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Pentecost VI July 3-4, 2010 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 It must have been quite a day for Jesus! It must have been quite a day for his disciples! Jesus sent them out in twos to spread the good news of the coming of the Kingdom of God! They return to Jesus joyful in their success. Accepted, victorious, delighted and nourished by the power of the Holy Spirit, they have seen the Good News flourish like your grass after the summer rain. To these twosomes, the Lord's power has been made known. Jesus, as you remember, is on his final trip to Jerusalem to face the power of sin. He will face the ultimate struggle twixt good and evil. I think Jesus must have found a greater joy in their success than even these beginning evangelizers did. For Jesus, their mini-conquests over evil must have served as a foretaste of his conquest of the ultimate evils, sin, death and Satan himself. "I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky," Jesus tells his disciples, not a weather report but a matter of fact statement of praise and jubilation. Yet this is not what Jesus is ultimately thrilled about; his greatest joy is not power over evil. No, his greatest joy is that these disciples' names are written in heaven. How different Jesus is from most folks, even his disciples. They and most would relish relating war stories, "how we confronted the demons, expelling them from the sick, driving out the demons of sickness and conquering the demons of sin." Yet Jesus sees the bigger picture, not just one of expelling evil, which is quite important, but of living your whole being in the kingdom of God. That is what having your name written in heaven means: enrolled as a citizen of God, part of his kingdom, part of God's salvation! Worth noting because it reminds those novice missionaries, and those of us who are also to spread the Gospel, that what we are doing isn't just a clean up the world project like clean up on Hwy 371 heading toward Timberwood, which tidies things up for a while. No, their work, our work, is part of the great work of salvation, the great work of God that changes reality forever. Jesus' ministry finds full force in his death and resurrection and it is not a stopgap temporary measure that will do until something better comes along. It is the definitive work of God that changes everything in creation, reorienting all back to God. Note that we are part of the kingdom and like the disciples, any power we have, they have, comes from God, not through our own resources, gifts or talents. Our power to act is a power not of our making, instead it comes from God. We are not the saviors of this world or any other, not even our own little world, we are ambassadors, sent forth for Christ's kingdom, we bring a message that is not our own, by a power which is not our own, for an authority not our own. We do not set the agenda, but we serve to bring that agenda to fulfillment. Worth noting is that the disciples then, and we disciples now, are citizens of the kingdom. Being citizens of the kingdom is not about exterminating evil or just doing good things. To be a citizen of the kingdom is to have one's whole life directed towards the Lord, to know that not just our actions, but our very selves are valued and cherished by the Lord. We are not simply hired help, but we share in the dignity and nature of God in his image. In this time and place, we might not see such drama as the conquest of evil or Satan falling like lightning from the sky. Yet the power of God is as new and fresh, granted in more subtle forms, as it was when the seventy set out. And just as true is that just like those who were faithful to that first mission, we who strive to be faithful to our mission now also have our names written in heaven. A still more precious gift. AMEN Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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