What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, July 4th, 2010

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 14)
Isaiah 66:10-14 • Psalm 66:1-9 • Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16 • Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

After 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. He 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. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain 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. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, '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.' "Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me." The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

It seems pretty self-evident that today’s Gospel is about mission. There is a lot that we could say about mission from this text. There is even more we could learn about mission from one another—from our own experiences in traveling, in other cultures we’ve visited, in mission and service trips we’ve taken. We could even talk with John Halvorson, a member of our congregation and a Lutheran pastor who has served in international contexts. But even with all this experience and wisdom in this place, and with all of Jesus’ instructions to the seventy in this text, we could unpack the question of “how” mission can be done quite extensively. However there is one profound truth that permeates throughout this text that I’d like us to explore this morning which gets at something deeper: Why are we sent to be Jesus’ missional people? In all of what Jesus has to say both before he sends out the seventy out and after they return, there is this profoundly truthful, saving message that Jesus gives to them, and to us, that speaks to why Christian mission is so important for us.

Jesus recognizes that as he commissions us to go where “he himself intends to go”, we can want to believe our carrying out the mission Jesus’ sends us on is a mission that depends completely on us. After all, isn’t Jesus asking us to do what he does…save the world? After all, when we think of the word mission itself we seem to imply that we have something to bring to others that they don’t already have. As great and wonderful as our country we celebrate today is, we can’t deny our country’s history of harming others by imposing our will upon them, even if we have the best of intentions.

But Jesus has an underlying message for those he commissions:

Jesus empties us of all the baggage we carry around that runs counter to his mission of appointing us to share and receive his love and mercy.

Baggage. Notice Jesus asks us not to carry any of it! Jesus says “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals…” There’s no backpacks, no briefcases, no luggage required. This is traveling light—ultra-light! Little is needed in the mission field of Jesus, a field that looks quite simple: a community sharing a greeting of peace that is returned, gathering around a meal, healing one another, and listening to the proclamation of the gospel. No trips to stock up supplies, no extra gear is required. Jesus takes all that baggage off of our minds and hearts.

What baggage do we come with needing to be set free from today? What are we carrying around that keeps Jesus from sending us out two by two to share his mission? Is it attachment to stuff, attachment to “keeping up with the Jonses”, attachment to our own self-preservation, and resisting stepping out to take a risk? When Jesus sends us out, none of that baggage, none of it, weighs us down any longer. He comes to set us free for the sake of building relationships that form the foundation of his gospel kingdom.

Jesus’ freedom from all that is not essential to his mission has profound implications for us and our mission at United Lutheran. What are they? What does Jesus’ freedom from bringing baggage imply for the short-term servant trips that our youth take every summer—such last year to hurricane ravaged New Orleans, and this August to flood damaged Cedar Rapids? What does carrying no baggage mean for the service projects we do in the community on an ongoing basis, like PADS and cluster tutoring? What does this mean for our daily lives of service carried out in our vocations at home, at work, and at play…and even wherever summer vacation travel may take us?

The first implication: we’re always the guests. When Jesus sends out the seventy, they are always the guests of those they serve. Without any baggage, Jesus gives us what we need through the hospitality of those we serve. Participants in service trips most routinely say that what affects them most profoundly on their trips is not how much they accomplished—how many homes were rebuilt or water wells were dug or how many people were fed. Often there is not much we can accomplish in the short amount of time we have with those we serve. What stays with participants even longer is getting to know their hosts, enjoying their hospitality, hearing their stories and witnessing the vitality of their faith. When we are sent on the lightweight mission of Jesus, we are always the guests because Jesus is always the host when strangers meet.

The second implication: it’s all about mutual relationships. Christian mission is not for our entertainment, for observation, for ogle-ing. We come at the invitation of those we serve. We come not to achieve as we want but as they need. Without any baggage, we will not be able to stay very long without getting to know those we are serving. Without any baggage to bring other than ourselves, what we are able to bring is ourselves, and our investment in the people we seek to serve. Notice that Jesus commands the seventy to not move about from house to house. (10:7) He sends them to go to one house, and not to move around, but to stay there a while. When we come in and try to serve others without staying to get to know them, our efforts will stay on the surface level and can even cause more damage than good. At United Lutheran, and in our communities there are many, many opportunities for mission-oriented service. Perhaps we could each consider focusing on one ongoing service project site, rather than trying to do several different kinds of service projects at once, in order to focus on building reciprocal relationships with those we serve. And we could also consider returning to a mission site once again, rather than going from one exotic location to another. Mutual relationship, where we can give without any baggage attached, allows us to be changed by those we serve, which is the very heart of the mission Jesus sends us on.

The third implication: reflection is an essential part of mission. Mission changes us, it transforms us. We are enriched and changed by those we meet—they end up feeding us. Twice, Jesus tells the seventy to eat and drink whatever is provided in the homes they enter. (10:7, 8) We can move on…complete our work and go our separate ways, knowing our core convictions have been challenged, and our faith has been disturbed from its status quo and not reflect on it. When Jesus sends us out without baggage, we return back to him with our hearts and minds filled with stories, images, new friends, new hopes, new insights, and new questions. We cannot assume that integration of what we bring back with us will happen automatically. We can take time to ruminate, ponder and relate how it is we have been changed by those we have met, and how we’ve seen that Jesus has opened up to us a world that is more wonderful than we have dared to imagine. Jesus empties us so that his mission can transform us.

And as exciting as missional service can be, as fun as it is when we see the power of Jesus’ love changing people’s lives, our excitement at what we have done is tempered. The seventy return saying “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” (10:17) Jesus does give us incredible power to break down barriers that try to separate us, and seeing them crumble is indeed amazing. But it’s not our power that does it…it’s Jesus’ power, given to us. Rejoice, Jesus says, not at what you have seen me do, but rejoice that you have been chosen as witnesses to the power of God’s love and mercy to heal, restore and reconcile the whole world.

Jesus comes on a mission to reach out to us at his table today. We put this mission into practice this morning. We are continually invited to come to this table, without any baggage, or cost, or price to be paid, and to eat and drink what is set before us. This is the place where the evil powers and prejudices that seek to separate us from each other submit to the power of Jesus, who brings us together around his table to build relationships, to be his guests, to share in his peace.

Why are we sent out to serve strangers? Why is this mission central to our Christian witness? Because Jesus sends us…to be guests, to build lasting mutual relationships, and to be tranformed. Jesus promises to continue to strengthen us at this table with all that we need for his mission of both be-ing received at the table, and in sharing his mercy for all of God’s children. We can go on our way living in that promise, rejoicing in the power of Jesus to write our names, and the names of those we serve, in heaven. Amen.