Fourth Sunday after Pentecost: July 6, 2025

PRAYER OF THE DAY O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, you are the city that shelters, the mother who comforts us. With your Spirit accompany us on our life’s journey that we may spread your peace in all the world. We pray through your Son, Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel Reading: Luke: 10.1-17 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’

16“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

17The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 18He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

REFLECTIONS:
One of the more frequent quotes you’ve heard me repeat is “why leads to how”. Jesus’ commissioning of his followers to announce the in-breaking of God’s realm is simultaneously ‘why’ and ‘how’. For openers, the realm of God vividly contrasts both the ways of the empire and some closely adhered to cultural norms. Here are a few examples….

“carry nothing with you”-We are hardwired to be prepared and to be self reliant; especially in a pinch. Carrying nothing puts us at the mercy of the elements and the potential kindness of strangers (Were it not for a man from Samaria the person robbed and left for dead would have died).

“greet no one on the road”—The mission is urgent so no time to catch up on news, family gossip or the score from last night’s ball game.

“ When someone provides lodging, eat what’s set before you” and don’t move from house to house.” God’s realm isn’t about social climbing. In Jesus’ day, hosting someone of high social standing boosted yours. Likewise being hosted by someone with high social status boosted yours. Historians and social scientists use the word ‘patronage’ to signify social contracts and obligations that come with someone feeding you and putting a roof over your head. The idea of covenant from Noah onwards is not a transactional one—it’s about mutual commitment and the common good.

So when 70 people are sent out, they embody and practice the words they are commissioned to speak. These events were meant to teach successive generations of followers who they were and what they were about—in very fundamental ways, the mission remains and the Church professes to be the organized way in which the mission is carried out. The disciple community (or the Church) was never meant to walk in lockstep with the Empire or even the culture.

“The Kingdom of God has come near to you” Do we realize what dangerous words these are? The Roman Emperor doesn’t like competition. He tortured anyone who didn’t bow to Caesar and call him Lord of all and he killed anyone proclaiming themselves king, or messiah. . How silly to imagine Caesar dismissing Jesus’ claims about God’s realm (or kingdom if you like) as a lovely metaphor.

Non violent as Jesus’ approach is, his words repudiate any claim Caesar or anybody else has over people. Jesus embodies an alternate reality to the schemes we concoct that reward a select few at the expense of everyone else’s well being. Worse yet, the schemers legitimize the hustle in religious or patriotic trappings. There might have been something about that in the news this week.

Jesus’ announcement of God’s realm and God’s intention for how things are comes in his sermon ‘on level ground’. God sides with the poor and downtrodden. As for the fat and sassy look out (which is a faithful translation of the word “woe”) Let’s read and reflect on Luke’s version of Jesus’ beatitudes:

Blessings and Woes
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you[d] on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation
25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. Millennia later, God’s realm may feel very far away and some emperor or another bellows and blusters demanding our allegiance. There are still prophets among us too.

Prophets often call for us to re-member and re-claim; which turns out to be living in ways that are brand new. I borrow the words from a powerful little book called An Other Kingdom co-written by the late Walter Brueggemann, and Peter Block and John McKnight. We’re invited to imagine, “social relationships ordered around al alternative narrative that is founded on the ideas of neighbourliness and covenant. A cocial order not based on the conception of consumption and contract. Neighbourliness means that our well-being and what really matters is close at hand and can be locally constructed and produced. . . (and)neighbourliness is built on a covenant that serves the common good” ( Peter Block, Walter Bruggemann and John McKnight. An Other Kingdom (2016): Hoboken, New Jersey, John Wiley and Sons, p. xviii.)

Neighbourliness and covenant are expressions of the “greatest commandment”— Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbour as yourselves”.

Now we approach a churchwide convention and we hear of wars escalating and people’s rights and livelihoods being taken from them….What will Jesus’ followers say to their society and how will they say it? So we land where we started….”Why leads to how, and sometimes” they are intertwined.