by: Pastor Isaac Collins
In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus challenges our understanding of ministry and what it looks like. Jesus sends out seventy disciples to do ministry in towns and villages. Who are these disciples? Today, a minister has to have a Masters of Divinity degree from an accredited seminary. We have to go through a nearly-ten-year-long provisional process of evaluation and learning before being approved to serve in the Methodist church. That is not the case of these seventy disciples that are sent out. Luke doesn’t tell us that they have any special qualifications. Most of them probably couldn’t read. They had no training. They are not specialized in pastoral counseling or care. They are just people who follow Jesus. No different than anyone in this room. They are sent out to speak on behalf of Jesus to people in Galilee. They are laborers in the harvest.
Speaking of the harvest, where is the church’s primary place where we do ministry? Some may think that it’s in this building, but no, Jesus challenges us again. This building is not our primary place of ministry. This building is the tool shed. It’s the mess hall. It’s the rest station. It’s basic training. It’s NOT the fields where we are called to labor. Too often, we think that coming to church at 11 am is what we are called to do as disciples. We treat this hour as the primary task of the church each week. We like to think that we are the primary focus of this 11 o’clock hour. What is God going to do for me in the next 60 minutes. But, this hour is not about us. Worship is about God. We do two things while we are in worship. We offer praise and prayers, and we are sent out to labor again for another week. We are laborers coming in to change out tools or report back on which places in the field are producing the best fruit. We are here to recharge our batteries and let go of what leads us to stumble. But, then we have to go back to doing the work of the kingdom. The Christian life is not just about what God does for you. It is about how we respond to what God has done for us. If the Christian life doesn’t stir us to go and labor in the fields of the Lord’s harvest then our faith is dead.
But, what exactly is the labor that these seventy disciples are sent out to do? They aren’t sent to form a committee, or offer Vacation Bible School for children. There are no mission teams. There is no mention of worship. Jesus doesn’t tell the disciples to organize groups of people. He doesn’t tell them to get the people they meet to make a profession of faith. There’s no mention of salvation. He tells them to go and knock on people’s doors until someone invites them in and shows them hospitality. Jesus also tells them not to take any extra clothes, any money, not even a pair of sandals. Eat whatever is set before you, which is an instruction to eat foods that God’s law says are unclean. They are to rely completely on the hospitality of others.
I find this bit particularly challenging because this model of ministry would not be acceptable to the higher-ups in the church today. Each week we have to report on our numbers in worship to the Virginia Conference, but there isn’t a line for “How many people fed you this week?” We are so obsessed with creating a church that is equipped to offer every possible event, and all Jesus asks us to do is walk outside of our church’s doors and sit down and talk to people.
Why has creating community become so difficult for us? It feels like community is such a foreign concept today that even the church has forgotten how to life-giving just simply being with other people can be. Paul writes in Galatians that we are to carry each other’s burdens. Sure, we can do that through a committee, but wouldn’t it be better to just do it by sharing hospitality instead?
After a year of ministry here, I feel confident in saying that Wesley has a bit of an inferiority complex. I don’t say it as a criticism, just as an observation. We look around and see about 70-80 folx on Sunday, and think that we have nothing to offer. We feel vulnerable. Why aren’t we like the bigger churches, we wonder? We aren’t like the bigger churches because that’s not what we are called to be! We are exactly like these seventy disciples that Jesus sends out into the world. He sends them out in total vulnerability with nothing to protect themselves or guarantee their success. It’s a ministry of faith. Each disciple had to believe that Jesus was enough for them to succeed, for them to find a warm meal, and a safe place to sleep.
Our ministry here at Wesley is about to change. We are adding new staff, and going to be doing more than we’ve done in a while. But, the goal isn’t to create more entertainment. The goal isn’t to get more butts into seats. The goal is for us to leave the building more. The goal is for us to proclaim peace to those in Charlottesville that are dying to hear that news. The goal is to build a community that bares one another’s burdens. All it takes from us is showing up. We think there’s some secret alchemy to successful ministry, but all Jesus asks his disciples to do is walk outside of their doors and go talk to people. We can do that, can’t we?
Here’s the incredible part, it works. The disciples come running back to Jesus with joy, saying, “Jesus, even the demons submitted to us in your name!” In all of the meals and conversations that the disciples have, Jesus sees victories being won in a spiritual battle. I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, he cries. When we gather together in Jesus’ name, there is more going on than meets the eye. Jesus gives us power to tread on snakes and scorpions in his name. The crazy thing about faith is that we believe that simply eating together in the name of Jesus can transform our lives and the world. That’s why we come to the table for the Lord’s Supper. We think that dunking this piece of bread in welch’s grape juice gives us the grace of God. It takes vulnerability to see that in our weakness there is God’s strength. In the simple material of bread, God’s grace is present. In the simple splash of juice, we are communing with the divine.
As we come together for another year of ministry, let’s commit ourselves to being vulnerable, to admitting our weaknesses, to baring one another’s burdens. We come here in worship to offer those things up to God as the tools with which they will bring in the harvest of the kingdom. Do y’all hear that? God has chosen us to go and be the voice of Jesus Christ in this world? God doesn’t look around thinking, “Ugh, I guess they’ll do. NO! God looks at each of you and thinks this is person is a perfect messenger of the gospel.” That’s the beauty of our God. They don’t work in spite of us, they work with us and through us! We have been given power to tread on snakes and scorpions, to heal the sick, and to have demons submit to us. We just have to claim it. Now is the time. Let’s not wait any longer. Amen.