Sermon - Pentecost 6 (Trinity 5)

A MISSION FROM GOD?

Luke 10.1-11,16-20

We continue to read the Gospel of Luke. Starting with last Sunday, the texts belong to what Luke considers Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, the centre of religious and political power.

In Chapter 9, we read that during his Galilean ministry Jesus has the ‘twelve’, now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus is sharing the mission with the mysterious 72 disciples. We do not know much about them, but beyond the number (which is almost certainly symbolic) their presence proves that the Lord’s calls are starting to find followers, willing to follow – by leaving everything they had.

The instructions that Jesus gives them have inspired many missionary activities down the generations, and continue to inspire today. They are the guidelines of true mission in many parts of the world.

The instructions are really exciting – they are all about having the freedom to go on an adventure. “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandles”, in other words, do not trust in your possessions, do not rely on power, otherwise you won’t be able to be a witness of peace (shalom). You can’t be bound to the world. All too often mission fails because we are bound to possessions and power, so we end up being tempted by compromise and convenience.

When we talk about our faith, when we preach the Gospel, if we do it in a way that doesn’t upset the powerful then we are giving away our freedom, we are ignoring the fact that we are sent, like the 72, by a man who turned to Jerusalem knowing that he would be rejected by the powerful.

Today, there is a challenge to our freedom, there is a dangerous injustice being done to Christians – it is that we are all decent upstanding people. The church is a decent place to go on Sunday, and we aren’t expected to have any of that ‘proclaiming the reign of life, love and justice’ outside the rather old four walls of this building.

I had a good day yesterday, meeting many new faces, and I even wore my clerical shirt. It was good to be recognised, and it was good to talk to people in the community. I didn’t do much saying “Peace to this house” as I entered, and I didn’t say “the Kingdom of God is near you”’, no one really upset me, or rejected me, I wasn’t persecuted or stoned. Therefore I didn’t have to deliver a rebuke by “shaking the dust from my feet” as I left.

When I got back to the ranch, I sat watching ‘live earth’ for a bit, and thought that perhaps next year we could have a ‘live church’ event, throughout the world. Letting people know that the church isn’t still dozing in the corner, but it is an international force for good, proclaiming the kingdom of peace, justice and love to all people. There is not one corner of the world that God’s love doesn’t touch, so we should be there too….we could have hundreds of the most famous pop stars from the last few decades, and the acts could be introduced by the leaders of the nations, the queen and the pope. Satellites could beam the live transmission to all 6 billion people in the world, and we could buy televisions for people who live in far off lands so that their village could watch it. At the end, we could call all faiths together and promise a more positive dialogue. Those fighting wars could dismantle their weapons to the sound of the groovy music. At the end we could all shout AMEN, at the same time, and see if we could hear the whole world resonating to the sound of unity…

…as long as it doesn’t offend anybody