the body, or help the husband work through a careplan to place his wife of 57 years in assisted living. I knew all that…I thought. But I gotta tell you, at times it felt like I was the lamb, and the whole system was the wolves- the death, the disease, the despair that has gotten into people, the system that conspires against people getting the medical help they really need, the poverty, the sin, the bad decisions and addictions that have landed people in the hospital--
And I tell you this not because I think my life is harder than any of yours-but because I know you all have times when you feel like the lamb…and the world looks like a circle of hungry wolves, about to pounce…maybe those wolves are illness, or unemployment, declining health and capabilities, or an estrangement in the family….maybe those wolves are the culture, grabbing at you to make choices and do things you don’t want to do-
But to go out, with no baggage or weapons, as a lamb before wolves- this is what Christ calls us to—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who courageously stood up to Nazi Germany, wrote “When Christ calls a person, he bids that one come and die” Whoah…so its no wonder, then, that in this story it is not the calling of the 70, but the sending of the 70… I wonder about this story-
Did Jesus push them out the door? Did he give them a slap on the back, between the shoulder blades, to get the 70 going? Was he like the jump sergeant in the airplane to the airmen, yelling “Go, Go Go!” The story tells us Jesus sent them 70 ahead of Him. I have read this story many, many times, but that little bit jumped out at me- they were going,. .But Jesus was coming right behind them…
So when you are sent, you can rest in the assurance that Jesus is coming right behind you—wherever you are sent—to work, to school, to the gas station or the grocery store, to your ailing loved ones in the nursing home, to the mission fields of Pittsburgh, to the people down the street….
We also read that the 70 were to say “Peace” to everyone- to the ones who welcomed them, and to the ones who rejected them. They are not to make a judgment- that is God’s own doing. I have a friend, a fellow pastor, who says of people he meets in life “Love ‘em all- let God sort it out.” When we meet people, no matter how they treat us, we are to say “The kingdom of God has come near to you” That’s it—no threats, no frowny faces, no matter how they receive us and our news. Peace. We are to say to everyone, even the ones who reject us, “the kingdom of God has come near.” Earlier in the Gospel, Jesus was rejected- and the disciples want to call fire down upon the cities- but Jesus says the disciples are to say, even to them, “the kingdom of God has come near…”
And what do we read at the end of their journey? They returned – not with souvenirs, or an awesome tan, or calluses on their hands, but- with joy! Where do you have joy in your life? Where do other see joy in you? An old saying is that Joy means: putting Jesus first, Others next, yourself last—is that what these 70 did? Is that how they found their joy?
We don’t know if Marvin K Mooney experienced joy on his journey. What we do know is this: the time had come, so Marvin went. And, like the 70 Jesus sent, Marvin K Mooney had no packing list—no map, no extra sandals, no worrying about what to eat.
Later in the gospel of Luke, Jesus asks the disciples “When I sent you out without a purse, did you lack anything?” “No, not a thing,” the disciples answer. Sent out, not on a glamorous trip, not on a photo opportunity, news worthy mission trip, but as lambs before wolves. But look what these 70 carry- peace- and the great good news- “the kingdom of God has come near.” This is what the Christian life looks like. This is what we are all sent to do. May God strengthen us, and bless us in this journey. Amen
Psalm 46:1-7, 10-11
1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah
4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
5God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
6The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
10“Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.”
11The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
