SERMONS

Proper 9
July 8, 2007

By The Rev. Sylvia Czarnetzky

Isa. 66:10-6
Psalm 66:1-8
Gal. 6:14-8
Lk. 10:1-12, 16-20

This weekend, I’ve had packing on my mind. Tomorrow, I fly to London, where my husband will meet me at the airport, and he and I will have two weeks together in England and Scotland. It’s chilly and rainy over there – in the 60s and 70s – so I have been instructed to bring warm clothes as well as summer clothes. We’re also going to Carnoustie, a town on the seaside in Scotland, for one day of the British Open golf tournament, and chances are the weather will be windy, cold, and miserable. I can’t wait! So all weekend I’ve been washing clothes and making lists, and thinking hard about what I really need for this trip. I’m trying to be a minimalist – taking lots of layers of clothes so I can put on and take off layers, to adapt to changing weather conditions. But I’m trying my best to limit myself to one big suitcase and one carry-on bag and a teeny, tiny little purse. That’s not a lot of luggage, at least, for me. I’ve been asking myself, What do I really need? What items do I absolutely want to have on the plane with me, like a good book and a tube of chapstick? And what items do I think I need, but really don’t? Tonight after the 5 o’clock/this service, the packing process will draw to a close, and the suitcases will be zipped up and put by the front door, so we’ll see whether I’ll be successful in my goal of traveling light! Jesus has some things to say about traveling light. Jesus appoints seventy people to go out ahead of him into neighboring villages and towns, and to them he says, “Go on your way…Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals and greet no one on the road.” (Lk. 10:3) That’s Jesus’s packing advice for his disciples.

Nowadays, of course, if you showed up at the airport today with no purse, no luggage, and no shoes, they’d suspect you of being either a drug mule or a terrorist! Obviously, travel in Jesus’s day was very different than it is today.

So what was good travel advice to the 70 in first century Palestine wouldn’t really apply to us, at least not literally.  (Cousar 416) Yet, I think we’d be making a mistake to dismiss all of what Jesus says   as out-of-date advice  for us, because it seems to me that some of what Jesus said to the seventy might still be valuable for us today.  (416) Because we’re still being sent by Jesus to do his bidding, and Jesus has some things to say to his new appointees about what to do and how to do it.

The very first thing Jesus says to them is, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;…” And that may be as true today as it’s ever been. There’s plenty to do to spread God’s word and to heal in his name, but not so many folks around to do it. It’s like the story of the little red hen – when she asks for help planting the wheat, and harvesting it, and milling it, and finally, baking bread with it, nobody volunteers. But when it’s time to eat the bread, there are volunteers galore! But by then, it’s too late. The next thing Jesus told the seventy was that he was sending them out “like lambs into the midst of wolves.”  (Lk. 10:3) Notice there is no mention here of a good shepherd who will guide and protect the lambs. (Cousar 419) The lambs here will have to fend for themselves! We know from watching cartoons that “[t]he wolf was the natural predator of the lamb.” (Culpepper 219), so I think this piece of advice from Jesus holds up pretty well – the work of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ to people who have not yet heard it will be dangerous.  The people to whom you go may be hostile to you, or worse! (220)

The next thing Jesus told the seventy was to travel light and to move purposefully:  he sends them out without purse, shoes, or bag, and he tells them not to speak to anyone on the road. These instructions convey the same sense of urgency that Jesus conveyed in his words last Sunday – Remember?  He told one potential follower that he could not go home and tell his family goodbye, and he told another that he could not bury his father. There is a sense of urgency about this work, (O’Driscoll 108) And Jesus is pretty clear that their focus should be     “singleminded[ly] on the task at hand.  (Craddock 327) “By telling them not to greet anyone on the road – eastern salutations were lengthy and elaborate – Jesus was giving their task a sense of urgency.” (O’Driscoll 108) By the way, what Jesus said to the seventy about purses, shoes, and bags, is pretty similar to what Jesus said to the twelve when he sent them out a little earlier in Luke’s gospel. In chapter nine, Jesus sends the twelve out to spread the good news, to heal the sick and cure the lame, and when he commissions them, Jesus says to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread nor money – not even an extra tunic.”  (Lk. 9:3) Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Whether Jesus is sending forth the original twelve disciples, or whether Jesus is sending forth the seventy, His advice is the same: travel light. That advice makes sense, from a practical standpoint, because if you are heading into hostile territory, you don’t want “to be encumbered with extra baggage” because you might need to move quickly get out of danger. (Cousar 417) Remember, too, traveling from town to town in those days wasn’t the safest thing in the world to do – just ask the man rescued by the Good Samaritan! So, to the twelve and to the seventy, Jesus says take nothing with you as you head out to spread my word. Material things will just get in the way. And that isn’t bad advice for us today, when we leave this church and go out into the world – take the good news and nothing much else.

Finally, Jesus gives the seventy very detailed instructions about what to do and what to say when they enter a house or a town. When you enter a house, Jesus tells them, “first, say, ‘Peace be to this house!” Now the occupants of that house are free   to accept your offer of peace, or reject it. If they accept your offer of peace, then you stay put, “eating and drinking whatever they provide,” even if it’s not kosher.  (Cousar 417) Once they accept your offer of peace, then you accept their offer of hospitality on whatever terms are offered. (Craddock 327, Willson 18) When you enter a town for the first time, the instructions are similar: if the people of the town welcome you, then you should “eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them ‘[t]he kingdom of God has come near to you.’”

“The three facets of the mission encompass the creation of community (table fellowship),” the healing of the sick and lame, and “Proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom.” (Culpepper 220) And that sounds a lot like what the twelve have been doing in Galilee all this time.  (Culpepper 220) But now the journey to Jerusalem has begun, and the mission has taken on a deeper sense of urgency. (O’Driscoll 108)

And aren’t we called to the same tasks? Aren’t we called into community with one another – a community of faith that is sustained, in part, by our table fellowship? And isn’t Jesus’s call to heal the sick the same call we hear today?  It might not be the same kind of healing Jesus was capable of, but it seems fair to say that “contemporary Christians are called to a healing ministry. (O’Driscoll 108) As the world around us becomes more “frantic and tense and fearful,” Christian faith has the power “to bring healing to the lives of individuals – the healing of fears, angers, anxieties.  Perhaps just as valuable is the ability of Christian faith to bring a renewed sense of meaning and purpose into people’s lives.”  (108) 

So it seems that there is plenty of good advice for us in this ancient text from Luke. And next Sunday, we will send forth a group of people from this chapel to be part of the Honduras mission, bringing hope and healing and kindness with them to the people they minister to. And we will bless them in the name of the church, and give thanks for their willingness to be sent, in the name of Jesus Christ, to continue Christ’s ministry of healing. The folks who go to Honduras will take their place in a long line of people that extends all the way back to Jesus and the twelve, as bearers of the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Works Cited:

Cousar, Charles B., et al. Texts for Preaching Year C.  Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994, 416-8.

Craddock, Fred B., et al. Preaching Through the Christian Year, Year C. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press, 1994. 327-8.

Culpepper, R. Alan. “Luke.” The New Interpreter’s Bible.  IX. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995.

Gaudino, Rebecca J. Kruger. “The Season of Pentecost.”  New Proclamation Year C. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006.

O’Driscoll, Herbert. A Time for Good News: Reflections on the Gospel for people on the go, Year C. Toronto:  Anglican Book Centre, 1991. 107-9.

Palumbo, Paul K. “Eating What is Set before You.” Word & World, IIX, No. 3.  (Summer 2001).

“Travel Light!  God’s Reign is Near.” article from lectionary.org.

Willson, Patrick J. “What to say.” “Living by the Word.”  Christian Century, June 26, 2007. 18.