A Tale Of Two Churches

Who here would like St Jo’s to grow?

[presume lots of hands go up]

So [go round asking people] what would it be like if St Jo’s grew significantly?

[take a reasonable number of answers to unpack the question – before returning to the sanctuary]

Jesus stands in the middle of the crowd and says ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2)

Silence

Everyone prays

They have seen Jesus pray before – they know when he prays he gets answers.

“ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest”

Silence

Jesus raises his eyes and looks at them. He’s going to tell them how this prayer is going to be answered. They wait expectantly

"Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” (luke 10:3-8)

It takes a moment to sink in.

Hang on – we didn’t mean us!

“See I am sending you”

And [pointing at the congregation] – before you think you get off the hook – this is Luke Chapter ten.

In Luke Chapter 9 Jesus sent out the 12.

The Twelve are the ancestors of the clergy – they would lay hands on the first bishops who would lay hands on the next bishops who would lay hands on the next bishops – in a direct line of prayer all the way down to Bishop Sarah and Bishop Lusa- and from the likes of whom Father Dean and I were ordained priest.

That’s chapter 9.

In which Jesus sends out the clergy.

This. This is chapter 10.

“After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them”

This. This is you!

In China after the communist takeover of 1949 all foreign missionaries were expelled from the country. Outsiders thought the church was doomed – especially when the cultural revolution started, Christianity was declared illegal and all buildings were shut.

But when ten years later Mao died and the cultural revolution ended and Christianity was allowed to come out into the open again – they discovered a surprising thing – There were something like ten times as many Christians Catholic and Protestant as there had been before the Church had been driven underground.

Most of the churches had been in the educated urban areas – but in the cultural revolution people had been forcibly sent out into the countryside – including Christians. And they told people there about Jesus – and the church grew.

A few years later one church – I think in Beijing – crowdfunded and raised the money to buy a whole load of single train tickets. Young people were sent out in pairs, given train tickets to far off town and villages – and told to start a church. They were only given a single ticket. They could return when the church they had started was big enough to pay for the return train fares for them. Within I think two years they were all home and a vast explosion again of growth had again happened.

“After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them”

A quote from Pope Francis

"Though it is true that this mission demands great generosity on our part, it would be wrong to see it as a heroic individual undertaking, for it is first and foremost the Lord’s work, surpassing anything which we can see and understand. Jesus is “the first and greatest evangelist”. In every activity of evangelsm, the primacy always belongs to God, who has called us to cooperate with him and who leads us on by by the power of his Spirit. Evangelism is first and foremost about preaching the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus Christ or who have always rejected him. Many of these are quietly seeking God, led by a yearning to see his face, even in countries of ancient Christian tradition. All of them have a right to receive the Gospel. Christians have the duty to proclaim the Gospel without excluding anyone. Instead of seeming to impose new obligations, they should appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet. It is not by forcing ourselves on people that the Church grows, but “by attraction”.