7 July 2013

“Jesus needs HELP! … our help”
OT 14 C
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
7 July 2013


It was a quiet summer day at Luther Seminary. I was at work in the seminary relations office doing data entry for my work-study job, and Kathleen was across the hall in the business office.
Enter Roy Harrisville Sr. … our retired professor / prankster. On this quiet summer day, he decided to have some fun at all our expense … walking quietly into the business office, he slammed his hands down on the counter and yelled, “ I NEED HELP!!!!”
We all came running.
Dr. Harrisville – who just needed a question answered … thought it was funny. None of the rest of us thought it was that funny, though.
However, on this somewhat quiet summer Sunday morning, I think I need to take a cue from professor Harrisville … by saying “WE NEED HELP!”
You’ve seen the announcement in the bulletin and heard it in person from Cydney and Shirley. Our Kids’ Church Christian Education time for our youngest youth is expanding right along with the numbers of youth who take part in it. But we need more teachers, helpers, leaders and assistants to make it happen for next fall.
That’s probably our most urgent need right now. There are some others, seasonal, like mowing the grass and edging and weeding, our much-asked Resources team could use some assistance in keeping our yard and grounds looking good during the summer months. And our Servant Cluster Leaders always need help as they schedule worship servers each month.
This is part and parcel of life in a congregation the size of Nativity. No, we’re not small, but we’re not large either. Which means we all share in the life and ministry and, yes, work of the congregation. We have to. We don’t have a large paid staff to “do all the work for us” … you have one full time staff member and you’re looking at him … the rest of our staff is part time and specific-ministry-focused, on music and choir and administration … so that means the rest of the work of the parish … and there is a lot of it, because we’re an active parish … the rest of the work of the parish must be shared among us.
Yes, we may at times wish we could be part of a huge, anonymous church which has countless staff to do all the work that needs to be done … but guess what … those churches were the ones hit hardest by the Great Recession and they suffered the most losses … losses in stewardship, and losses in staff.
I think that’s because in a congregation our size, people feel ownership … they, we, are part of what happens, and that personal connection makes a difference.
In Nativity’s case, it’s central to our ministry model, the way we organize ourselves in our three-team arrangement. The center of all the ministry here is NOT the staff … it’s certainly NOT the pastor … it’s Christ. Jesus’ saving Word of forgiveness, hope, and life; and the Sacraments, Baptism and Communion, which make that Word real, For Us ... because what we receive at the font and the table feeds ALL OF US and sends ALL OF US OUT to do the work Christ calls us to do, in and through this place.
Today, we have a Gospel word before us which is at once relevant to, and consistent with, that Word.
Jesus is appointing others to go ahead of him, into the towns and villages where he himself intends to go, sort of an advance team for the work of the Kingdom of God.
Now, yes, the work Jesus is appointing these seventy to do is different from my standing up here and asking you to consider being a leader or helper for Kids’ Church, or mowing the lawn, or pulling weeds, or serving in worship. Different, but not alien from it.
Let’s look at how he directs them … and us … to be about his work.

• Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.
I think it’s important to note that the first word Jesus gives to those he sends out ahead of him, is to have faith.
Have faith that he – Jesus – will provide what will be needed for the journey.
Have faith that the journey itself will be and bring enough provision that we who are called to be on it, will be sustained
And have faith that those whom we will meet will be generous to us ... providing us with enough food and protection for the journey – that their hospitality, with its source and ground in Christ, will give us optimism and hope.
That is surely a different word than the one we usually hear.
“Trust the experts,” we’re told. “Hire it done.” “There isn’t enough to go around ... we live in a world of scarcity, so we’ve got to look out for ourselves, first, last, and always, to make sure we have enough, that we’re properly prepared, ready to have control in every single scenario that might come along.
But that’s impossible. You just can’t do it. And you’ll die trying.
Jesus knows this. If you get all wrapped up around the preparation, you’ll never get on to the journey. That’s true in every circumstance of life ... and most certainly, when it comes to being evangelical ... spreading the Word about him. If we just study it enough ... read enough books ... have enough classes in it ... bring in experts ... then we’ll get it right.
Nope. Just go, Jesus says. No purse, no bag, no sandals. In this case, it’s not foolish to say “God will provide.” When it comes to showing and telling the world about Jesus, his cross, his death, his resurrection, his forgiving and saving Word for us and for the world, just go and show and do as he has done for you.

• Greet no one on the road.
Now, yes, this word may sound mean, or haughty, or stuck up. A recent article ranked Seattle the 5th most stuck up city in the US, behind San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Minneapolis / St. Paul. The survey says we’re “aloof and like it that way” ... we’re the kind of people who will glare at you if you throw your coffee cup in the garbage can rather than the recycling bin.
Perhaps that’s true ... but that’s not what this word means.
Recall in last week’s Gospel word that Jesus had “set his face toward Jerusalem.” This word here means the same thing. It reflects a singularity of purpose ... focus, that’s Jesus’ word here. Don’t be sidetracked along the way by the little bright shinies you encounter, the bugs you might find under the rocks. This is serious business we’re called to be about ... and just as Jesus admonished those who wanted to do “something else” before they followed him, so he reminds us here, too ... this is most important, what I’m calling you to be about here ... don’t get distracted.
 
• Then, there’s a word about “people of peace.”
People of peace see what life is like where they are, and live fully in it; they don’t impose an agenda upon it (an agenda on their life or your life, as yours crosses with theirs) … theirs is to simply be, and be simply, in this life. Life for people of peace is not a series of destinations to be reached or a battle to be daily won but a journey on which we are all fellow travelers. Life is not a contest; nor is it all fun and games, a big joke. There are times and seasons of this life ... kairos moments ... moments found in “round time” or “Jesus time” ... amid the chronological clock or straight line time of this life.
I know people of peace. You know people of peace. They stay calm and focused and are fully alive in the moments they are in, so that they can live life fully.
They are the ones who reflect those familiar words of the Rudyard Kipling poem, “If”:

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

Seek out the people of peace as you are on your journey, my journey, Jesus says, for they will be receptive to my Word ... they may already be living in my Word ... they shall provide for you as you journey in my Word ... they are the Ones to whom the Kingdom of God has come near.

• It’s all gifts-related.
As we are on the road with and for Jesus, we live and serve out of abundance ... “the harvest is plentiful” is the first word Jesus says here. There is enough to go around ... enough for us all to do, in living and serving, loving and leading, discipling and being discipled in Jesus’ name. We simply need to pay attention, to focus, to take this work seriously because it is most important.
And part of that “most important” is serving as we’re gifted. We are called to serve ... each and every one of us ... but to serve as God has gifted each of us. Not everyone is gifted to be a teacher, a helper, a leader for our youth. Not everyone can do yardwork. Reading Scripture in public is not something all can do. But we are all gifted in some way by God to do something to bring the Kingdom of God near and nearer to people. Each and all of us.
The “laborers are few” when we don’t pay attention to those gifts God has given us for serving, for living and loving and sharing in the Word of Jesus.
So how will you find out what your gifts are? Simply, by trying things out. By listening to and speaking with and sharing with others, in community, which is the Body of Christ in the world. Those people of peace can help. We can all help each other, as we’re on the road, on the journey, together.
The point is, that we’re called to be on the journey. We don’t just sit back and watch and applaud others in their serving. We all serve, in the way God has gifted each of us. So try it out.

And finally, when we try ... when we come away from this font and this table and seek to live in the journey, on the journey, to which Christ has called us, through these gifts, gifts we are called to share ... we will indeed find that The Kingdom of God has come near ... to you, to me, to them – we will see it in, as the PROOF of what has happened and is happening in Jesus’ name.
This is not the end and the conclusion for all we do in Jesus’ name … IT IS THE BEGINNING.
That’s why the seventy returned with so much joy … they were amazed, in the joy and the freedom, the giftedness they’d discovered, the being fed and led and simply living in and among people of peace ... they had found that the Kingdom of God is alive and well and working through them ... through you, and me, as we are fed and filled and changed, forgiven and freed and sent, in Jesus’ Word, in his name, through these gifts, with our gifts, into God’s world.
So Yes, we still need HELP! And I hope you’ll consider being a leader, a teacher, an assistant for Kids’ Church … that you’ll help cut grass or pull weeds or trim the yard this summer … that you’ll consider serving in worship when your servant cluster leader calls you.
But more ... may your serving be done in JOY ... JOY through the journey that is the life of God’s servants, in Jesus’ name ... living in the hope, peace, and joy that the Kingdom of God has come near in Jesus, and is coming near in and through your service, done from your God-giftedness, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.