Lectionary 14; 7 Pentecost C July 7, 2013
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie G. Hutson
Isaiah 66: 10-14; Galatians 6: 1-10; Luke 1-11, 16-20
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
When I realized that this would be my final opportunity to preach with Vicar Inge in our midst, the pressure was on! Of course, pressure that came only from me….the pressure of saying something meaningful to her….so, I took my first look at the readings assigned for this day.
“See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.”
Awesome.
That’s what every person preparing for ministry wants to hear!
Of course, what Jesus says in our Gospel reading is not intended just for Vicar Inge as she prepares to go back to seminary. It was spoken to those who were there with Jesus on that day. At least seventy folks that Jesus was sending on ahead of him, to prepare the way for him, to be the laborers in the vineyard.
Still… I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves?
Then, what Jesus offers to the seventy that day is a fairly detailed set of instructions for evangelism….for sharing the story of God’s wide welcome. So what might this Gospel reading and the other readings assigned for this day have to say to us – all of us – who have a story to share…a God shaped story?
It’s worth noting that the first thing we learn from this text is that Jesus sent them in pairs…never alone. This is so important in ministry, such a key component in sharing the story. Always surround yourself with colleagues and friends who can support you and walk with you. You will be richer for having done so. And in those times when it feels that indeed you might be a sheep in the midst of wolves, that you are not alone will be a helpful thing in a multitude of ways.
Don’t carry too much baggage with you – it only gets in the way. And don’t get sidetracked by a lot of unnecessary conversation along the road. Remember what your task is. Remember the story you have to tell.
And then there is this business of going into a house and greeting it with a word of peace. Jesus says that the first words to be spoken when we meet strangers, or enter the houses of people we do know, are words of peace. I wonder how often we do this. How often the church does this? Because certainly we might expect that even if we differ about other matters, we might easily and readily establish that we are peace makers.
While we are in that house, the invitation is for us to eat and drink what is provided for us by our hosts. I remember the first time I ever tasted grits. Newly arrived in Alabama, I was at a friend’s house and her grandmother had made us grits for breakfast. The grandmother was so sure I would want to eat them and all I could think of was that they looked like a cross between rice and corn and I most certainly preferred Cheerios to this bubbling hot dish of grain. But I ate them because they were what had been prepared for me. Imagine what bad manners it would have been to have said that I wanted to eat the kind of food I knew and was familiar with, not what my host was offering. Ministry is like that. Our task as bearers of God’s stories is to receive the stories of others. To hear how God is present in their lives. To eat whatever food they offer to us. To be present with them as sisters and brothers on the journey not as adversaries, not as us versus them.
I think this is my greatest sorrow in ministry these days, not ministry here in particular, but ministry in a broader level. Ministry as one who, like you, bears the God story. You see, the God story is a mystery and a love story wrapped into one. It is the mystery of God’s Creation…the way that the earth is so dependent on each part of itself for sustenance and sustainability. It is the mystery of things that are just too beyond our ability to grasp….a God who would love us enough to come and live among us. It is the mystery of the resurrection and the ascension and incarnation and the annunciation. It is the story of God’s great love for the outcast and the poor….love that means more to those who have been deemed unlovable by the world.
But too often…oh, too often, the story isn’t told like a mysterious love story. It is told like a war novel where lines are drawn and some are in and some are out. It is told like a courtroom drama where some are innocent and some are guilty. And God clearly says that we are all created in God’s image and called God’s beloved children. And we are told that nothing can separate us from that love. And if this is true, and we are told that it is true time and time again throughout Scripture, how can it be that some are in and some are out? Jesus has commanded us clearly to love one another and not to judge. Yet, like a great courtroom drama story we put the other on trial and pronounce them outside of the great mysterious love of God.
And so when we are telling God’s great love mystery story to folks who are hungry for a good us versus them, where “us” clearly wins….that’s when we will most likely feel that we are lambs in the midst of wolves. And that might also be the time when it will be necessary to shake the dust off of our sandals as we leave the conversation. Not so much because we are condemning those who refuse to listen to us, but because we have done all we can. We have spoken peace and shared food and told the story of the mysterious love of God for all people and that is all we are called to do. We have to keep the main thing the main thing.
And that’s hard when we’re also concerned about reports and budgets and meetings and more meetings. But just like the seventy, who when they returned to Jesus were rejoicing over how successful that had been in their ministry tasks….Jesus doesn’t want us to get too caught up with ourselves….to think too much when the budgets are good and the membership increases and even the demons submit to us. Jesus calls us to keep the main thing the main thing. Jesus says that we should just rejoice that our names are written in heaven….in that great story of mystery and love, as characters in the story and tellers of the tale….each of us, the beloved children of God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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