Sunday, July 7, 2019

Sermon - 4th Sunday after Pentecost


Luke 10:1-11, 16-20                                                                                      

                                                                           70 Sharing

Attendance has been down, lately, here at University Lutheran.  There are a number of factors contributing to this.  Hopefully we don’t need to be concerned.  We simply need to pay attention, for now.  And keep an eye on where things go from here.  There were 66 at the early service last week; 81 at the 11:00 service.

That is plenty, actually.  Among the faith traditions with the greatest of staying power are those who never allow weekly gatherings to exceed 10 families.  10 families who tithe allow one of those families to be supported for fulltime ministry.  When the gathered become too many for a family’s living room, plans are started to split the group, allowing for two gatherings where that previously only been one.

I do believe, in the decades to come, this is likely to be the model for much of the Church.  The Church is not at its best when it brags of gatherings in the hundreds - let alone thousands.  The church is at its best when it is at that place where it is capable of knowing each other’s stories and bearing one another’s burdens.

Jesus is at such a place in today’s gospel reading.  He calls to himself 70 others, appoints them, and sends them out ahead of him - in pairs. 

If you were here last Sunday, you will remember that the gospel reading also included a sending.  Luke 9:52 does not tell us how many were send or whether they were sent alone or with a travel buddy.  Also important to note is that in Luke 9 the sending out is not met with the same result as is noted in Luke 10. 

In Luke 9, at least one of the places they go to is not willing to receive Jesus.  In Luke 10, upon the return of the 70, Jesus celebrates their positive impact on the world with which they share the good news.  Verse 17 –The seventy returned with joy, saying “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”

There is nothing in the verses of Luke 9 & 10 which explain to us the reason for this differing result.  We are left to put the pieces together for ourselves.

At least one of the reasons for things going better could be because there are “70” of them.  We are not given a number in Luke 9, but the assumptions most often made are that Jesus had only sent the 12.  When 70 are sent, there is a different result. 

I want to return to those attendance numbers for us, for last week.  Both services were eerily close to 70.  I said the number ought not be a concern.  Now I will say that it might be cause for celebration.  Maybe this community is at the place, and just the right size, to understand ourselves as those being sent out as “laborers into (the Lord’s) harvest.”  Perhaps we are at precisely the right place to respond to our Messiah’s call and engage in our Lord’s mission.

When you have hundreds or thousands, it isn’t as easy to look each person in the eye and convince them that every Sunday gatherings is a celebration of how God has brought us safely through the previous week in order that we might share the good news with others in the week that begins now.

How many do we have with us today?  Think of how different the world will look next Sunday if each of us leave here today with the charge from Jesus to “cure the sick … and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’”.  The 70 or so of us here, now, can bring unimaginable gifts to the sick and dis-eased and hurting and forgotten.  I want to avoid making this trivial by even allowing a hint of this as a back-handed tool for congregational growth.  Our 70 are plenty.  The 70 of us can change the world by making the world aware of the grace and mercy of God. 

All this, accomplished by simply repeating the promise of Jesus.  Say it with me – “The kingdom of God has come near you.”
“The Kingdom of God has come near you.”

There is another reason why these 70 might have met with such tremendous results.  Jesus sends them out, it pairs.  They don’t go alone.  They are never alone.  And they are aware that the person by their side is there out of obedience to Jesus’ instructions.  I don’t mean obedience in the sense of having no choice; I mean obedience out of appreciation for the good which following Jesus has brought into their lives.  Someone is there to help them remember what they know to be true.

Who is your partner?  With whom has God paired you?  If you have no answer to this question, please allow one of your pastors to help you identify your companion and form a closer bond with them.

Perhaps there is someone, with whom you have entered into such a shared sense of mission and purpose.  But over the years and after many missions already completed you have stopped naming your partnership for what it is.  There is often talk of renewing one’s vows;  the renewal which is the most significant is the one in which you covenant to love, cherish, build up, and pray for one another.

The power of 1 such a pairing is sufficient to result in Satan falling from heaven like a flash of lightening.

My years among you have allowed me to observe the impact a few such pairs can make.  It is not the big numbers nor the expansive programs which bring hope and promise to the world.  It is the confidence of few, that God is with us and among us and acting through us.

I am grateful, for the opportunity and the ability to look each of you in the eye this morning.  In this place and through this ministry we have experienced the grace of God.  Our gathering this morning is a celebration of how that grace has carried us through the week which is ending.  Our departure from this gathering is our opportunity to share that which has been given to us.

Do so.  And next week we will gather once more to celebrate how the sharing of God’s grace rids the heavens and the world around us of any who would detract from God’s promise.

Amen.


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