“Reasons to Rejoice”

July 11, 2010

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

As we take these summer Sundays to continue reading through the Gospel of Luke and walk on the road with Jesus, one thing starts to become apparent: Jesus is always sending his followers out ahead of him. Nothing ever seems to be ready until his

Do you remember the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? As they approach the city, Jesus sends two disciples into a village to find a colt that he can ride.

On the day when he would be betrayed and arrested, Jesus sends Peter and John into Jerusalem to prepare a Passover meal for him.

If you’ve been reading through the Gospel of Luke—or if you were here two weeks ago—you might remember that account of Jesus as he begins his road trip to Jerusalem. He starts this by sending some messengers into a Samaritan village ahead of him. It didn’t turn out well—the people there wouldn’t welcome Jesus—but it’s another example of that sending.

And this morning we heard of Jesus sending 70—or 72—of his followers into “every town and place” where he intends to go. 35 or 36 advance teams head out to prepare the way.

Jesus is always sending his followers out ahead.

And this is where the story of the Bible touches our own lives: the followers of Jesus are still sent out ahead.

The Book of Acts was written by the same author as the Gospel of Luke. As it opens, it continues this theme of sending with the risen Christ telling his followers: “You will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.”

That’s still pretty much our task today. We are sent out.

Of course our style is different. Jesus told the Seventy: “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.” There is a sense of great urgency here. There’s no time for chatting with people as they walk along. The followers of Jesus travel lightly: without purse or bag or sandals, they won’t be weighed down and will need to depend on the hospitality of others.

But wait a minute.

That wasn’t really the approach of our members who recently went to Oakville to help rebuild that flood-damaged small town, was it? They brought money to pay for their food. They brought the equipment needed to do their work. They wore sensible work shoes.

We work at the free lunch program around the corner at the Wesley Center when there is a fifth Monday in a month—as there is in August. And we bring the food.

Women and men in the United Church of Christ go to the desolate places around the world to bring medical care or agricultural knowledge or help in rebuilding after a natural disaster. We take out our purses or our checkbooks and contribute financially so that others can go where we cannot.

Given the urgency of the situations faced today, we are quite likely to take cash, equipment, and cars and to talk with as many people as possible.

We still understand ourselves as followers who are sent into the world in the name of and for the sake of the risen Christ. Changing times have changed how we hear the words of Jesus. And we know that faithfulness to scripture is not the same thing as a foolish literalism.

So keep your shoes—or your sandals—on. Our style is different, but we are to go before Christ with the same kind of openness that was commended to those early followers.

As much as our hands are filled with a great deal to offer others, we also go with open hands, ready to receive from those with whom we work. In the past fifty years or so, Western Christians came to this important awareness. When we are “sent out” to others people in other places—around the world or around the block—we do not engage in mission to them as much as mission with them. What we learn, what we receive as we work together is as important as what we do and what we give.

So the image of the followers of Jesus going without purse or bag or sandals still informs our action, our being sent even if it does describe our actual condition.

We go with open hearts and open hands. We, too, are sent out ahead of Jesus.

What are we sent to do?

That’s the question for us, isn’t it?

Now that after 2000 years the Christian message has spread to all the nations…

Now that there are more Muslims in the United States than there are members of the United Church of Christ…

What are we sent to do?

This is an especially difficult question for a united and uniting church such as ours. It’s said that united churches do not find an easy road, and we have trouble with issues of identity. Are we Congregationalists—or are we a congregation of the United Church of Christ? We are open and affirming—welcoming all regardless of sexual orientation—but how do we relate to UCC congregations that have not taken this approach?

It’s easy to get caught up in questions of denominational identity. Our purpose calls us beyond such questions. Roderick Hewitt, from the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands suggests that the purpose of a united church such as ours is two fold: “To share the Gospel with the world, and to be a blessing to the nations.” This is to say that we are more focused on “the way of life required by the Gospel,” than on what a church must, or should, or ought to do.[1]

Share the Gospel with the world.

Be a blessing to the nations.

We hear in such a calling an echo of Jesus’ words in commissioning those pairs of followers, with Luke’s number that suggests all the nations of the world.

Habitat for Humanity, that wonderful local and global organization that we support in various ways, says that its purpose is to eliminate poverty throughout the world.

The calling of Shelter House is to provide a home for the homeless in Iowa City.

We are sent out with less specific instructions.

            Share the gospel.

            Be a blessing.

Yes, there are times when sharing the gospel means feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, sheltering the homeless, or eliminating poverty. There are times when sharing the gospel means welcoming people who are often excluded as a way of announcing God’s great and unconditional acceptance of all people wherever they are on life’s journey. There are times when sharing the gospel means creating situations in which healing can occur.

We are not sent out to fulfill a program, however. We are sent out to share, to be a blessing.

So this is our message: “Peace. God’s realm has come near.”

Again, that doesn’t sound like much, does it? And yet…

Several years ago after a different flood hit a different community, a member of the American Bible Society filled his trunk with Bibles and headed off to the site of the disaster. As he approached he was stopped by the police, who were not letting anyone pass unless they had good reason to be there. Was he bringing food—or supplies—or drinking water?

“I’ve got hope in this car!” he replied.

What we bring is often different from what is expected. What we bring is often different from what we think we have.

When we packed supplies to take to Oakville, we were packing peace for a disrupted and dislocated community.

When we take meat loaf to the Free Lunch Program, we are taking respect.

When we send medical supplies to Haiti, we are sending a future.

Not that anyone—including Jesus—said this would be easy. He told his early followers—and we still hear this warning—I send you out like sheep among wolves. Not everyone will like what we say. Not everyone will respond well to our message or our actions.

When we announce that we are an open and affirming congregation and say that in extending such a welcome we are making visible the welcome that God has for al people, not everyone will agree.

When we urge our government to honor the image of God in each human being and cry out for an end to torture, not everyone will hear that as good news.

When we speak a word of peace into a world of war, not everyone will respond by beating their swords into plowshares.

Church World Service has brought humanitarian relief to Afghanistan for over 30 years. This past week the Afghan Ministry of Economy temporarily suspended its work, pending investigation of allegations that Church World Service had engaged in religious proselytizing.

Our actions won’t always be understood or accepted.

Our actions won’t always be enough to change the world.

But we will continue to announce that God is at work, transforming the world through and even in spite of our own feeble efforts.

Whether the message is accepted or not, the word is the same: “The realm of God has come near.”

Sent out with open hands, open hearts to share, this is our message: “Peace. The realm of God has come near.”

This brings us to the reasons to rejoice.

We celebrate because, well, because sometimes Satan falls from the sky like lightening. This is to say sometime the powers of death and destruction meet their match in what God does in and through even the likes of us. Sometimes a sign of God’s presence in the world is seen or heard in what we do or say.

When lives or communities are rebuilt, Satan falls from the sky like lightening.

When the hungry are fed, Satan falls from the sky like lightening.

Again, we don’t need to get caught up in the literalness of this image. But it is a great way of speaking about the destruction of the destructive powers of hunger, homelessness, warfare, and nature disaster.  Any time we are the agents of the new life that God is bringing into the world, we rejoice.

But even more, beyond our success or failure, we rejoice because we are loved and accepted by God. Everything else is secondary to that.

And it is just this reason for rejoicing—that we are loved and accepted by God—that is also the reason that we continue to go when we are sent out ahead.

Our success is not guaranteed.

But here and there, now and then, signs of God’s new life break into this world.

And always, everywhere we are loved and accepted by God.