"Ripe for Resistance"

Will you please join me in a Prayer for Illumination, as we ask that the Holy Spirit illumine from within, our understanding of today’s reading and proclamation of God’s Word?

The morning’s NT text comes from the Gospel According to Luke, Chapter 10 … where we find Jesus preparing a group of his followers for service: He first calls them, then he equips them and he sends them out. 1, 2, 3. That’s been God’s way as far back as calling of Moses and then the ancient prophets. We see Jesus using it with the sending of the twelve disciples in C9, you’ll see him use it in today’s c10 text … and I believe it’s safe to say that, if we’re paying attention, God in Christ uses it with us today: call; equip; send. That’s the pattern. 1, 2, 3.

Please keep that pattern in mind … as we turn to today’s text, on page 71 in the NT of your pew Bibles, the first nine verses of Chapter 10. We find Jesus is in Samaria … well up in Palestine’s northern region … on a slow southward pilgrimage to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem.

Jesus had found now greater numbers of followers who understood well enough what it meant to be called into discipleship. Seventy more of them, in fact.

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.

And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person;

eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house.

Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you;

Cure the sick who are there, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you.

Grace to you, and peace, from a loving God and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It was a Tuesday morning, the 22^nd of September in the year 1760, when a very elegant-looking fellow, wearing a splendid robe, was kneeling in London’s Westminster Abbey. His name was George William Frederick, of the House of Hanover. Just short of his 23^rd birthday, the young man rose to his feet having been crowned George III^d, King of Great Britain, Ireland & Wales, and the American Provinces. It took King George only a short time to learn that these American Provinces were inhabited by Colonists who were ripe for resistance.

Now fast forward ten years to a cold Boston night, in March of 1770. A small group of men had been making sport by throwing snowballs and ice clods at a lone British Army soldier, a private by the name of Hugh White. Eight additional troops arrived, armed with rifles and fixed bayonets. But the crowd became larger and the taunting continued … no doubt fueled by a lot of liquid courage. First more snowballs, then small objects, then clubs. The Brit troops fired into the crowd, killing five and wounding eleven.

On a December 16^th night of 1773, there was a large gathering in Boston’s Old South Meeting House, a Puritan church, Mr. Samuel Adams presiding, in protest against the English tax on imported tea. Some of that number left the church, climbed into dinghies, rowed to three English merchant ships and tossed 342 cases of valuable tea into the harbor. The colonials believed that only locally elected officials, could/should/would tax them. Not Parliament. Not King George.

It was two & one-half years later, then, on the 1^st of July 1776, when 54 delegates assembled as the First Continental Congress in the State House in Philadelphia, Mr. John Hancock presiding.

There was urgent business to conduct, but their collective minds were much on the imminent occupation of New York City by the British Army. In fact, even as Mr. Hancock’s gavel came down, a state of war had for a year existed with Great Britain.

On the docket that July 1^st day was the motion of a Virginian named Richard Henry Lee … calling for a Writ of Independence.

The document itself was authored in largest measure by a young delegate, an att’y from Virginia, Mr. Thomas Jefferson, as he’d hunkered down in his Philadelphia parlor at Seventh and Market Streets. The Congress got to it, and they debated for nine hours. Members of Session you can take note! Nine hours.

The delegates re-convened on the morning following. Hancock called for the vote: twelve colonies favored independence; none were against; New York abstained … and British General, Lord William Howe was personally ashore on Staten Island that same day.

On the Thursday of 4 July two signatures were put to the document, those of Mr. Hancock and the Secretary of the Congress, a Mr. Charles Thompson of Philadelphian. BTW, John Foremann, as Clerk of Session here, you’ll want to note: Charles Thompson served in this capacity for 14 years. So I’m afraid there’s precedent for your long tenure!

And it was nearly done. Independence was declared. But declaration and reality are horses of two entirely different colors. In theology-speak this is known as “already but not yet.” Already a Declaration, but independence is not yet, for there’d be five more years of war. Only then would the Declaration would be worth more than the parchment upon which it was written.

Jefferson’s words of Declaration have stood time; tested again and again … and even now. Let us hear excerpt of its preface again today:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights … that among these are Life … Liberty … and the pursuit of Happiness.

In the eyes of the Crown those first 54 delegates were guilty of treason. Their lives and fortunes were on the line. And, at the end of it, they placed themselves in God’s hands. Hear it now:

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America … appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world … do … solemnly publish and declare:

that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States;

And for the support of this Declaration … with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence … we mutually pledge to each other, our Lives … our Fortunes … and our sacred Honor.

There are some comparisons and some contrasts to be made between this American historical narrative and the morning’s Biblical narrative.

Thirteen colonies sent 54 delegates to vote for a Writ of Independence. The Colonial Army was given an astonishing task: defeat the British Expeditionary Force -- and wrestle America’s freedom from the domination of the Crown.

From Luke’s gospel, we have a story of a single rabbi named Jesus. He had no army; his followers were few; and their task … was also nothing short of astonishing: Defeat the force of evil -- and wrestle from it our freedom from sin.

No doubt about it, this is a radical template for liberation. Radical. Jesus’s followers are to replicate his own radical ministry. Their business is urgent because Jesus fervently believed that the End of Time was near and the forces arrayed against God’s coming kingdom must be destroyed. Period. Jesus put his life in God’s hands; we know his life was on the line, don’t we?

The text is silent about the 70: who they were their names, their homes … but they are called … then sent: Go on your way! – reads C10 verse 3.

Jesus admits to the risk and its cost. He calls them lambs among wolves later in verse 3, metaphor for the defenseless vs. predators. The task is urgent and they’re to stay focused, so Jesus tells them: Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals ... in fact, so many of the Continental Army’s soldiers had no shoes. Jesus says: your task is urgent, stay focused, so travel light; and a Jewish proverb points out why this is so hard: The heaviest burden is having nothing to carry … and it is a heavy burden, having nothing to carry.

In C10v4 we read… And greet no one on the road! The Yiddish word for this schmooze. Don’t schmooze everyone along the way![1]

Jesus even equips them with a script: (1) Peace to this house. Four words. And (2) the kingdom of God has come near to you. Nine words. Let’s try it aloud: Peace to this house // The kingdom of God has come near to you. In other words, these are: two very short sermons. 13 words in total … my sermons aren’t that short, you’ll notice.

They were to carry little with them, but on their hearts they carried Jesus’ template:

Call, equip, send. 1. 2. 3. Offer shalom, cultivate trust, restore whole-ness. Again, it’s 1. 2. 3.

With this done, the 35 pairs could proclaim that nine-word sermon: the kingdom of God has come near to you. Dr. Eugene Peterson’s translation is: God’s kingdom is right on your doorstep.[2] God’s reign is a present reality. The world can now be turned right-side up. ///

In the summer of 1776, those 54 assembled in Philadelphia to reject Britain’s domination through resistance and armed rebellion.

Jesus has a better way. He empowers us to extend God’s dominion through the kingdom message: The wholeness of God’s peace and salvation flows right through you .. and you .. and you … but aren’t yours to hoard: pass it on.

Ah but can’t you just hear the pessimists in the crowd? Yeah but all too impractical, they’ll say. And what’s the response of the practitioner of the Christ to the practitioner of pessimism? --- How about a Yeah-but statement of your own?

Yeah-but … has it ever been practical – or lasting – to impose peace with war?

In 29 years, the US and Britain were again at war. 1812. The wounds had never healed.

But don’t think for a moment that the Jesus way is only historical. Think present day. Think what you will of American’s war in Afghanistan. I’ve been contemplating long and hard about a snippet from a recent George Will column … and I ask you to think on it, too … as he wrote, In the toxicity of this war, we find only a Vietnam re-done; a Sisyphean agony.[3] Now ask yourself again: has lasting peace ever been imposed by war? Present day included?

I believe Jesus has a better way to peace. He never promised a rose garden; never promised a life without some agony. But he does offer an eternal kingdom of God message: that a life lived with love and compassion overcomes evil. He bore a heavy burden for carrying it. And in the end, he backed it up with his life; all the way to death on a cross. In the end, he bore a heavy burden.

Who here will leave worship feeling called to proclaim just some slice of the good news of a God-kingdom right on your doorstep? Can you imagine the impact? Just this Covenant congregation, paired up … called, equipped and sent out to proclaim God’s kingdom? And I’m as serious as a heart attack when I tell you: you’d stop the world in its tracks and turn it right-side up.

Who will lead the way? Think you can’t take it? Jesus has been down this road and he’s the one doing the calling, equipping and sending. Why not begin today? You don’t need a lot of gear, you know.

The world is ripe for resistance to God’s saving grace. But God gives us what we need to turn that around … today for starters … through the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. We will gather at this table as a Christian community freed from the weight of the freight of sin! The world may be ripe with resistance, but God’s kingdom will come. At Covenant, we sing about it in prayer every week … thy kingdom come … we’ll do it again today … and mark my word: it will come. Not a matter of if … but when.

That’s a God-promise and Jesus has shown the better way to it. Jesus shows us that a life without God in it is not the life that the God who gave us that life, intended.

Thanks be to God. Let us come to the Table and become – the very heart and embodiment of God’s kingdom.

[1] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke – Sacra Pagina Series Vol 3. Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. ed. (1991,The Liturgical Press, MN). Pg. 167.

[2] Peterson, Eugene, The Message, the Bible in Contemporary Language. (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2001), page 1876.

[3] Will, George: Washington Post, June 24, 2010, Editorial Page.