This morning,
we focus on Jesus’ delegation of the work to share his message to 72 of his followers.
When Jesus came to earth, he knew he could not do all of his work by himself. As
Jesus started his ministry, he gathered his 12 disciples. And, as he became
known throughout the land, more and more people began to follow him. In our reading
for this morning, Jesus sent out 72 of his disciples to prepare for the way of
the Lord and to share the good news in places Jesus hadn’t yet visited. Hear
our reading as it is found in Luke, chapter 10, verses one through eleven and
sixteen through twenty:
Scripture Reading Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
After this the
Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead
of him to every town and place where he was about to go.
He told
them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of
the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Go! I am
sending you out like lambs among wolves.
Do not take a
purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
“When you
enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’
If someone who
promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return
to you.
Stay there,
eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his
wages. Do not move around from house to house.
“When you
enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you.
Heal the sick
who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
But when you
enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say,
‘Even the dust
of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of
this: The kingdom of God has come near.’
“Whoever listens
to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me
rejects him who sent me.”
The
seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to
us in your name.”
He
replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
I have given
you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the
power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
However, do
not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are
written in heaven.”
Here ends this reading of the word of God
for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer for Understanding
O God, by your Spirit tell us what we need to hear, and show us what we ought to do, to obey Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
With the spread of the internet and smart
phones, we began to receive news and information differently than we had in the
past. We didn’t need to turn on the television news or read about world events
in a newspaper; instead, we could look at our phones and instantly know what
was happening at soccer games in Serbia and during severe rain storms in China.
The world was opened up to us in a wholly new way. With just a few clicks of our fingertips, the
news of the world is in the palm of our hands.
One of the phenomenon that has risen
out of this change is that sometimes things “go viral.” This is when an image, video or link is spread
rapidly because people share it through their social media accounts. A few
years ago, hundreds of people were posting videos of themselves pouring buckets
ice over their heads to raise money for ALS. We all know about long lines of cars who have
paid it forward at Starbucks drive-thru’s as people paid for the coffees for
the cars behind theirs. This week, people
have been gleefully peering at videos and photos of a Burger King untouched since
the 1980s that was hidden by a wall in a mall in Delaware. Sometimes, it seems that completely random stories
captures people’s imagination and therefore spread like wildfire, virtually.
When Jesus walked the earth, it took
a lot more effort to spread information from person to person. Most of the
time, people were isolated from each other in their villages. The men possibly
left for religious festivals in Jerusalem, but most of the people stayed very
close to home. Word did not travel far.
Jesus came to earth to reveal the Good
News to the people here. And, Jesus
couldn’t do his work alone. He needed people to help him spread the word. He
needed his followers to spread the word. So, he used a first century approach
to nudging a message to go viral—Jesus sent his followers out in pairs, to
visit all of the towns and villages between where they started and Jerusalem. Even
when he was on earth, Jesus knew he needed assistants to spread his message.
This carried on after Jesus left the
earth. The story of the early church includes the many missionary visits made
by Jesus’ followers to cities in the Roman world. They didn’t rely on the word
spreading by word-of-mouth; but instead, the Apostles went from town to town,
city to city, to tell people about Jesus and his love. From their efforts, and the efforts of faithful
missionaries through the ages, the message of Christianity spread throughout
the world.
Now we are entering a new missionary
age. Although non-Christians may be aware of Christianity, sometimes they have misconceptions
that keep them from embracing our faith for themselves. In an era of “if it bleeds, it leads” news
broadcasts, sometimes the strangest voices in the room or the loudest voices in
the room are held up by the media as representatives of Christianity. And, those folks don’t always present the Christian
faith in a manner that represents us, the good people of Trinity Christian United
Church of Christ.
We must to work to represent our interpretation
of the Christian message. First and
foremost, we are people of the Greatest Commandment of Jesus. Jesus calls on us
to love God and love each other. This love is not conditional—We are called to
love other people…..people we agree with, people we disagree with; people who
look like us and people who don’t; people who are young, old and in-between;
people who have families that look like ours and every other combination of
families under the stars; people who make choices we approve of and people who
make choices we disagree with. We are called to love each other. When we treat others with love and affection,
despite our differences, we spread a positive example of what it means to be Christ-like.
We are also called to love God. We
are called to appreciate God and God’s goodness. God loves us despite our
foibles, despite our failures, despite our flaws. We are created in God’s image, and God knows
our hearts and intentions. Sometimes we mess up, and God loves us anyway. This
is Good News, and is a message other people need to hear. God loves us no
matter what.
Sometimes, it hurts when people
reject us and reject our message. Jesus counselled his missionaries to not let
rejection devastate them or paralyze them.
We are to shake the dust off of our feet and move on. I look at our work
as Christians as people who scatter seeds. Sometimes, the things we do or say
immediately click for the other person. Sometimes, it takes a long time…some
people need to hear the message over and over again, from a bunch of different people,
with a bunch of different strategies. We
will never know the end result of our efforts to spread the Good News of Jesus
and his love. But, we are responsible to spread the word, to treat others with
love, and to love God. In our words and actions, we reflect the message of Christ.
As followers of Christ, we are
called to be reflections of Jesus to others. Let us work to spread the Good News
of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment