Our Greatest Joy

July 8, 2007

By

Reverend Litton Logan

Scriptures:

¹After this 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. ²He 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. ³Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. ⁴Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. ⁵Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ ⁶And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. ⁷Remain 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. ⁸Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; ⁹cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹‘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.’
Luke 10:1--11 (NRSVA)
¹⁶“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

The Return of the Seventy

¹⁷The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” ¹⁸He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. ¹⁹See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. ²⁰Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:16--20 (NRSVA)

Sermon:

This morning’s scriptures move us along in Jesus’ ministerial journey toward Jerusalem.

As was Jesus’ custom, he teaches in metaphors and parables drawn from everyday life. Rarely does Jesus teach in theological language. Today’s metaphor is no exception.

Most of us are familiar with harvest and harvesting to one degree or another. This may simply be harvesting personal gardens, growing up on farms, or working in and around agricultural communities. I am sure most of us are familiar with the urgency of the harvest. When vegetables, fruits, or grains began to ripen, there is a critical window of opportunity in which to harvest.

Growing up, as I shared last Sunday, my family always had a garden. When vegetables started to ripen, we frequently had to check twice a day for ripening vegetables, especially if we were going to can or freeze. My family and I also picked gallons and gallons of wild dewberries and sand plums, and I’ve spent many, many hot days in berry thickets and stands of plum trees. I also worked one harvest season for Bobo Mosley Peach Orchard. We went to work at first light and worked until we couldn’t see the right peaches to pick.

When I was the pastor at First Christian Church in Helena, OK, the wheat harvest caused a feverish dynamics to life in that little town even though most of the farmers hired custom combiners to cut and harvest their wheat. During the few weeks of harvest, farmers and associated businesses worked around the clock

The point I am making is the point that Jesus in Luke’s Gospel is making--there is an optimum time and urgency associated with harvesting. It is a time when one’s druthers and the superficial niceties of life have to take a back seat. The harvest dictates; little else matters.

Jesus, however, like the prophets of the Old Testament uses the harvest metaphor to talk about God’s coming kingdom, which forebodes judgment and the end-times. Before it is too late, the harvesters must go out into the world and call people to repentance and commitment. Thus, we see Jesus in Luke’s Gospel calling seventy or as many references say seventy-two of his followers to himself, commissioning them to go out in teams of two, the minimum number required for a credible testimony, into the villages in the surrounding area. These disciples as advance teams are to prepare the villages and people for Jesus’ arrival and ministry in their towns.

Jesus stresses the urgency of these disciples’ mission by saying that they are to take only the barest of provision. They are not to go home and pack extra clothes or shoes. The conscientious disciples as we heard last week must not even take the time to bury a dead family member. They don’t have time to go home and put things in order or to say goodbye. The true disciple’s chief priority is proclaiming the kingdom of God. The disciples are not to even stop by the ATM and get extra money or purchase Traveler’s Checks. These disciples are to go, now, with what they have on their backs and in their pockets. Go now and prepare the surrounding villages and people for Jesus’ arrival, which will signal the kingdom of God coming near the people. Hurry; hurry, because the kingdom is coming near in Jesus’ words and deeds. However, it will not come completely until the time appointed by God, but get ready, be on alert, and start preparing. There is such a sense of urgency that the disciples are not even to pause for friendly greetings and polite visits with people they meet along the way.

Jesus says, as they go out they are to have no guile or false pretenses in them. Be open, honest about what they have heard and seen. However, know this, they will meet people that will disbelieve and even abuse them. This is to be expected. When they encounter such people or villages simply, shake off the dust of that village from their feet. Those people that reject the disciples reject Jesus, and those who reject Jesus, reject God to their own judgment and detriment. Don’t waste time or energy on these people, reject the whole lot of them, and move on. The disciples have too much to do, too much territory to cover to over invest in those who initially reject or equivocate about welcoming Jesus into their villages.

When the disciples come into a village, if they are received and offered hospitality in someone’s home honor that family and that home. The disciples are to eat what is put before them with thanks and gratitude. The disciples are not to house hop looking for better accommodations and better food. These evangelist are worthy of hospitality and their keep but they are not to abuse people in the process. They are to heal the sick and announce the kingdom to all they encounter

Jesus’ commission to his followers is the same to day as in his day. Everywhere at all times the Great Spirit of the Christ moves in and out of the lives of people urgently requesting that they be about the work of telling the world that the kingdom of God has come near to them in the life and teachings of Jesus. It asks us in subtle and not so subtle ways, “Why don’t you feel the urgency and the immediacy of the need to usher in God’s fullest rule and reign into your sin-sick world?” “Why in God’s name are you not more committed to the Christ processes in your life and in the world?”

Many make the excuses that they must take the time to study more—to be sure, what is true is true. They must equip themselves for the task, as the world understands professional preparation and evangelism. Others plead for the time to build great organizations, institutions, and churches to validate their call and work as well as to educate and train those they would convert. Others call for miracles and supernatural manifestations to convince themselves and the world of God’s power and saving presence in their words and deeds.

But the Spirit says, “No, No, No, your are to proclaim the peace and salvation of God that has come near to you, in your life, as you in faith wait for the kingdom’s fullness come on earth or in death.

So many people believe they are untrained, incapable, and ill equipped, or not called to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of God. They believe this because the idols of so-called religious professionalism or it antithesis, unbridled and ill informed religious enthusiasm, intimidates them. Human pride wants the status of professional education and titles or the raw, primitive power of religious magic to validate and justify its voice for God.

Foolish, foolish people!

It is true, that there are some people that are called to specialized ministries of proclamation, teaching, healing, and what ever. Nevertheless, each one of us is called to proclaim that the kingdom of God is near—in us. We are called to share what our faith in God has meant to our lives. We are called to share how our lives have been changed for the better because of our relationship to God through Jesus Christ. What preparation does that require? Simply this: a disciplined life of prayer and listening to that, which is in us. It requires that we be a part of the community of faith at worship, at work, and at study. Most of all, however, we must share our life-changing faith with those who are in need of God’s grace and spiritual healing. Those people who are receptive, we bless with our care and nurture, and the life of our church, as they will allow us. Those who reject our efforts and sharing of our faith do not reject us so much as they reject the one who has sent us, and the One that sent him. We are all called to share at a minimum what God has done and is doing for us--no more, no less! Oh, by the way, the real secret to bringing in the kingdom of God on earth is simple—really caring about others as you care about yourself.

Those disciples that had been commissioned and sent out returned. They are elated. They marvel, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” In those moments, as Jesus hears the reports of his advanced team’s successes, he envisions the beginning of the end for evil in its highest and its more mundane forms.” He tells his disciples that with the success of their mission they can rest assured that evil cannot touch or harm that which is essential to them—their relationship to God.

Jesus concludes with something I think we all too often exaggerate but do not appreciate. Jesus says, “…do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

We often hear so much about people’s joy at being saved but few express their appreciation for the honor bestowed up them. In short, Jesus implies the power to cast out spirits—to address and remove evil in all its manifestations--is power from God. It is a part of the disciple’s basic equipment if you will. The greatest thing to celebrate, however, is that the disciples have reached such a point in their salvation relationship to God that God can and does equip them for divine service. This is to be the disciples’ and our greatest joy-- that God can and does use us to bring the kingdom on earth.

Moreover, Like Ole Buddy, we are not alone. There are millions of Christ’s disciples in the world, sharing what God has done in their lives to the glory of God. Despite modern cynicism and the apparent evidence that the world is headed for hell in a hand basket, Christians sharing their faith with others is making a difference.

The story on Ole Buddy is this: An out-of-towner drove his car into a ditch in a rural area. Luckily, a local farmer saw what happened and came to help with his big strong horse named Buddy.

He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!" Buddy didn't move.

Then the farmer hollered, "Pull, Buster, pull!" Buddy didn't respond.

Once more, the farmer commanded, "Pull, Coco, pull!” Nothing.

Then the farmer nonchalantly said, "Pull, Buddy, pull!", and the horse easily dragged the car out of the ditch.

The motorist was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times.

The farmer said, "Oh, Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only one pulling, he wouldn't even try!"

Let us be found faithful in the traces, doing our part, pulling our load with confidence in God and God’s kingdom will and ways.

During the winter months, mother’s dewberry cobblers and plum jelly were all worth the hot hours of harvesting and the stickers from the berry vines and the thorny plum bushes. Fired okra, purple hull butterbeans, Crowder peas, and stewed tomatoes with okra from our garden put a different perspective on my labors. I was certainly glad we had put in a garden even if it had been hot, dirty work.

Those who have ears let them hear.