July 6

Transcript

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.)

Well, we're off to a good start. I've already forgot my glasses. Thank you, Alexandra, for that kind welcome, and thank all of you for the welcome you offer every time I come and lead worship with you.

I'm always excited when Aubrey asks, and I'm always excited to be here on a Sunday morning. I know I've mentioned in the past, you are a warm, welcoming congregation. It's enjoyable to see, even in the summer months, the kids zone, you know, the children that you have and the families that gather.

It's all very much appreciated. And thank you, Alexandra, for mentioning upon my prodding that yes, spent much of the last two weeks out in the strawberry patch, picking about eight litres every time I was out there, taking them home and making it into freezer jam. Now, I'm not one of those people that cook jam.

That's a whole other. I do the freezer jam, and I don't want to oversell it, but it may be the best freezer jam in the world. I supply a lot of my family.

I donate it to the Westside Snowflake Bazaar, the church I retired from. They count on 12 or so jars every November. And it's just one of those elements of the year that I enjoy.

And I'll get to the point of this story, because it is it's about the only time of the year I'm in a field where the food I'm going to consume is what I'm picking. Everything else I go to Zare's and Metro for. That's where I get my food.

But once a year, I go out and I'm in God's creation and I'm bending down and I'm picking the harvest and I'm taking it home and I'm making it into something I can share with friends and family. Two passages of scripture to share with you this morning. Psalm 30.

It's the message translation, so the language is a little more contemporary. And it's all of Psalm 30. I give you all the credit, God.

You got me out of that mess. You did not let my foes gloat. God, my God, I yelled for help and you put me together.

God, you pulled me out of the grave, gave me another chance at life when I was down and out. All you saints, sing your hearts out to God. Thank him to his face.

He gets angry once in a while, but across a lifetime, there is only love. The nights of crying your eyes out give way to days of laughter. When things were going great, I crowed, I've got it made.

I'm God's favourite. He made me king of the mountain. Then you looked the other way and I fell to pieces.

I called out to you, God. I laid my case before you. Can you sell me for a profit when I'm dead? Auction me off at a cemetery yard sale? When I am dust to dust, my songs and stories of you will not sell.

So listen and be kind. Help me out of this. You did it.

You changed wild lament into whirling dance. You ripped off my black mourning band and decked me with wild flowers. I'm about to burst with song.

I cannot keep quiet about you. God, my God, I can't thank you enough. And from Luke's gospel, his 10th chapter, first 11 verses, the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.

He told them the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

Do not take a purse or bag or sandals and do not greet anyone on the road. When you enter a house, first say, peace be to this house. If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them.

If not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered you, heal the sick, heal the sick who are there, and tell them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into the streets and say, even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Let us pray.

God of us all, send us your spirit so we may hear your word with understanding and that we may respond in faithfulness for the sake of Christ our living Lord. Amen. That passage from Luke, the 10th chapter, first 11 verses, it's not a pep talk.

It's not a motivational speech. It is a preparation for a work to be done. Um, it's not inspirational in its own way, but it is instructional.

When Jesus sends out the 70, he gives two instructions. They're to go two by two. In other words, they're to go out in pairs and they're to take nothing with them.

The team part I understand. The two by two, I think we can all understand that. He anticipates resistance.

Jesus anticipates resistance. We're in the 10th chapter of Luke. There's already been pushback on his message.

There's already been murmurings among the religious authorities, the political party. He knows there'll be resistance. And so he wants them to be in pairs so that, so that they'll be supportive of one another.

Because the message that they're bringing is, is, is really something. It's good news. But boy, it, it pushes a lot of buttons that he tells them as he's told anyone who's been listening to his message that he has come to set those who have looked down on elements of society.

He's come to lift them up, to set them free. He's been sent to heal those who have been cast aside. He's proclaiming the year of the Lord's favour to an empire that worshipped Caesar as Lord, that worshipped a political leader, a tyrant, an emperor.

And he said that that's not where your loyalty lies. Your loyalty is to God. So Jesus knows that plenty of people are going to resist this message, whether from disbelief, or in their own self-interest, or anxiety, or fear.

They will have their reasons why they do not want to hear what Jesus and his disciples, his followers, are talking about. So Jesus sends them out in pairs. It makes sense.

When one falters, the other can help. When one is lost, the other can help them find their way. When one is discouraged, the other can hold the faith for a while.

That's what faith teams do. That's what communities of faith do. Ideally, that's what a, that's what a church does.

It's what church people do. Ideally, we hold each other up. We console each other.

We congratulate each other. We encourage each other. Sometimes we forget that.

We live in a time where the individual is encouraged, promoted, where self-promotion, your own brand, your own interests seem to be paramount, encouraged. But that's not, that's not the good news. Jesus teaches us, and Jesus reminds us, we are most blessed when we're all blessed.

We're most blessed when we're all blessed. So the team part, I understand. As a, as a Presbyterian minister, I had the real privilege, the honour, and the support of working with teams all the time.

The session team, the board team, the staff team. I understand the team message. I understand two by two, working in pairs.

But there was another instruction. Jesus tells them, the 70 going out, he tells them to take nothing with them. No bag, no purse, no sandals.

It meant that the 70 were going to be dependent, entirely dependent, on the generosity of others. And that makes them vulnerable. It makes anybody vulnerable who's, who's always counting on the generosity of others.

They'll have to find a place to stay. Someone else needs to provide that. They'll have to find something to eat.

Someone else will have to provide it. They're, you're vulnerable in that position. And I suppose that's the point of that, isn't it? To show their vulnerability, even as they're going out delivering a good news message that will still be difficult for others, some to hear.

And it may, it may be difficult for us to hear that vulnerability because after all, we do go to great lengths to make sure that we aren't vulnerable. You know, we plan ahead in whatever way that is. We're cautious.

We, we go to great lengths to make sure that we have control or independence, that we're not vulnerable. And I understand that. I do that.

That's, that's why I have an RRSP. I, I want to, to be secure in my retirement years. I, I understand the need for us to feel we have control.

I do that. But then we run into those times we are not in control. A relationship falls apart.

An illness strikes us or our family. I mean, you know the list. You know, those times when you didn't feel in control, when your vulnerability was very apparent to yourself, even if it wasn't apparent to anybody else.

But there were times that happened too. But when you knew that all your planning and all your cautiousness and all your control just wasn't working in that situation, and you and I were reminded just how vulnerable we can be. So, I understand the team approach and I understand going out with nothing and counting on the generosity of others, making yourself vulnerable.

I even understand that part. I just don't like that instruction. I, I, that's the one that challenges me.

But there was a purpose to that instruction. To the healing, to the going into the towns where Jesus would go. Finding the people who offered a house of peace.

The, the, what, what Jesus was trying to do through the 70 being sent out, start to develop community. Start to sow the seeds of compassion. Start to make God's grace evident and obvious.

When they were welcomed, they are to stay there, not to move around. That is community. You found your people.

Be with them. Stay with them. Eat what is given to you.

Sleep in the bed that's given to you. That's your family. That's your community for the time that you are there.

They're to heal the sick. That was, that was the most specific instruction given to them about what they're actually to do. Heal the sick.

Show compassion. Don't ask why they're sick. What did you do to get in this situation? Heal the sick.

Show compassion. And then be sure to tell them the kingdom of God has come near. That's grace.

The kingdom of God has come near. Right now. In this, in the midst of this table.

In the midst of this family house. In the midst of this community. The kingdom of God has come near.

That is grace. Community. Compassion.

Grace. There was a third instruction. It was in verses 10 and 11.

It came after all that good news about being welcomed and being with the people who offer you peace. There was a third instruction. When you enter a town and you are not welcome to go into the street and say even the dust of your town, we will wipe from our feet.

You will recall at the beginning of the sermon, I said this isn't a pep talk. It's not a motivational speech. It's not even particularly inspirational until you get to that middle part.

But it is realistic. He was preparing his disciples for the fails. When the times that people weren't going to listen.

The times that they just weren't ready to hear about community and compassion and grace. Because the way to get there was poking at their interests. It was poking at other things that they held dear.

And Jesus prepared his disciples all the way through his ministry that your work is not about your success or your achievement. It's about faithfulness to God and the well-being of those whom you're serving. If people turn their back on you, scorn your message, continue on in your journey.

Let go. Let go of any sense of failure or any desire to get back at. Remember he said literally dust the feet, dust your feet off.

They're going to get dusty again in two. It's a reminder. Leave that behind.

Don't carry that any further with you. Yes, it hurts. It hurts to be rejected.

It hurts not to have been heard. Leave it behind. We are responsible for the fidelity, the faithfulness of our message and our spiritual well-being.

The rest is up to God and the decisions of those to whom we minister. The gospel story reminds us life is unpredictable and varied. We will find people who welcome us.

We will find people who reject us. We move forward. We move forward.

And as we develop the capacity as individuals, as teams, and as a church to deal with life changes, as we learn to deal with the comings and goings of people, our mission in life becomes simple. Form community. Show compassion.

Spread God's grace. Amen. And so be it.

Let us pray. Creator God, source of all life and each life, we come to you in prayer this day grateful that your world is full of wonder and possibility, but a world also in desperate need of your reconciling love. We pray for the many different peoples of this world.

Help us to understand our differences more fully and honour the good things that bind us together. Just days after our celebration of our country, we pray that Canada will be a just, equitable, and welcoming country. Compassionate God, our hearts ache for those who live amidst brutal conflict and violence and for those who suffer the effects of trauma.

We pray for those who have lost their homes through conflict or fled their countries just to survive. Open hearts and homes to welcome those who are fleeing and protect those who stay. All-knowing God, we pray for those living with illness and pain, for those who mourn the loss of someone or something dear, for all those who struggle with anxiety or despair in these challenging times.

Wise and welcoming God, give us the grace to live out our faith among our family and friends, with acquaintances and with strangers. In Jesus' name, amen.