'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. He said to them, "The
harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the
harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am
sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no
sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say,
`Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace
will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same
house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to
be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and
its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are
there, and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever
you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say,
`Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest
against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'
"Whoever
listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever
rejects me rejects the one who sent me."'
--Luke 10: 1-11
This summer my wife Kristen and I are watching
a series I first discovered in seminar, Battlestar Galactica. I’m not talking about the original 1978 version
but the newer series that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel from 2005-2009. Without giving anything away, the show
focuses on the last of humanity struggling for survival after coming under
attack by a race of machine lifeforms called the Cylons. That, however, is just the surface level
stuff; underneath it is show about what it means to be human, the struggle with
the Other, and where we all fit into God’s plan for the universe. A line of dialogue that is repeated
throughout the series is “all of this has happened before, and all of this will
happen again,” implying that all of existence is a drama retold over and over
again and in which we all play a role. I could talk about this show for days, but I’ll stop there. Just
watch it.
The main cast of Battlestar Galactica.
If the whole of existence is a drama
that is playing out, moving ever closer to the Kingdom of God, a kingdom that
Jesus tells us has both already come and has not quite been fully realized,
what then is our role? I would offer
that our role, the role of every person baptized into Jesus Christ, is the role
of the 70.
Taking place only in the Gospel of Luke (possibly because of that text's emphasis on the inclusion of the Gentiles), we hear the story this week of Jesus setting aside 70 folks—or 72 depending on
your translation. These, like the 12 that Jesus called one chapter earlier,
are to be apostles; that is, they are ones who are sent. The details of that sending are
significant. First, and perhaps most
importantly, they are sent in pairs, never to go out alone. They are to go into
towns and villages where Jesus himself plans to go and are to prepare the way
for him, their own ministry reflecting the ministry of Jesus in table
fellowship, the care of physical needs, and the proclamation of the Good News
of the Kingdom of God. They are to offer
the peace of God to all they meet in those places, but if that peace is not returned to them,
they are to shake the dust from their feet and walk away, leaving Jesus to care
for them when he later rolls into town. They are to have to clear hearts and
minds, focused on what is really important, not to be weighed down by material
objects or distracted by issues of little consequence. They will proclaim the victory of God over
the forces of evil, and so long as they remain faithful to that task, they will
be able to face the fearsomeness of any who oppress and oppose them.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s
because this language reflects that of our own baptismal covenant. This, then, is the role to which we have been called. All this has happened before and will happen
again. Like the 70, we are
apostles. Yes, that means you! All of us by virtue of our baptism are sent
into the world, into every highway and byway, into every town and city and
backwoods holler to be ministers of the Gospel, the Good News. How do we do
this? We look to the example
of the 70.
An Eastern icon of Jesus and the 70.
Like them, we do not engage in our ministry alone. What a relief that is!
The work is too big for any single one of us, and quite frankly, when we think
that we can do it all alone—especially clergy—we fall prey to our own pride,
our own sense of self-value, and we are often destroyed by our own hubris. No, brothers and sisters, we do this ministry
together, in twos and threes, and whole communities, with partners, friends,
family, and church siblings. And the
ministry that we do, like that of the 70, is itself a reflection of the very
ministry of Jesus: we engage in table fellowship each Sunday and are
sent out to share a meal with those who are lost, broken, and unloved, the very
folks to whom Jesus shared table fellowship; we care for the physical needs of
those who are suffering, whether it be offering a cup of cold water to a
thirsty sojourner or visiting someone incarcerated or sick; we proclaim the
Good News, the Gospel, that the kingdom of God has come near and will one day
be fully realized. And like the 70, we do these acts of ministry everywhere we
go, offering up the peace of God to all we meet, without exception. No, we will not always be met with love and
appreciation; after all, the declaration of the nearness of God’s reign is
simply not a popular theme everywhere, especially not among those in power, who
would find its coming to be a threat to their own stability. Likewise, there will be times when we find
ourselves engaging with one who simply cannot hear what we have to say, one who
would abuse us verbally, emotionally, or physically, in which case we too must
shake the dust from our feet and walk away, leaving them to Jesus.
That, I suspect, is the most important and hardest thing for us to remember, that there are times when we have to leave it in
Jesus’ hands. Our role is not Jesus’ role! Our role is not to save souls, or to fix
people. We must not lose sight of the
fact that we are not Jesus. Only Jesus
is Jesus. Our role is to go to the
people and proclaim his love in word and action and to remember the seriousness of
what we do. At times things may not go the way we want—notice
that Jesus does not say that there will be a shepherd that will go with the lambs when they are sent out into the midst of the wolves. Sometimes we will go alone, and we will be fearful, but in the end the
kingdom will come because the shepherd is moving in right behind us, and it is
his role to be the one to reconcile all of the hurts of this world. We are
simply to be faithful, to listen and go where he sends
us, to be his hands and feet when called to do so, and then, when necessary, to
get out of the way.
