4th Sunday after Pentecost

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, the capitol city, the seat of both worldly and religious power. Many Jews made this pilgrimage on a regular basis; however, Jesus by now seems to have attracted quite a following. No longer is it just the twelve disciples of the inner circle and the women who travelled with them, but a crowd that would get noticed. Today, he is sending out 70 disciples, so there must have been a lot of people following him.

Times back then were tense and challenging. The Roman Empire was occupying the nation; through soldiers, taxes, and brutal law enforcement they made their power known. The majority of the local population was struggling to make ends meet, with ever more people sliding into poverty.

Along comes Jesus and talks about the kingdom of God having come near; talks about repentance that leads to change; talks about God loving all people of all backgrounds into one community of faith; talks about being the Messiah who will turn the world right side up again.

This message could easily have been interpreted as a political threat. In fact, it was. That’s why Jesus will be crucified as an insurrectionist by the Roman authorities.

Yes, Jesus wants to change the world for the better. Jesus wants to comfort people with hope and healing. Jesus wants to set people free from fear and from burdensome rules. Jesus wants to connect people into communities of care where they look out for one another; where, as Paul writes today, they bear one another’s burdens. Jesus wants his followers to love their neighbor, no matter how poor or wealthy, how weak or powerful, how familiar or how foreign. Jesus wants to bring justice into the world, God’s justice, a justice that aims to restore people, relationships, and communities.

Jesus knows that his message is a challenge to the status quo. There will be push-back from many sides. Now, on his way to Jerusalem with lots of followers in tow, he is aware of how threatening this must look to those in power, to those for whom the current situation works okay, and to those who just don’t like change.

It’s no different today. Jesus still wants to accomplish all those things. And people are still resisting the call to change, the invitation to the kingdom of God, the vision of how life could be more just and fair and blessed for all God’s children. Let’s explore how Jesus instructs his disciples to carry out the mission in the face of such fear and hostility.

The first words his followers are to share with anyone are, “Peace to this house!” Keeping in mind how tense things were back then and are now, this is a perfect way to open a conversation: with peace. We come in peace. These aren’t just empty words, like Hippies used to tell folks to “peace out, man”. This peace is more substantial.

I found these words from Professor Amy Ogden enlightening:

Jesus assumes that these apostles he sends do in fact have peace. Jesus says that “Your peace” specifically, not just random, generic peace, will rest on others or return to you. As we engage others, we must first be well-grounded in God’s peace, the peace that passes understanding. God’s shalom is more than being calm. It is confidence in God’s abiding presence so that we also share that presence with others. Engaging others means not treating them as objects upon which we act, but as sacred others with whom we are called to be fully and peacefully present. If they do not share this peace, Jesus does not advise reactivity, scorn or polemics. Instead, he reassures his followers that their peace is not diminished and cannot be taken away from them: “it will return to you”.

The attitude of peacefulness is further highlighted when Jesus tells his disciples not to take anything for the journey: no purse, no bag, no sandals. He sends his disciples into a challenging mission field, but he doesn’t arm them for holy war. Instead, he strips them down and makes them vulnerable.

In my sermon research, I came across a remark by the leader of an international mission organization. She stated that she never made missionaries take language lessons before sending them into foreign countries but found it better for them to learn the language from the people they were amongst. This way of learning nixed any kind of superior feeling or messiah complex the missionaries might have had. As she said: ‘It's hard to feel superior to people whom you are dependent upon to help you buy food'.

The disciples are dependent on the hospitality of strangers. That makes them weak and vulnerable, not a threat to anyone. On the other hand, they have a gift to share: the good news of God’s reign coming near. As a result, the two parties meet on equal footing. Everyone has something to give and something to receive.

Jesus encourages his disciples to enter into relationship with other people: accept their hospitality, stay a while with them, really try to understand them and meet them where they are at.

One professor discussed this text with her seminary class and asked the students which of Jesus’ directives would be the hardest to follow. Some said not taking money, others not having footwear. But one student stated the hardest was “eat what is set before you.” Everyone was surprised and asked him to explain.

He had grown up in a rural and poor part of the Dakotas. His father was a pastor. Often, people from the congregation invited the pastor’s family over for dinner. Every time they went somewhere, the mother would drill into the kids to eat whatever was being served. In that area, that could be venison the parishioners had shot, or a trout they had caught. It could also be squirrel or rabbit or other small critters. Eating what was served honored the host and was a way to enter into their world.

Jesus calls us to enter into the lives of the people we encounter, to learn about their world, their struggles, their hopes, their way of interpreting the world. When we meet people, we are to greet them with deep and honest peace, treat them as folks who can bless us as much as we can bless them, and strive to really understand them and their way of thinking. This is the best way to create an atmosphere in which a true exchange of ideas can take place, and the gospel can be shared and received.

And even then, it might not be. Jesus is totally honest here that sometimes people just don’t want to hear your message. Don’t react with anger or resentment or judgment. Just move on. Shake the dust off your feet, let the baggage of disappointment drop off you, and move on to the next person who might be more open to hearing about God’s love.

I am convicted by Jesus’ words today. I admit that I am often too quick to judge or dismiss or give up on people with opinions different from mine. This gospel calls me and all believers to a different approach towards them.

It’s been quite a week in this nation. Both senate and house discussed a big budget bill, discussed it long and hard and vehemently, because it will affect countless citizens and communities in very concrete ways. It passed the senate by the tightest margin possible, which shows how divided our population has become.

And then we celebrated Independence Day with fireworks and picnics, celebrated something we all love and cherish and can agree on: that living in a free democratic country is a blessing we value.

The same week we celebrated being the ‘land of the free’, we also saw the images of “Alligator Alcatraz”, a detention center in the Florida Everglades where undocumented immigrants are to be held. On this, public opinion is split again, with some saying the nation needs to be tough on immigration in order to be secure and others saying such treatment is inhumane and we could find better solutions.

Being split on issues affecting life in this country has been the order of the day lately. The tone of the disagreements is too often hostile and aggressive, condescending and judgmental. It’s exhausting.

I think Jesus points out the way to heal this nation. Bridges will be built by people who offer genuine peace, who seek to really understand the other’s world, and who treat others as people who have something to offer and something to receive.

This is also the way to heal the church. To grow the church. To spread the good news that God is love. That’s, after all, why Jesus sends the disciples out in the first place.

Brothers and sisters in faith, today we are the ones Jesus is sending out. We are called to be laborers in the harvest, lambs among wolves. We are to make sacrifices of vulnerability and humility so we can touch the lives of others with Jesus’ healing and salvation.

This might sound daunting, but it’s also an exciting calling. When the 70 disciples return to Jesus, they cannot believe what they have experienced when they followed Jesus’ directives. Even evil has to retreat when Jesus’ people minister in his name. “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us.” Jesus is giving us the tools and the power to submit demons that plague our world, like hostility, judgementalism, racism, all the other -isms that choke joy out of life.

Jesus is calling us to heal this church and this nation by being persons of peace, by trying to fully understand them, and by seeing others as people who can both bless us and receive our blessing. Let us follow our Messiah. Let us bless and heal, in Jesus’ name. Amen.