Entrusted
Homily delivered the Fourth Sunday of Pentecost (Proper 9; Year C RCL)
7 July 2019; 8:00 a.m. Said, 10:00 Sung Mass
Parish Church of Trinity Ashland, Oregon
Homily delivered the Fourth Sunday of Pentecost (Proper 9; Year C RCL)
7 July 2019; 8:00 a.m. Said, 10:00 Sung Mass
Parish Church of Trinity Ashland, Oregon
God, take away our hearts of stone
and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.
and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.
I read several articles this last
week talking about the increasing bind in which Evangelical Christianity in the
U.S. finds itself: Its authority and moral credibility have been damaged,
perhaps irreparably, by what some call the unholy alliance of some of its chief
pastors with politicians whose personal lives and policies by no stretch of the
imagination can be called Christian. I
also received an email and an SMS from one local evangelical telling me to
repent, saying that I was a minister of Satan and worshipping a false God: fake news meets theology. Christians have always been a diverse lot,
and always loved to hurl anathemas at each other. “Oh, that this were not so!” we say to
ourselves with whimsy, thinking that Jesus would want us all united and in
agreement. “Be one as I and my father
are one,” he said, after all. But maybe
Jesus planned the church so that it would be diverse and inclusive of a broad
range of views.
Today’s Gospel tells the origins of
Christian ministry. Luke is the only
Gospel that tells about Jesus calling and sending forth 70 apostles in addition
to the Twelve. Where the Twelve
represent the recreation of Israel as a people with its ancient tribes; the
Seventy stand for those in Israel who enjoy the spirit of communication with
God. Remember that when Moses received
the Law, he was commanded to have “seventy of the elders of Israel” accompany
him (Exodus 24:1-9; Numbers 11:16-30).
Two of the 70 miss the meeting, and when the spirit descends on the
group, the wayward 2 run through the camp overcome by the Spirit too. When some complain about these outliers, Moses
says, “Oh that all the Lord’s people might be prophets!” In some manuscripts of Luke, Jesus sends 72
rather than 70. I think those scribes
got it wrong, thinking about the extra 2 running in the camp.
John Dominic Crossan rightly
observes that stories of Jesus sending the twelve and the seventy represent a
significant organizational strategy on the part of the historical Jesus. A single decapitating sword-stroke by one of
Herod’s henchmen had effectively ended John the Baptist’s movement. By sending out many people with his good news all around, Jesus decentralized his
movement. The rulers would thus have a
much harder time of killing it by simply killing its leader. By the time Jesus was crucified, dozens of
such ministers were spread throughout Judea and Galilee. When stories of his death and the events
following finally reached them, their experience of Jesus, both before and
after his death, led them to say, like the Seventy in today’s reading, “The
blind see, the lame walk, the spirit is with us… Christ is alive!”
Despite almost continual efforts to
impose order, hierarchy, and unity, from the beginning Christ’s followers have
remained a diverse lot, driven by the investment that comes from having made
the faith their own. Fractious and
tending to break into sects (usually along cultural or linguistic lines),
different Christians have nevertheless seen themselves as the true expression
of Christ’s teaching.
We have tried to resist this
centrifugal force, this tendency toward sectarianism, by grounding our faith in
the scripture and writings of the apostolic age. We found that such a canon—the Bible—is
diverse and culturally and historically conditioned enough that it isn’t really
sufficient to serve as a sole guide to the faith. We tried to center our belief in the tradition
of the bishops who succeeded the apostles in their oversight of the local
churches, and to be universal in our
faith. But bishops disagreed with each
other.
We sought a faith that we could all
agree on. That’s what the great early
Councils of the Church were about. A
faith comprehensive both in time and space, throughout the eras and
transcending localities—this is what the Greek word katholikos, means: according to the whole kat – holicos. That’s why
when we recite the Creed from these Councils to this day, we talk of believing
one, holy, catholic, and apostolic
Church.
But we have been only partly
successful in achieving truly comprehensive faith, that which was, according to
St. Vincent of Lerins, commonly believed by the faithful of all times and all
places. So we use our reason to try to
make it cohere. Thus the tripod of our
faith: scripture, tradition, and reason
informed by data and experience. And
still we tend toward sect.
Given the schisms, divisions, and
accusations of heresy that have always been a part of the big, baggy, and
chaotic thing that historically is called Christianity,
we might say that, Jesus in sending out missioners two by two into diverse
settings, had anticipated a key idea of modern organizational behavior theory: lose control in order to gain influence. He guaranteed the Church’s survival by
entrusting it to believers, thus building into it the centrifugal force and
ensuring its diversity.
Jesus counsels those he sends to
proclaim the Good News.
This is not a call to grimly use
speech to beat up on other people to make them be like us. The line summing up St. Francis’ teaching
says it all: we should preach the Good News at all times and in all places, and
only very occasionally, when it is really necessary, to open our mouths to do
so.
Jesus’ counsel to those he sent is
counsel to us, a guide to the spiritual life necessary to keep us faithful to
him, despite our differences.
“Go two by two” that
is, don’t trust your own individual
belief and internal guidance, but always work and serve in larger
community. Use the self-correction that
comes from being part of a larger team of believers. Thomas Merton famously said that the most
dangerous and spiritually deadly person is the mystic who lives in isolation,
without the spiritual direction and guidance of another. Since you are going into a dangerous world,
lambs among wolves, Jesus implies, know you will be discouraged and lose faith
at times, and need your comrades in faith to get you through the rough
spots. And then when they are in rough spots, it will your turn to get them through. We need each other.
That is why we baptize enfants—this calling is not a calling to
individual monads, but to people in families, in communities. “Go two
by two.”
“Carry no money bag, no sack, no
sandals. Stay with whoever will give you
a place to stay, and together with them, eat and drink whatever they put in
front of you.” Serving Jesus and proclaiming
joyful news is not about self-sufficiency and independence. It is about interdependence, relying on each
other. So simplify your tastes and
standards. Don’t depart on this journey
with everything prepared just so in extensive luggage, with your favorite foods
and small comforts. You may just have to
eat non-gourmet, or non-vegan, or even barely edible, stuff if that is what
those you serve have to offer. This is
about sharing and accepting things shared with you, not about meeting your
standards or demands. Simplicity is the
mother of humility. Humility is the
mother of listening. And listening is
the mother of community.
We have
medical needs, to be sure, but even here we must remember the spiritual
principle of opening ourselves to dependence and being served. It may mean
learning new ways of eating, drinking, communicating, and, yes, even
worshiping, even when we are old. I
thank God that one of my mentors told me as I preparing for ordination that if
at all possible, I had to simply love the people served, and with them their
dogs and cats, no matter how allergic I was to them. Love Jesus, love his people. Love his people, love their dogs. “Take no money bag or sack, and eat what they
put in front of you.”
“Don’t go from house to house, but
stay where you are received. Cure their
illness, declare the joy of God’s reign there, and let your peace rest with
them.” Grow where you are planted. You
are no longer a religious consumer, wandering from one potential friend in the
faith to another. You should no more
pick and chose whom you will grace with relationship than you should pick and
choose what is put on the plate before you.
“Stay where you are received.”
This
openness and vulnerability to community of the individual sent ones must also
grow in their larger communities. They
must be open and willing to listen as well.
But even
open-hearted sent ones might not be received with openness. Jesus here tells us
here how to respond to rejection of us and the joyful news: don’t dispute, curse, or worry. Just move on quickly, and go to meet the others
who surely will receive you with joy. Go
on your way and don’t look back.
In all of
these sayings, Jesus is calling us, too, to follow his example. He wants us to lose control to gain
influence. In our labor in God’s
harvest, we need to follow his guidance here.
Be open hearted, open minded, and open handed, willing to accept who and
what God sends us. And in that, he is
calling us to the true unity of his followers and the true loving service of
all his children.
In the name of God, Amen.
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