Reading: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Let
us pray: Abundant God, you whose love for the world is beyond our ken yet given
into our hands, open our hearts and minds to your word for us today and everyday,
guiding us in your way and strengthening us for the journey. Amen.
Reading.[1]
Jesus
said: The primary gift you will take when I send you out is that of God’s peace. You are to offer this peace to all whom you
meet – and if it is rejected you are to leave it at the door.
That reading you just heard was a paraphrase of our Gospel reading by
Adrian Taylor in ‘Luke Illustrated Gospel Project’. And some of the wording offers real insight
into the way in which we are to equip and carry ourselves as God’s people going
out into what Luke considered a dangerous world – a concept we would no less
appreciate today.
Taking the good news of Jesus Christ to the world, to preach the gospel
– that word evangelise that we need to recover as ours, not just belonging to a
certain type of church – sharing the good news of the Gospel is to be done with
confidence, compassion, humility and above all in the peace of God.
For added clarity, let me add what it is not. It is not to be done by haranguing and fear
mongering, nor by glossy pamphlets on the street corner nor by arrogance nor
adversarial debate. I have to say I have
heard and seen some incredibly bullying and dangerous evangelizing practices
which are not only ineffective but downright unsafe. Being a bearer of the good news of Christ is
about living and talking of and acting out the love of Jesus Christ in our
everyday lives, for, make no mistake, evangelising
we are called to do – uncomfortable as it might seem for some of us.
In a parish review document that we are to respond to about our
relationship with community and those outside the church, this was defined,
with every good intention might I say, by the following measures:
·
Our members know that evangelism is high priority and
own it.
·
Many are able to share the gospel in a concise way and
talk about their experiences with Jesus.
·
We organize regular events to share the message of the
gospel and members invite friends.
·
We are pleased with the number of new believers we
baptize each year.
Philip and I have struggled to find words to respond to this – and
certainly to give ourselves marks out of 10 as requested – there was something
wrong – more than just finding it weird to give ourselves a pass mark, more
than a language of explicit directive.
And then it dawned on me as I read this passage from Luke exactly why I
have had a problem - because it makes God way too small.
If we are to take these as our measure of making Jesus Christ known in
the world then we are limiting God to a very particular approach of sharing the
good news of the Gospel – it involves verbal literacy, is ‘I’ focused, event
orientated, and has a particular measure of success – baptism.
And I don’t think that this is the fullness of the experience of the 70
or, as we read it nowadays, of all humanity as we seek to share the grace and
love of God. Not at all.
Where is the listening? Where is
the vulnerable space? Where is the
thought that we don’t have all the answers?
Where is the understanding that God works through us and without
us? Where is the sense of God within
that lights up our lives 24/7 and in everything we do and say? Where is the psalmist and the poet and the
storyteller and the contemplative and the journeying?
So yes we will share our thoughts with the wider church on how we at
Opoho are doing as an outward looking faith community but I think our language
will be a bit different. And I hope that it will be based on the directions of
Jesus in all their breadth and depth and simplicity.
You see Jesus didn’t have the benefit of our creeds and doctrines and
well developed theologies but he knew well the fears and the challenges that
this commissioning would evoke. So he
equipped his people in the best way he could.
First of all he told them to go out.
Not to sit and wait for people to drift in and see what was going
on. Not to leave it to others, not to
spend time in the planning and not to carry a big load of stuff just in case -
go trusting in God to provide.
Then he told them to prepare the way for his coming – not to have
it all sorted and signed up but to be the carrier of the seed that Jesus would
nourish and bring to fruition. We do not
do this alone and we do not have all the answers.
And he told them to go in peace – a peace which is guaranteed to bring
them into conflict with the powers that be but nonetheless to walk only in
peace. And when rejected, not to have a
shouting match or to threaten or to cajole, but simply to leave that knowledge
of the peace of God hovering around the entrance to their lives and their
homes.
He told them the need was urgent – both in time and in necessity. The labourers are few and the need for the
peace of Christ is huge. The harvest is
plentiful is a slightly awkward metaphor these days – perhaps if we understand
it as coming to full maturity in God rather than being selected and removed
from the field.
He told them to spend time building relationship, sharing stories,
listening and conversing with those who welcomed them in. No quick tick in the box and on to the next
one but determined fellowship and community.
He also told them to expect no reward except the presence of God with
them and to refrain from any judgement – whether welcomed or not. Well – that is a timely reminder for
Christians today.
And finally he offers hope where hard heartedness rules: “there is one
singular unrivalled matter we will leave with you: God’s kingdom with
ever-growing borders is rising like the sun against the shadows. Look!
You will not see it hiding in the shadows.” The light triumphs over the darkness and the
light is Jesus Christ.
As we gather as company around the table today, sharing the cup and
eating from the same loaf of bread remember this is a sacred place where all
are welcome within the peace of God and in the name of Jesus. Amen
[1] The Sending and the Welcome by Adrian Taylor from ‘Luke Illustrated Gospel
Project: a conversation with Luke in Aotearoa’ edited by Malcolm Gordon. Dunedin: KCML, 2015
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