2025-07-06 Pentecost 4

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

Way back in the day, when I was on my Vicarage in north western BC, in the beautiful town of Kitimat, we went to the local library and we rented a video called “Being Safe in Bear Country.” As we all know, that’s what “BC” stands for, right? “Bear Country.” … Or was it Bring Cash? It was a long time ago and I can’t remember! We flatlanders needed to brush up on our bear-safe game. The video talked about hiking and camping in bear areas and how to be safe about cooking and storing your food appropriately. None of it was really rocket science, it was basically “don’t be a dunce and take proper precautions.” It also talked about carrying a bottle of bear spray or a gun and knowing the difference between a predatory bear and a defensive bear. The video got rather academic but I figured that as long as I could out run my wife, I’d be OK! But it did make you consider how to be ready and prepared for what might come your way at any time.

Jesus speaks about being prepared today in Luke’s Gospel. Of course He’s not talking about hiking in bear country, but instead it’s about the disciples being prepared and sent out by our Lord on a very specific mission. Luke tells us there are 72 followers of Jesus that will be sent forth into the world. And it kind of has a season of Advent flavour, as they were going out to prepare the way for the Lord. He “sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go” (10:1).

This was a very specific mission for the church at the time of our Lord’s ministry. But as we hear these words, it really should cause us to give pause and ask ourselves “what is our mission?” Why does the church exist? Do you ever consider that? Why are we here? The church is a nice place with nice people with nice comfy pews, the nice Pastor is ridiculously good looking, the coffee is nice and the tasty treats at coffee time are nice too! Or perhaps we might say that going to church is just something we’ve always done because our family always did. It’s our heritage. Still others might think it’s just the first step before going out for breakfast Sunday morning! And look at that, the Lutherans have the 10AM service so we can beat the Baptists to the buffet afterwards!

But what is the real reason and purpose of the church? Do we have any clearly defined goals and purpose as God’s people or are we just spinning our wheels? Think about vehicle manufacturers. GM, Ford, Dodge, Toyota, whoever it is. These are honkin’ huge companies doing billions and billions of dollars worth of business each year. Do you ever think they struggle with their mission? Probably not. Build and sell vehicles and make big profits for the stakeholders. Same thing goes with farming and pretty much every business, regardless of scale. But what about the church?

This is where we need to do some deliberate thinking. The church has always existed to preach Christ crucified and resurrected. Proclaim that message. Scatter that seed. It’s the only message in the world that brings hope, healing, and forgiveness of sins. So the church exists for the Gospel! We could steal the Lutheran hour mission slogan, “to bring Christ to the nations and the nations to the church.” Perhaps we could grab hold of Jesus’ great commission to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that Jesus taught. Or, it might be what St. James talks about: visiting widows and orphans or healing the sick and helping people. It might also be clinging to pure doctrine and theology, singing the liturgy and receiving the Lord’s Supper. Or, it might just be all of these things woven together amounting to bringing the Kingdom of God to this dying world. It has elements that are fun and exciting as well as some that are scary and intimidating too. Nevertheless, this is our mission. This is truly why we are here.

In the Gospel of Luke, we’ve got these 72 disciples being sent forth. And this mission has some rather peculiar things attached to it. The first thing is that Jesus sends them out as “lambs in the midst of wolves” (10:3) First bears and now wolves! This is getting scarier by the minute. Innocent little lambies in the midst of predators. That starts sounding a lot like lambchops! Also, these disciples are not to bring with them any money bag or knapsack or sandals and they aren’t to greet anyone along the way. This seems rather odd but they were to be so concentrated and focused upon their mission, that they had no time or concern for things of the world. Thirdly, they were to proclaim a message of peace - “Peace be to this house!” (10:5). If there were faithful ones there, they received a blessing. If not, the blessing came back to the disciples. And finally, Jesus comments on that situation when he said “the one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects Him who sent me” (10:16).

The whole goal before the 72 was to bring God’s Kingdom into the world, spreading the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding. They were to bring a message that the God who created you, who died for you and rose for you – loves you! Therefore, repent of all sin and receive the Good News by faith! And, some do! Those who do, they receive God’s peace. Those who don’t, receive the opposite. As the church, we might think that like a car company, it’s our job to make more cars. But that’s not our job. The Holy Spirit does that part. God simply calls us to prepare the way, to show and tell the Gospel message in your words and deeds, wherever you are - “whether they hear or refuse to hear” (Ez 3:11). You don’t have to jump aboard a huge jumbo jet and fly half way across the world in far away lands to carry out this mission. Its sad that our idea of mission has been reduced to that – something that somebody else does somewhere else! Its not just the job of the guy with the title of Reverend or Missionary. God’s mission involves us all as God’s baptized people.

Sadly though, Satan and our own sinful flesh war against us in this. We often won’t let ourselves be those ‘sacrificial lambs’. Perhaps we don’t want to bear rejection for our faith. We constantly feel the need to be accepted in the eyes of men rather than in the eyes of God. Yet in Confirmation, we stand before God and the pastor and witnesses and promise to “continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it.” We also tend to desire the things of this world like money, money and also money, which can buy us lots of stuff. Hey, why not throw in there Sunday morning sports while we are at it. Sure beats sitting around a church hearing about God’s amazing grace and mercy! Instead of peace, we continue to make war and conflicts.

However, when we focus our hearts and minds on our mission as God’s people, just look what happens. The 72 came back bursting with joy! They have victory and triumph over the cares and problems of this world! Jesus Himself said “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (10:18). These words sum up the mission of the 72 who were sent out. They sum up our mission today too. In proclaiming Christ comes victory over Satan, sin and even the whole world! The Disciples exclaimed that “even the demons are subject to us in your name!” (10:17). But not even that is the best part. True heavenly joy isn’t in the theology of Glory in our own works and successes – even triumphs over demons, snakes and scorpions! But rather that our names are written in heaven, in the book of life. Indeed, they have been written in the blood of the Lamb shed for you on the cross. Even more, it is written on your heart in Holy Baptism!

What comfort and grace and courage this gives to us to face this world, with all its struggles, its problems and its challenges! Jesus’ disciples have been given power over the enemy! His Word and Meal in the Eucharist give us strength to carry out this mission to the world, right here in our own back yard. No matter where we go our Lord goes with us. And we also have His grace as His church to “bear one another’s burdens” when life seems too much for us.

What an amazing message we have been given in the Gospel! How incredible to think that as God’s disciples we are His Lambs, willing to sacrifice ourselves and our own agendas for the service of others. How incredible it is that we can have Godly desires to seek first His kingdom and all else will be given to us. How incredible it is to be able to be peacemakers in a world filled with war. We can heal, reconcile and be reconciled as well as love and care. And above all else, we know that our Lord has not rejected us. We will always be His children, His lambs, sealed with His own blood from the cross and in our Baptism. We continue to hear His voice and receive His love and forgiveness in His sacrament of the Altar which is His precious strength for the mission and purpose He calls us to. Amen!