Lambs and Wolves

July 7, 2019
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

In my sermon last week, I talked about people making excuses for not following Jesus. And he reminded them that this was hard work, not a fun adventure. It can be a difficult life sometimes, being a Christian. There is no simple way to be a disciple. And yet, here we have this account of Jesus sending seventy disciples out to the villages with simple instructions and a simple task.

Carry no purse or bag or even sandals. Speak peace when you enter a house. Eat what is placed before you. Invest your time and energy in one home, one family, one town. Remember that the kingdom of God comes near whether you are accepted or rejected.

It seems so easy, though it might make us feel nervous, uncomfortable, or awkward. It is a simple task, and difficult to undertake, to live simply and vulnerably. Their task is to rely on the grace and hospitality of others. “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”, goes the line from Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). We abhor being vulnerable. We’re better at putting up walls and showing our toughness than we are at letting others know where it hurts, where we ache inside, what we long for. We don’t trust in the grace of strangers.

The task is to stay in one place — to encounter, to engage, and to go deep. Jesus didn’t send them home where they wouldn’t see anything new. He sent them out to new places, where they would encounter different people, people with a story that is not the same as theirs. They were sent to engage with others, to listen to what ails them and offer the living water. They were sent to go deep, like the conversation that lasts until the last candle goes out and the dawn begins to creep in. It is a rare thing for us to share time without limits with one another.

The task is to live as guests, to trust ourselves with others as if they are the people we depend on for sustenance and shelter. They come with peace and they go in love. They offer kindness, healing, and hope. And even though they go as lambs among the wolves, they never fail to point out that the kingdom of God is near.

There are plenty of wolves in our world that claw at our peace, our hope, and our trust in the goodness of God. There are many reasons to be angry, to fear, to want to defend what we have against those others who might take from us. Even so, Jesus doesn’t send us out to be wolves.

The seventy that Jesus sent, they lived in a terrible time – under the brutal oppression of a foreign power, with local government that was corrupt, food insecurity, and the fragility of life in a time when infection most often meant death. “Why send me?” they probably thought. Jesus warned them that they might face rejection, thirst, hunger, or the forces of evil. “See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.”

But they came back, all seventy of them, with joy. They were amazed at what they had seen and done. “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” And Jesus, presumably smiling says, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.” Don’t you see? When you walk in love, and you sow peace in every field, when you allow yourselves to be vulnerable, to trust in the grace of God, evil trembles. Demons fall. The world changes. The kingdom of God comes.

There are heroes who draw their weapons and fight to the last, who stand on the ramparts to fight off the wolves. There are heroines who rush into the burning buildings, and dive into the frigid waters. There are heroes who wield the scalpel, even when the operating room is a tent in a field and the bombs are getting closer. There are heroines who walk the darkened hallways of the hospital at night. There are heroes who bring a cup of cold water, a piece of bread, a touch on the arm, the gentle stroke of a hand on your forehead as you lie in pain.

We are sent as lambs amidst the wolfishness of war, greed, drought, violence, and starvation, using hope, peace, and love as our only weapons against greed, power, ignorance, and complacency. The instructions are simple. Don’t take with you more than you need. Speak peace when you enter a house. Eat what is placed before you. Invest your time and energy wherever you are. Remember that the kingdom of God comes near whether you are accepted or rejected.

When we go about the business of God’s work, we recognize God’s presence all around us. When we are vulnerable and open, trusting in the grace of others, we find God is working alongside us. Accepting hospitality and kindness from others empowers others to do the work as well. We must not simply help others, but also allow ourselves to be helped, for we are all in this together. We can all be heroes for one another, find that others can be heroes to us, and together find that the kingdom of God has come near.  Amen.

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With thanks to Debie Thomas, “Choosing What is Easy” posted on www.journeywithjesus.net, and Suzanne Guthrie, “Sent Out in Love” posted on www.edgeofenclosure.org.