The Church of the Seventy

This post also appears on the blog Modern Metanoia, run by good friend and colleague Father Marshall Jolly.  You can check it out here :

“The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.”

--Luke 10: 1

When artist Bob Kane created The Batman in 1938 the so-called Dark Knight was a solitary figure.  But in 1940 Kane decided that his nocturnal detective needed a partner.  So, hoping to draw in younger readers, Kane introduced Robin, the Boy Wonder. Together Batman and Robin would become the icons of justice in Gotham City:  the Dynamic Duo. In the years since it is safe to say that these two caped crusaders have become one of the most recognizable teams in all of popular culture.

First appearance of Robin, the Boy Wonder (Detective Comics # 38, April, 1940).

There is something special about a great duo, a team. Comics have Batman & Robin, baseball has guys like Alan Trammel & Sweet Lou Whittaker. Like the Dynamic Duo, Trammel and Whittaker, teammates with the Detroit Tigers, worked perfectly in tandem, combining for more double-plays together than any other shortstop and second base duo in baseball history. There is so much that a good duo, a good team, can accomplish when they work together.

Alan Trammell (Left) and Sweet Lou Whittaker, the greatest double play duo on baseball history.

I suspect Jesus had this in mind when he sent out the 70. It’s true that 70 is a significant number for the Jewish people--there were 70 elders elected to assist Moses, and the Jewish council called the Sanhedrin was made up of 70 people--but I like to think that Jesus was less concerned with the theological significance of the number than he was the importance of forming teams to go out and do his work. It’s possible that they could have covered even more ground or preached to more people had Jesus just let them go at it alone, but he clearly saw something in this idea of sending them out as a duo, as a team.

By sending the 70 out in this manner Jesus made sure that they could be there for each other, hold each other accountable, and remind each other that their mission was not to be cluttered by unnecessary baggage (carry no purse, no sandals, etc.). Heading out together would mean they could lift each other's spirits when times got tough, or they could tell stories to each other to pass the time on their long journeys. Above all, by sending them out in pairs Jesus reassured them that they were not alone. This work to which they were called would not be a solitary endeavor. “You're going to need each other," Jesus was telling them.  We’re going to need each other, too. 

Here is a piece of Gospel truth that certainly speaks to us today. Often times we feel like we have to do everything on our own, to be our own self-made man or woman. We live in a society that champions the individual, but oh how lonely this attitude can be!  How lonely it is to face life's many challenges by ourselves. What a comfort it is, then, to hear Jesus tell us that we’re not alone?! Yes, life does at times feel like we are sheep in the midst of wolves, but we do not have to face the wolves by ourselves; after all, Jesus sent the 70 to places that he himself intended to go.  It is no different for us.  Not only does Jesus send us out with someone by our side—be they a spouse or partner, a sibling, a best friend, a loyal dog, or the community of a church—he promises that he will follow behind us and work in those mysterious ways that we cannot ever fully understand.  Yet we can understand this:  Jesus does not call us into solitary ministry.

Still, this does not mean everything is always going to be rainbows and unicorns when we step out into the fearful world of ministry.  Sometimes teams have a tough time working together, and plenty of bumps in the road pop up. It happens even to the best duos and teams. Try reading All Star Batman & Robin by Frank Miller. In that book the heroes are constantly at each other's throats.  Batman is downright abusive to Robin, and the reader wonders the whole time how this duo could ever be dynamic.  Yet in the end they support each other in coping with their respective personal tragedies. In 1984 Alan Trammel made 10 errors at shortstop and Sweet Lou made 15 at second base.  That hardly sounds like the best double play duo in history, huh? Yet they still managed to lead the Tigers to their first World Series title in 36 years!  In our own lives we make mistakes and we clash at times with our spouses and partners, siblings, friends, dogs, and (especially!) our church communities. We make mistakes all the time, and we argue at an alarming rate.  Do you really think the 70 didn't argue?  I've no doubt that they had moments of anxiety and heated disagreements.  Still, they knew they needed each other. 

Batman needed Robin. Trammel needed Sweet Lou. And we need each other.  We were never meant to go through life completely alone.  We were made for each other, made for relationship.  Those relationships are grounded in the first relationship, that covenant that God made with humanity at that first dawn.  Just as God has made us to be in relationship with God, we embody that same relationship with one another, working together as we take part in God’s unfolding promise to mend the entire universe. We dare not undertake such a task alone! It is only by holding one another, supporting one another, and sharing one another’s burdens that we can accomplish this (with God’s help, of course).  We find meaning in our relationships with one another because God first found meaning by forming a relationship with us, and it is through those relationships that we form a team with one another and with God. And there’s no telling what this team can achieve!

We are in this thing together, brothers and sisters, and we need each other for the work of bringing about the Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.  This is not solitary work.  It must be shared. It is not a clergy thing. Or a lay-person thing. It is an everyone thing. This is what catholic faith, universal faith, is all about—the assurance that we are not alone.  To profess the catholic faith is to be reminded that it is not about just me and my personal relationship with Jesus and whether or not I'm saved. Instead, it is about all of us working together toward salvation. That work is done through our prayers and actions, with bread and wine shared in a holy meal, anthems sung in praise to God, and hands that reach out to pull our brothers and sisters up from the gutters to show them the love of the One who first loved us.  When we say in our Creed that we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church, this is what we mean. We believe in a Church without walls, one whose members go into the world like the 70 to share Christ's redemptive love.  We believe in a Church where each member has a role to play, where we work together, supporting and lifting up one another.  We believe in a Church that reminds us that we are not alone.  We believe in a Church where everyone belongs. We believe in the Church of the 70. We believe because that's the Church we are called to be!

Jesus is calling us, as he called the 70, to go into the world and proclaim the Good News.  But he does not invite us to do so alone.  He gives us one another, that we may walk and work with each other. To be a team. You. Me. All of us. We are in this together, brothers and sisters, and together, with God's power working through us and Jesus backing us up, our team will work wonders!