7. Sunday after Pentecost, 07/07/2013

Sermon on Luke 10:1-20, by David H. Brooks

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!' And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.' I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.

"The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me."

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

There's no better way to get an argument going that to ask after a favorite sports team, and then insinuate (rather, say right up front) that the members are a bunch of no-good cheating bums. You know how this works: "You're a fan of [insert team name here]? You do realize that their star player/their head coach/their owner burns down the homes of widows and orphans as a hobby? This can be done for fun, of course, but our sports heroes are no laughing matter. Lance Armstrong is in the news again, having just given an interview to Le Monde as this year's Tour de France began. A lot of cycling fans hate Armstrong's guts, but there are others who admire him despite his confessed misdeeds, and many cancer survivors still see him as something of a hero.

It's that last word, hero, which gets us into the most trouble. My heroes are your bums, and vice versa. We now live in a world that is quick to adulate and just as quick to tear down. We are desperate to find people that we can admire and emulate; we are vicious in tearing down those same people, in finding their flaws and exposing them to ridicule and public judgment. We're like a pack of wolves, watching and waiting for weakness to expose itself.

So maybe we can appreciate more fully the real dangers that the disciples whom Jesus sent to bear his message faced. "I send you out among wolves." Yes, there were real physical dangers, but the work of the 72 (or 70, as other texts prefer) also carries dangers from the fickleness of crowds, the harm to reputations, the scarring of character. This story ends with Jesus warning the returning disciples to not be proud, to not be too full of themselves for their part in the fall of Satan from power, but rather remember that they are on the heavenly roster not because of any prowess they have on the spiritual playing field but because Jesus selected them and they were apparently good at following directions.

This ability of the disciples to do what they are told-to do their duty-is the true mark of heroes everywhere. To do what one ought to do is both the only protection against wolves and the clearest path to true greatness. True heroes have a strange mixture of two qualities: they can come from anywhere, and they are modest about their achievements, as if anyone could do what they did. Think of those persons we could say we admire if we thought about it a minute. First, the ones that you admire have probably not been found by the media, but they do what they should day in and day out without notice. Of course, some have had their stories told in our media, and we all "know" them; two that come quickly to mind for me are Capt Sullenburger who landed his plane on the Hudson, and Charles Ramsey who ran to help a stranger with a half-eaten Big Mac in his hand. But both of these did their duty, and they are modest about what they did because they know that others can do the same.

So it is with those that Jesus sends out. They go because Jesus sends them. Luke does not record anything significant about them-except that they go with Jesus' command and blessing. When they return and tell their stories, they are quick to admit that they are not doing anything of themselves, but have power over evil because of who Jesus is, and because they are obedient to Jesus' instructions-they do their duty, if you will.

Friends, we are now those whom Jesus sends ahead of him. And in a world and in a time that is both desperate for heroes and quick to dismantle them, it is an extraordinary thing to do what Jesus commands in the course of our daily lives, and to give him credit for the deed. Part of our duty is to point away from ourselves to him. We do what we do in our homes, our families, our neighborhoods, our offices not because of our goodness, not because of our own noteworthiness, but because of him. That willingness to set aside our own specialness and chalk up what we do to obedience is the only antidote to our culture's suspicion of heroes, that every good deed is only self-promotion and a prelude to a scam. Much of what afflicts the church today is the result of too many of us bringing "baggage" along-we bring along our own ideas and goals about what the Kingdom of God must be like, we assume that we must receive at least what is our due as a part of our participation, and we refuse to remain unnoticed when others are receiving accolades. The end result is that the Gospel goes unproclaimed and Satan remains firmly ensconced in the lives of too many men and women. Much like a sports team that has all the right players to win but can't because of bad blood in the locker room, we fail to do what we should, and others see us as the frauds we are.

But to let all those things go, to set aside all the bags and sandals and other things we've acquired, to really be obedient to Jesus, regardless of the perceived cost to us, means that there is an opportunity to experience real joy, to have countless extraordinary moments in the ordinary flow of life. To go forth in obedience is a chance to participate, to connect to what Jesus is like, to touch his own life, because he was not one who hunted for the spotlight, but he emptied himself, became a servant, practiced obedience and doing his duty. As I recall, something extraordinary came out of it. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. David H. Brooks
Cary, NC, USA
E-Mail: David.Brooks@ChristtheKingCary.org

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