Luke 10:1-11,16-20

       Our lives are filled with many transitions. We’re constantly moving from place to place, in and out. We’re wandering around this earth, moving to and froe, feeling very busy and very important. I’m sure that an aerial view of our activity would look just like all the ants I have crawling around in my bathroom at home. As we move from place to place, we constantly transition, making physical as well as mental moves from task to task.

       Last week we learned that Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. He has set his face toward the place where he will go to be hung on a cross, die, and be resurrected. It is at this point in Luke’s Gospel, that Jesus has set his face, his mind, his body toward his death and resurrection. And this is such a significant transition. It’s at the cross where Jesus’ purpose for being comes to a culmination. It is at the cross that Jesus dies and is resurrected for our sake.

       With this in mind, we should read the rest of Luke’s Gospel knowing that the things Jesus does and says from this point on in the Gospel are all in service to the transitioning and moving toward the cross. These are all the things that Jesus wishes to teach us about going to the cross, about Christian life and what it is to look like.

        The mission of the seventy disciples described in this Gospel text begins with Jesus calling the seventy together, pairing them up and sending them out to all the surrounding cities that he was hoping to visit. Christian life and ministry is about being called to be sent. As the seventy are standing there, two by two, Jesus sends them out with an image, a metaphor their mission. He uses a farming image, of all things. He says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;” There are many folks who have not yet heard that the Son of Man has come into the world; they are the harvest, waiting to be harvested. As they transition and move into the world there is much to do and few people to do it. So what are they to do?

       They are to pray, “Ask the Lord the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Christian life and ministry is about being called and sent out and about prayer. And then Jesus tells them to go on their way, to get moving. When you are called to be sent, you pray and then you move. Don’t sit idly, waiting around and never moving. Christian life and ministry requires that you are called to be sent, that you pray, and that you move.

       Jesus does not deceive any of the disciples he sends. In the very next line after he tells them to get on their way, he reminds them that this transition will not be easy. “See,” he says, “I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” Those on the move, called by Jesus Christ to be sent into the world and those who pray and then move are transitioning into a world full of wolves, waiting to devour them as if they are lambs. Christian life and ministry is about being called and sent, it is about prayer, it is about moving, and it is about knowing that none of this will be easy.

       Jesus goes on to tell them what they are to carry as they head out into this world of wolves. They are to carry absolutely nothing. No purse, bag, no sandals on your feet, oh yeah, and don’t talk to anyone on the road. Can you sense the urgency here? As you are called and sent, as you are praying, as you are moving and knowing that it won’t be easy, you’d better do all of this quickly! Not only does Jesus tell them to get a move on, but he reminds them that there is no time to haul around all of your own baggage, put on shoes or even stop to talk with your friends on the road. Christian life and ministry is about being called to be sent, praying, moving, knowing this won’t be easy, and doing it all without your baggage and a serious sense of urgency!

       And just when Jesus has geared you up enough, he reminds you that before you can even enter a place, you must be welcomed there. The ancient Hebrew people were all about hospitality; they wandered and moved around in the wilderness for many years and had to learn to rely on the hospitality of God to give them their food and their places to stay. The tradition of the Jewish people at Jesus’ time was to invite strangers and foreigners into their cities and homes and care for them. The book of Leviticus offers the Jewish people a law to follow concerning the welcoming of a stranger. It says, “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” Jesus’ own story about the welcome these disciples should receive is taking into consideration that they should be welcomed as if they were citizens of the town, and if not, then they should leave and move on. If so, they should stay and preach the good news, heal the sick, and welcome the hospitality they receive.

       Do you sense the sort of practical warnings and promises Jesus is giving to these seventy disciples? Transition into these places isn’t going to be easy; you aren’t going to be able to go without first being called and without first praying. When that’s been done, don’t forget to move, move without delay, without any of your baggage, knowing you’re entering into a world full of wolves, and receiving the hospitality with grace and gratitude while moving along when you are not welcome. It seems to me the best Christian ministry follows some or all of these things Jesus tells the seventy disciples.

       The exchange at the end of the reading for today recounts the seventy disciples as they return from going out into the wolf pack. They are so surprised that God took care of them and protected them and gave them the ability to even cast out demons that they start boasting about it as if it were their own, right there in front of Jesus. Jesus hears them, tells them that they have even more power that they even experienced. And then he chastises them, saying, “Do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” The disciples rejoice in the power they think they have, but Jesus tells them to rejoice in the gift they have received.

       So often, the trouble we all run into is that we are good at making the transitions in our lives in just the way Jesus taught those disciples. So often we are good at going when we’re sent, praying, moving without delay, receiving hospitality, and all the rest; yet, when we get out into the world and start doing the ministry of Jesus Christ, we start boasting in OUR power to do great things. We turn the gift of Jesus’ good news and call to ministry into pride and self-empowerment. Jesus sharply reminds the disciples and us that the gift we have received from God; he reminds us that our names are written in heaven as a pure gift and we’ve done nothing to earn it.

       We would do ourselves well as not only individuals, but as a country if we could be but again reminded by Jesus Christ that everything we have received in life is not by our own doing, but by the gracious gift of God. America was first settled by those who felt called and sent by God to enter a new land, to pray, to move and move quickly, to remember that sometimes they were sent into places that would not welcome them, and sometimes into places that would. It would do us all well to remember today that our independence in this country is really a matter of dependence: dependence on a gracious God who has first given us the gift of ultimate freedom and has written the names of His children in heaven.

       As you transition from place to place, as you move around this country with your liberty, your freedom of speech, your freedom of religion, remember that God has written your names in heaven and called you to be sent into the world, sometimes a world full of wolves, and move without delay, without any of your baggage, and receive the hospitality you’re given as if you’ve not gotten any of this yourself. The most important part of Christian life and ministry is to rejoice in God’s good gift of freedom! Amen! 

Intern Pastor Chris