6th Sunday after Pentecost
July 8th
Proper 9 C
Lectionary 14
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
"Reach out your hand to another"
"After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come. And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ’Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages; do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you; heal the sick in it and say to them, ’The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ’Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you; nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’" Luke 10:1-11, RSV.
""He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."" Luke 10:16-20, RSV.
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
I know this is something we don’t do in Lutheran churches very easily, but I would like you to right now, shake the hand of the person sitting next to you. You don’t have to share the peace, just shake their hand.
Good, now look that person in the eyes and answer this question, Am I my brother’s keeper?
What do you think? Are you the keeper, the helper of that person sitting right next to you?
In the 4th chapter of Genesis Cain asks God, verse 10, "Am I my brother’s keeper?" as God asked Cain where Abel was.
God’s answer to that specific question was answered loud and clear through Jesus with a resounding Yes.
I am my brother’s keeper or guardian or protector. We are to be concerned about others because God was concerned about us through Christ and loved us so much that his Son died on a cross.
Through Christ, God looks at us with love. Through Christ God looks past our sins and sees you and I as His creation, his people, his children. He loves us with an over powering love. A love that never ends. A love which keeps on loving just as a mother’s love keeps on loving her children no matter what.
An example of this kind of love is seen in the following. God’s love is like this for us and in turn out love should be like this for our neighbor.
"A poor sharecropping family in Georgia had a little money left over after the harvest so they got of an old Sears catalog and tried to pick out something everyone in the family would like and enjoy. After much discussion, they decided to get a mirror.
The mirror arrived and each took a turn looking in it. The father frowned, mother smile, and the baby giggled.
Young Willie was the last to look in the mirror. As he looked he was taken back by what he saw. It was the first time he had really seen himself. He didn’t know whether to frown or cry. Willie had been kicked by a mule when he was a tiny baby; his face was distorted, scarred and deformed. "Mom", Willie finally asked in a shaky voice," did you know all the time that I looked like this?"
The mother answered, "Yes Willie I knew."
"And you still loved me?" he replied.
"Yes Willie," I still loved you," his mother said, "The face didn’t make no difference. I love you because you’re mine."
Willie’s mom loved him no matter what. We are to love, take care of, protect others with that same kind of love. A selfless Christ kind of love.
God’s love is the same; he loves us because we are his no matter how we are. In the same way we are to love our neighbor as a brother or sister in Christ. Through God we are all related. All of us are brothers and sisters in Christ. The bond of love which holds us to God as His children should also hold us to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
But in reality it doesn’t. We have a very difficult time answering yes to Cain’ s question "Am I my brothers, keeper, guardian and protector? Do I reach out in love to others? These are the questions we are going to wrestle with this morning.
As you shook your neighbors hand, what did you think? Are you his/her guardian, keeper and protector? These are the questions our gospel lesson and second lesson from Paul’s to the letter to the Galatians speak about how a person in Christ should conduct himself or he herself.
The ways we are to look to yourself. Let each one test his own work then boast in himself and not in his neighbor. Use Christ as the standard for your conduct, not your neighbor. Paul is saying that you and I are responsible for our own actions and conduct. If we are doing well, feel good in yourself and don’t lord it over your neighbor. Your conduct is not the judge of your neighbor’s conduct. Christ is the only guide, the only standard. How do you measure up to Christ should be the question we ask ourselves. Christ is the measuring stick we use when judging our conduct. In Christ’s actions we see the kind of lives he has called us to live.
The kind of life is a life that says yes, I am my brother’s keeper. Yes, I am to reach out with a hand of love. I am to reach out with the gospel of love to those around me.
But sadly, many don’t. They are like the share cropper in the following story:
There was an old farmer, ragged and barefooted, who sat on the steps of his tumble-down shack, chewing on a stem of Timothy grass. He was approached by a passing stranger who was searching for a cool drink of water. Wishing to start a conversation and get acquainted with this farmer, the stranger asked, " How is your cotton coming in this weather?"
"Ain’t got none", replied the farmer.
"Didn’t you plant any?" asked the frowning stranger.
"Nope," said the farmer, "fraid of weevils."
"Well," asked the newcomer, "how is your corn?"
"Didn’t plant none," replied the man, "fraid there warn ’t goin to be no rain."
"Really, what did you plant?’ asked the puzzled man.
"Nothing," said the farmer. "I jest played it safe!!!"
I jest played it safe! Is that how we reach other to other, just playig it safe. We let others do it or we reach out to those who we like, but not the person down the street who we don’t know.
I would like to share with you this morning a very simple but effect tool for you to think about when you think about evangelism. Listen:
I Cannot Pray the Lord’s Prayer
I cannot pray “OUR,” if my faith has no room for others and their need.
I cannot pray “FATHER,” if I do not demonstrate this relationship to God in my daily living.
I cannot pray “WHO ART IN HEAVEN,” if all of my interests and pursuits are in earthly things.
I cannot pray “HALLOWED BE THY NAME,” if I am not striving for God’s help to be holy.
I cannot pray “THY KINGDOM COME,” if I am unwilling to accept God’s rule in my life.
I cannot pray “THY WILL BE DONE,” if I am unwilling or resentful of having it in my life.
I cannot pray “IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN,” unless I am truly ready to give myself to God’s service here and now.
I cannot pray “GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD,” without expending honest effort for it or if I would withhold from my neighbor the bread I receive.
I cannot pray “FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US,” if I continue to harbor a grudge against anyone.
I cannot pray “LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION,” if I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I am likely to be tempted.
I cannot pray “DELIVER US FROM EVIL,” if I am not prepared to fight with my life and my prayer.
I cannot pray “THINE IS THE KINGDOM,” if I am unwilling to obey the King.
I cannot pray “THINE IS THE POWER AND THE GLORY,” if I am seeking power for myself and my own glory first.
I cannot pray ‘FOREVER AND EVER,” if I am too anxious about each day’s affairs.
I cannot pray “AMEN,” unless I honestly say “Not MY will, but THY will be done, so let it be. 1
Think about the different parts of the Lord’s Prayer the next time you have an opportunity to speak about the church, your faith, Jesus Christ, God or salvation to someone.
Because you do know there will be a time for you to speak, but you just have to find the right words.
Jesus sent out the seventy to preach about him and the gospel and he sends us out from here to do the same, speak about him and the gospel.
Notice in our gospel lesson, that Jesus sends out 70 people to heal, to preach by saying, "the kingdom of God has come near to you". Jesus sent out these 70 because he knew that everyone in the kingdom of God has the responsibility to witness to him. He knew he would be leaving this earth and the only way people would know and hear about his love for them, his sacrifice for them, his grace for them would be for his disciples to tell others. So he sent them out to practice, to get a feeling for what they would he doing when He was gone.
And notice too that Jesus doesn’t say it is going to be easy witnessing for him. He tells the disciples that they are like lambs in the midst of the wolves. He tells them what to say when people accept them, and he also tells them what to say and do when people reject them for he knew not everyone was going to accept the good news of the kingdom. But the important point is he wanted the disciples, the 70 to try, to go out among the people and tell them about Jesus.
And if we don’t speak about Jesus and his salvation, then the following story might just turn out to be true.
When a church member was asked by St. Peter as he approached the Pearly gates how many seeds of faith, how many seeds of the gospel did he plant while on earth, he replied, "none, I jest played it safe. I was afraid that some would think I was trying to show them I was better than they were. Others knew I wasn’t, I didn’t want to be called a hypocrite. Besides, St. Peter, I really didn’t know all that I should of about faith, Jesus, and salvation to be telling others about it. And come to think of it, isn’t that what we pay the Pastor, to do, go out and plant those seeds of faith, to go out and win souls for Christ. But tell me St. Peter, why, as I look beyond the gates here, I see so few people moving about.
St. Peter relied, "Oh, that is easy, there were so few laborers, so few seeds were sown, that the harvest was never taken in."
Will heaven be empty or full it is up to you.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale Written July 2, 2007
1from “If God Talked Out Loud...” by Clyde Lee Herring, 1977 Broadman Press, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76-27479.
