Year C
\u00a0Isaiah 66:10-14
\u00a0Psalm 66:1-8
\u00a0Galatians 6:7-16
\u00a0Luke 10:1-11, 16-20<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the things my parents taught my brother and me\u2026 was how to accept a gift graciously\u2026 without feeling obligated to offer a different gift in return\u2026 to even the score<\/em> as it were\u2026 and one of the things that my first Spiritual Director clarified\u2026 was that true gifts have no strings attached\u2026 if the giver expects something in return\u2026 then it’s really not a gift at all\u2026 but is some kind of contract\u2026 I give this to you\u2026 and you give that to me\u2026 and the sometimes complex patterns of gift giving\u2026 can have subtle motivations\u2026 some people give gifts because they may want the recipient to be beholden to them\u2026 or perhaps they give gifts to increase their social standing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus now sends out the seventy\u2026 to gather the harvest\u2026 because the laborers are few\u2026 and he wants the disciples to be dependent on others\u2026 to be vulnerable\u2026 because the kingdom which comes near to us is vulnerable\u2026 and when you’re vulnerable\u2026 you’re more sensitive to subtlety\u2026 because you don’t have the trappings of society to fall back on or distract you\u2026 and you can ask\u2026 do your hosts share in your peace\u2026 and what might that feel like\u2026 or does your peace return to you\u2026 and because peace\u2026 like love\u2026 can’t get used up\u2026 and isn’t wasted\u2026 it would come back to them undiminished\u2026 and Jesus continues\u2026 don’t start going from house to house\u2026 it’s enough if you are welcomed in one house\u2026 and while you’re there\u2026 cure the sick\u2026 and let them know that healing and wholeness come from God\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if you enter a town and you’re not welcomed\u2026 go out into the streets and protest\u2026 because the kingdom of God has come near\u2026 and it’s God who’s really being rejected\u2026 and this is such a subtle but profound rejection that the disciples don’t even want to carry the dust of the streets along with them\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in the missing verses\u2026 vv. 12 – 15\u2026 Jesus says: I tell you\u2026 on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town<\/em>\u2026 remember\u2026 the sin of Sodom was the sin of being inhospitable\u2026 in Ezekiel 16:49\u2026 God said\u2026 the guilt of your sister Sodom was that she and her daughters had excess food\u2026 prosperous ease\u2026 and were prideful\u2026 but did not aid the poor and needy<\/em>\u2026 so Jesus is saying that to not accept the gift of the kingdom of God which comes near\u2026 to not accept the peace which the disciples bring\u2026 to not accept God’s hospitality\u2026 has serious consequences\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Paul’s letter to the Galatians\u2026 describes a Christian karma of sorts\u2026 Do not be deceived\u2026 God is not mocked\u2026 you reap whatever you sow<\/em>\u2026 this is action and reaction\u2026 cause and effect\u2026 Matthew 7:12 says it another way\u2026 do unto others as you would have them do to you\u2026 for this is the law and the prophets<\/em>\u2026 and to paraphrase Matthew 7:16\u2026 no one expects to gather grapes from thorns\u2026 or figs from thistles<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the seventy returned\u2026 and said\u2026 Lord\u2026 in your name even the demons submit to <\/em>us\u2026 they were pretty excited\u2026 while they gave God’s gifts they probably felt their own standing increase\u2026 maybe it was going to their heads\u2026 and Jesus had to reel them in a little and say\u2026 Yeah\u2026 yeah\u2026 the kind of things you do in my name are pretty cool\u2026 but that’s really not what it’s all about\u2026 what it’s really all about is where that ability comes from\u2026 what it’s really all about is moving past all that false-self power\u2026 and being remembered in Heaven\u2026<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But the shift from coveting power to relinquishing it\u2026 the shift from contract to gift\u2026 as the seventy experienced\u2026 can be a subtle shift\u2026 and I think there are two sides of the same coin which inform our experience\u2026 the first is that we’re such an impatient lot… we have so much to do\u2026 that we’re often better at rushing through things\u2026 instead of looking deeply at how complex and interwoven some things can really be\u2026 like a plate of spaghetti\u2026 or how long they can take\u2026 and we’re not good with gratification delay\u2026 we want what we want\u2026 and we want it now\u2026 and the culture in which we live chants that mantra over and over again\u2026 and so when our efforts don’t yield immediate results\u2026 it becomes that much easier for us\u2026 using an image from the Gospel\u2026 to move on to another house or another town\u2026 or to something which goes faster or delivers more of what we think we need\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the other reality\u2026 is that Kingdom building is really slow going\u2026 and many of us have experienced that the church speeds along as fast as a glacier\u2026 and as T. Denise Anderson writes [ in Sojourner’s magazine ]\u2026 in truth\u2026 not everyone will welcome Jesus or the church’s good counsel\u2026 not everyone will want to hear it\u2026 and so when Jesus sends his disciples out to share the Gospel throughout the region\u2026 he prepares them for when<\/em> they’re not welcomed\u2026 not if\u2026 but reassures them that being rejected doesn’t compromise their authority to defeat demons\u2026 or remove their names which are written in heaven\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we look back beyond the sweep of Judeo-Christian history\u2026 we see that it took thousands of years for people to realize that each city didn’t have its own god\u2026 and for the Israelites to write down in the Shema that there is just One God\u2026 it took 400 years for stone pillars erected to the goddess Asherah\u2026 who was considered to be YHWH’s consort\u2026 and which stood in the Temple\u2026 it took 400 years for them to be torn down by King Hezekiah\u2026 it took almost 200 years to build Notre Dame Cathedral\u2026 and 290 years to build Canterbury Cathedral\u2026 44 more years than the age of this country\u2026 this experiment in democracy\u2026 which is only 246 years old\u2026 and so why do we think we’ve got it all figured out\u2026 when people of every stripe reject God’s welcome of everyone\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n So what kind of investment in the future are we willing to make\u2026 how much are we willing to sacrifice now\u2026 for a better outcome later on\u2026 only for our children and grandchildren\u2026 or for generations of people we will never know\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s a story\u2026 one who reads the words of prayer with great devotion may come to see the lights within the letters\u2026 even though one does not understand the meaning of the words one speaks\u2026 and such prayer has great power\u2026 mistakes in reading are of no importance\u2026 because when a father has a young child whom he greatly loves\u2026 even though the child has hardly learned to speak\u2026 his father takes pleasure in listening to the child\u2019s words\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The seventy disciples are us\u2026 when the service is over and we’re sent from this place sounding out the words\u2026 to simply share the Word and the radical grace and forgiveness that we have received\u2026 to go and tell everyone about God’s non-contractual gift to us\u2026 about how much God has done for us\u2026 and like the disciples\u2026 I believe we’re simply called to give to others the way God gives to us\u2026 because\u2026 and at its deepest\u2026 most subtle and vulnerable level\u2026 it’s all gift\u2026 all we need to do is open ourselves up to it\u2026 accept it\u2026 let it seamlessly flow through us to everyone we meet\u2026 and expect nothing in return\u2026 Welcoming God\u2026 make it so\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C\u00a0Isaiah 66:10-14\u00a0Psalm 66:1-8\u00a0Galatians 6:7-16\u00a0Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 One of the things my parents taught my brother and me\u2026 was how to accept a gift graciously\u2026 without feeling obligated to offer a different gift in return\u2026 to even the score as it were\u2026 and one of the things that my first Spiritual Director clarified\u2026 was that true gifts have no strings attached\u2026 if the giver expects something in return\u2026 then it’s really not a gift at all\u2026 but is some kind of contract\u2026 I give this to you\u2026 and you give that to me\u2026 and the sometimes complex patterns of gift giving\u2026 can have subtle motivations\u2026 some people give gifts because they may want the recipient to be beholden to them\u2026 or perhaps they give gifts to increase their social standing\u2026 Jesus now sends out the seventy\u2026 to gather the harvest\u2026 because the laborers are few\u2026 and he wants the disciples to be dependent on others\u2026 to be vulnerable\u2026 because the kingdom which comes near to us is vulnerable\u2026 and when you’re vulnerable\u2026 you’re more sensitive to subtlety\u2026 because you don’t have the trappings of society to fall back on or distract you\u2026 and you can ask\u2026 do your hosts share in your peace\u2026 and what might that feel like\u2026 or does your peace return to you\u2026 and because peace\u2026 like love\u2026 can’t get used up\u2026 and isn’t wasted\u2026 it would come back to them undiminished\u2026 and Jesus continues\u2026 don’t start going from house to house\u2026 it’s enough if you are welcomed in one house\u2026 and while you’re there\u2026 cure the sick\u2026 and let them know that healing and wholeness come from God\u2026 But if you enter a town and you’re not welcomed\u2026 go out into the streets and protest\u2026 because the kingdom of God has come near\u2026 and it’s God who’s really being rejected\u2026 and this is such a subtle but profound rejection that the disciples don’t even want to carry the dust of the streets along with them\u2026 And in the missing verses\u2026 vv. 12 – 15\u2026 Jesus says: I tell you\u2026 on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town\u2026 remember\u2026 the sin of Sodom was the sin of being inhospitable\u2026 in Ezekiel 16:49\u2026 God said\u2026 the guilt of your sister Sodom was that she and her daughters had excess food\u2026 prosperous ease\u2026 and were prideful\u2026 but did not aid the poor and needy\u2026 so Jesus is saying that to not accept the gift of the kingdom of God which comes near\u2026 to not accept the peace which the disciples bring\u2026 to not accept God’s hospitality\u2026 has serious consequences\u2026 And Paul’s letter to the Galatians\u2026 describes a Christian karma of sorts\u2026 Do not be deceived\u2026 God is not mocked\u2026 you reap whatever you sow\u2026 this is action and reaction\u2026 cause and effect\u2026 Matthew 7:12 says it another way\u2026 do unto others as you would have them do to you\u2026 for this is the law and the prophets\u2026 and to paraphrase Matthew 7:16\u2026 no one expects to gather grapes from thorns\u2026 or figs from thistles\u2026 And the seventy returned\u2026 and said\u2026 Lord\u2026 in your name even the demons submit to us\u2026 they were pretty excited\u2026 while they gave God’s gifts they probably felt their own standing increase\u2026 maybe it was going to their heads\u2026 and Jesus had to reel them in a little and say\u2026 Yeah\u2026 yeah\u2026 the kind of things you do in my name are pretty cool\u2026 but that’s really not what it’s all about\u2026 what it’s really all about is where that ability comes from\u2026 what it’s really all about is moving past all that false-self power\u2026 and being remembered in Heaven\u2026 But the shift from coveting power to relinquishing it\u2026 the shift from contract to gift\u2026 as the seventy experienced\u2026 can be a subtle shift\u2026 and I think there are two sides of the same coin which inform our experience\u2026 the first is that we’re such an impatient lot… we have so much to do\u2026 that we’re often better at rushing through things\u2026 instead of looking deeply at how complex and interwoven some things can really be\u2026 like a plate of spaghetti\u2026 or how long they can take\u2026 and we’re not good with gratification delay\u2026 we want what we want\u2026 and we want it now\u2026 and the culture in which we live chants that mantra over and over again\u2026 and so when our efforts don’t yield immediate results\u2026 it becomes that much easier for us\u2026 using an image from the Gospel\u2026 to move on to another house or another town\u2026 or to something which goes faster or delivers more of what we think we need\u2026 And the other reality\u2026 is that Kingdom building is really slow going\u2026 and many of us have experienced that the church speeds along as fast as a glacier\u2026 and as T. Denise Anderson writes [ in Sojourner’s magazine ]\u2026 in truth\u2026 not everyone will welcome Jesus or the church’s good counsel\u2026 not everyone will want to hear it\u2026 and so when Jesus sends his disciples out to share the Gospel throughout the region\u2026 he prepares them for when they’re not welcomed\u2026 not if\u2026 but reassures them that being rejected doesn’t compromise their authority to defeat demons\u2026 or remove their names which are written in heaven\u2026 As we look back beyond the sweep of Judeo-Christian history\u2026 we see that it took thousands of years for people to realize that each city didn’t have its own god\u2026 and for the Israelites to write down in the Shema that there is just One God\u2026 it took 400 years for stone pillars erected to the goddess Asherah\u2026 who was considered to be YHWH’s consort\u2026 and which stood in the Temple\u2026 it took 400 years for them to be torn down by King Hezekiah\u2026 it took almost 200 years to build Notre Dame Cathedral\u2026 and 290 years to build Canterbury Cathedral\u2026 44 more years than the age of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[147,148,150,149],"class_list":["post-1691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-disciples","tag-gods-gift","tag-grace","tag-kingdom-building"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1692,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691\/revisions\/1692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}