A heart for social transformation

‘…one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions..’ (Luke 12:15)

Luke 12:13-21 (Year C: Trinity+10)

O yes – more family feuds have been fought over dead persons’ estates (or persons thought likely to be dead in the not too distant future).

Many refer to this short passage in the 12^th chapter of Luke’s gospel as the ‘Parable of the Rich Fool’. There is potential for being the ‘rich fool’ in any of us given circumstances and opportunity. We might read this passage as a rejection of ‘worldly goods’ along with a call to radical self-imposed austerity.  True, the Christ we meet in Luke’s gospel is not particularly congenial to rich people – especially when they put their riches before all else. Many see in Luke’s gospel a call to radical social transformation (even revolution) in the here and now to overturn oppressive regimes and social orders that conflict with human dignity and rights. However, we need to take care in not turning these sacred texts into a type of religious political manifesto for some 21^st century movement. The gospels – as the original Greek term means (euangellion or ‘good message’) – is a message written at one moment in human history but which speaks of eternal truths and values in all times and places (posing a big challenge for postmodernity!). We must hear again the truths and values of the gospel – written as they were in a particular culture and time.

Follow your heart?

Follow your ‘heart’ and not just your ‘head’ is good advice. However, our ‘heart’ needs to be tuned to truth and love which we find in God alone.  The writers of Ecclesiastes puts it this way (11:9 using NIV version of the Bible):

You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the ways of your youth.  Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

It is indeed a lovely thing to follow our heart. But, we need a head screwed on above it!  We need, too, to ground our heart-full and heartfelt journey with prayer, the sacraments and spiritual friendship that knows how to alert us to the pitfalls.  In all of the gospel, including, Luke the ‘heart’ plays a central role as it is referred to in many places:

..so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too. (Luke 2:35)

For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.. (Luke 6:45)

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:34)

The heart is where corruption and love contend with each other. It is the seat of human action.  We may strive – in vain to change social conditions – and run up against the wall of human evil as the sad history of the rise and fall of Leninist socialism in the 20^th century illustrated all too well.

Education of people in their ‘heads’ is not enough. Education and practice of the ‘heart’ is a vital component of a truly well educated people. Is it not significant many PhD’s were gathered at the 1942 Wannsee conference in Germany to plan and implement the ‘Final Solution’?

On a less dramatic note, how do we reconcile that fact that most of those who in some way played a significant role in the financial meltdown along with financial corruption of the 2008-2010 period were ‘well educated’ persons who went to particular schools and colleges and were by all accounts worthy pillars of society?

Heart-full and social

Yet, a focus on personal, individual or local community morality is not enough. Our love – to be meaningful – needs to extend out to the whole world. We need to understand and contend with those oppressive social structures whether in the domains of consumption, investment, trade, taxation, the law and corporate governance. Heart, community and societal transformation are of one seamless robe.

There has been much talk, of late, about Gross Domestic Product and associated concepts as well as the underlying ‘real economy’ of Ireland (GDP is now touching quarter of a trillion  Euro in the Republic of Ireland). At the same time, abroad, there has been much talk about global economic risks, terrorism, the environment, migration, very questionable populisms and much else. A timely quote from the late Robert Kennedy in a speech given in March 1968 (Remarks at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968) is in order:

….the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play.  It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.  It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. 

The equivalent of GDP at the level of household or individual is what we call total personal income.  It is made up of two components – what we pay in taxes for public services and what we retain for individual consumption or saving. How much do people need to live a life consistent with dignity in a given society?  There is no simple answer to this question. It all depends. However, we may note from a careful reading of Luke’s gospel that Jesus distinguishes between ‘wants’ and ‘needs’. If we read on to the rest of chapter 12 we hear Jesus saying:

For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. (Luke 12:30)

What we strictly ‘need’ and ‘want’ are not same thing.  For this reason the Advertising Industry plays on a certain ambiguity in this regard. Foreign to the notion of sufficiency is ‘more and more’. In pursuit of an illusory security we spend money and time (the two are sometimes mixed up as well but this time by economists) on securing more money and time ‘just to be sure to be sure’.  We may confuse love with status, prestige and fame. What do we strictly ‘need’?  Peace, contentment and freedom to live a good life are treasures without compare. It is not suggested that we live in a state of economic backwardness. However, we need to seek, work for and strive after those things that make for peace, contentment, sustainability and freedom in our world today.  Greed is not good, contrary to what some say or assume about society and economies. Neither is dependence where we expect others to work for us and provide us with our needs and wants without making our own contribution.

In a world of growing inequality

In the course of recent decades there is compelling evidence of increased inequality of income and wealth especially in countries such as the USA and the UK.  Many speak of the top ‘1%’ or even the top 0.1%. However, the passion to accumulate more and more is not confined to the top 1% of even the top 10%. To some degree we are all prone to the temptation to want more ‘just in case’.  Paradoxically, the more we have the more we want. Just as levels of wealth and income are beginning to catch up with (if not exceed) pre-recession levels in those countries that underwent a severe recession in 2008-2010 (Ireland and the UK being among them) many people are anxious to leap forward in terms of wealth and income. If every time the word ‘growth’ is used by economists attracted a bonus the world would be full of millionaire economists!. Rarely, do we ask growth of what, for whom, and why.

There are pressures to lower taxes, have more cash in the pocket and, in some quarters, expressions of fear about the impact of immigration. How ironic that we neglect the fact that the islands of Ireland and Britain have, over centuries, continued to send huge numbers of emigrants to other parts of the world (as well to each other) in less than praiseworthy circumstances.

However, what is key to a flourishing life for individuals as well as communities and families is those values that unite people in mutual care. No one can deny that a combination of luck, where you are born and who you are born to as well as random distributions of ability and disposition shape economic outcomes.  However, social inequality is powerfully reinforced from generation to generation by means of upbringing, the kinds of schools young people go to and the kind of social networks they are involved in as well as the inherited and acquired stocks of ‘financial capital’, ‘cultural capital’ and ‘social capital’ as some social theorists say. The same process works in relation to that other public good ‘health’ which is being incrementally privitised in these parts of the world.

Inheritance – the opening theme for this Sunday’s passage –  is surely highly significant as well to social outcomes across the generations which may explain why some families quarrel over this matter much to the delight of the law profession and, also, why there is resistance to inheritance taxes as alleged infringements of the rights of offspring to their parents’ estate or home. After marital breakdown, legal battles over inheritance probably constitute the second most lucrative source of income for family law professionals.

Skills, technology and institutions are vital to ensuring economic and social development in the widest sense but are no substitutes for the clarification and practice of compassion, justice and equality of respect and opportunity.

There is no detailed blueprint for social transformation

The gospels, including that of Luke, do not provide a detailed blueprint for how we should organise society. Rather, the good news provides sign posts to how we can reset our priorities and put human dignity first before any institution, ideology or interest.  Trusting in a higher love that guides our lives as well as in a code of behaviour that de-thrones the gods of money and social status remains a challenge for Christians today as it did in Jesus’ time. The person in the crowd who sought free legal aid and intervention by Jesus in the case of a family quarrel over inheritance is a proto-type for us today as we confuse ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ and end up never being satisfied because we want what we do not need and we need the very things we do not want to face up to.  As always, Luke turns everything upside down in this crazy upside down world.

For the Christ came not to enchain but to set free. He came not to condemn but to save. And He came not to impoverish but to enrich. We, too, can be rich in relationship, hope and care. This is what we bring with us at the end and this is what we leave behind for others to treasure. And this is what matters.

Risk it; Dare you

 ‘…Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’ (Luke 11:9)

Luke 11:1-13 (Year C: Trinity+9)

It is getting dark. You are on the other end of the city in a neighbourhood you are not familiar with. The GPS-Sat-Nav-google maps thing is not working here. Why does the Eircode on google maps not work anyway?  You have the address but have no idea exactly where you are and how to get to the address through a maze of endless roundabouts and similar looking housing estates with absolutely no signs at any junction (in other words, unless you happen to live there, you are somewhere on the western outskirts of Dublin!). There is nobody to ask: the streets are empty. Hold on – a human being is walking on the other side of the road. Ask. Poor vernacular.  You ask a second being. OK you have a vague idea, now, how to get there (4^th left, 2^nd right, ignore the little turn off, watch out for Mylos pub, avoid ending up on the M50 again, take the last turn right ….). You seek out the road and, after a few wrong turns and another helpful inquiry you find the place. You approach the flat – it is number 2A around the side of house number 145 on Mystery Way. You knock on the door (in case the bell is not working).

• And you wait.
• But, is there someone in?
• Maybe the person has moved?
• Maybe you have the wrong address?

Often, we think of the spiritual life as an endless quest and frustrating journey entailing many deviations, getting lost, starting out again, moving forward and all the time not quite sure that the person or thing you are looking for is where you think he/she/it is.

Religion is turned into something that we do, ask for, search for and knock down the door for. And the harder we try and the more we ask and the greater the number of meritorious acts the more entitled we think we are to receive an audience and reception. (‘Give me a break’ God says?)

Yet, the good news as told by Luke is that we are found out and this fact is more important than all our efforts and plans put together.

Where is the door handle?

There is a painting by William Holman Hunt hanging in St Paul’s cathedral showing the figure of Christ knocking at a door. The door is overgrown with ivy and brambles.  Have a closer look at the picture at the top of this blog. Notice anything? There is no door handle on the side of the door where Christ knocks. Another feature of this painting is that the light is on the outside – flowing from a lantern held in the hand of Christ.  There is no evidence of light coming from inside the house while Christ is outside. The painting was inspired, apparently, by a passage from Revelation (3:20):

‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.’

(A contemporary song of worship recognised by some is ‘Light of the World – you stepped down into darkness’)

And that person you sought wasn’t in that evening on the other side of the city.  When you get home you find a note ‘Just called – sorry to have missed you’. Ah.

Saint Augustine, too, wrote about this experience in his work the Confessions (Book IV):

Too late I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new! Too late I loved you! And, behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you

Am I ready for that visitor from within who never tires of asking, seeking and knocking day after day? Just stay still ‘at home’ in your own soul as you still go out to the Other in others and listen carefully to the gentle tapping sound. And have the table set.

When we allow ourselves to be visited and won over we can pray with a full heart the following Collect for the 17^th Sunday after Trinity later this year (inspired as it was by St Augustine’s famous ‘our heart is ever restless until it rests in you’):

Almighty God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you: Teach us to offer ourselves to your service, that here we may have your peace, and in the world to come may see you face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Never stop asking why

Sometimes, children can be annoying. They are prone to ask ‘why, why’ and much more besides. They never tire. We might do well to observe and emulate this practice in our own lives.  ‘Never stop asking why’ was the slogan on some sign seen at a Dutch university some years ago. The key to living and learning from cradle to grave is need, wonder, curiosity, striving, relating to others and gratitude. The day we stop asking, seeking and knocking is the day we die. The job is never finished as long as we live because we hope for something new, different, more beautiful, more whole, more true and more meaningful.

• To ask for is to question – ourselves and others.
• To search is to look out for and to go forward not content with where one is at.
• To knock is to politely request in anticipation of entering in more fully into truth, goodness and beauty. To stand and stare is not enough. We must go ahead and enter in more fully.

And the one (anyone – not just religious people or people who think they are religious) who asks, who searches for and knocks ALWAYS finds, receives and is welcomed in – not perhaps as they thought or planned it or in the way and time they assumed best.

Jesus gave his disciples a formula. It is called the Our Father. The beauty of this very Jewish prayer is that it can be recited by almost anyone regardless of their denominational or creedal affiliation or linguistic convention. If you wish, for Father read Mother. For Parent read Hope and Life.

The disciples asked Jesus for advice on how to pray. He gave them (and us) the Our Father.  St Teresa of Avila was asked by her sisters about prayer. She advised them to take the Our Father but spend an hour with it. Might we do that too at least once in a while? We don't have time? Brother Martin Luther of Erfurt used to say that when he was extra busy he would rise an hour earlier than normal to pray more!

Ultimately what we seek and need is none other than the Holy Spirit! And if we ask for the Holy Spirit we will not be denied.  But, do we really want this gift and are we ready to really ask for it?

Risk it, dare it.

Two sides of the one coin – the sacrament of the Present Moment

… there is need of only one thing.…’ (Luke 10:42)

Luke 10:38-42 (Year C: Trinity+8)

Was Martha given a raw deal?

Was Martha given a raw deal in the gospel of Luke (the story is unique to this gospel)?  She had a very special guest in ‘her home’. Here she was under stress, busy, busy and ….. her (younger?) sister was googly eyed and besotted at the feet of this wise and amazing man listening attentively  and drinking in every word.  ‘Worried and distracted by many things’, Martha confronts Jesus with a question “‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’”  Clearly, Martha was cross and not unreasonably so at least from the sketchy account we have.

Since the Garden of Eden, it has been a universal law in all families, community organisations, churches and, especially, workplaces that someone, somewhere feels that others are slacking or doing too little while they, themselves, are taking an undue burden of some collective task. That task may be as profound as caring and parenting including minding an elderly parent, on the one hand, to the relatively trivial matter of filling the dishwasher on the other. In between there are a lot of other things including serving in a retail store, overseeing a project or working in a manufacturing plant and providing a key service in the community.

The Martha-Mary story is played out in millions of ways today. Teenagers argue over whose job it is to clean up.  So-and-so is forever on computer games and does not help out.  Brothers and sisters argue over how often someone should visit their elderly parents in a nursing home.  Brothers and sisters argue over wills and probate. Spouses and partners argue over minding the home, minding the children, sharing money and tasks. People on church committees and in religious congregations mutter about someone not pulling their weight or missing meetings, etc. And they find time to argue over the colour of the church fabric or the manners of the pastor!

And the story goes on and on.

Where workplaces are concerned it is said ‘why can’t the ‘boss’ do something about so-and-so who is not pulling his or her way on the work to be done. Why am I the one to stay behind to get the job finished? Why am I the one who gets asked because he will not do it? Why do others take me for granted?  Why does she leave a professional mess which I, then, have to clean up on?

Conflict may happen ‘under the surface’ via gestures, looks and pauses without a word being said directly in relation to the grievance to hand.

If anyone reading this has found an organisation or community setting where this sort of thing does not happen at least occasionally they are, indeed, blessed and exceptional! 

But, the Martha-Mary story is not a story about the relative merits of ‘contemplation’ (which gets a strong affirmation, here, from Jesus) and ‘apostolic action’ to borrow ‘churchy’ language.  Martha got a ticking off not because she was busy or because caring and being busy are not necessary and good (busy, caring people make a better, safer and happier world possible). Martha got a ticking off because she misunderstood the situation. The story has a wider resonance today among disciples of Jesus.  We may very frequently misunderstand and, therefore, misjudge others – their actions, their motives and their reasons.  Each has a vital role to play in the work of caring, serving, building and restoring.  Each is very different by virtue of background, talent, limitations and what some call ‘baggage’ that we all bring around with us and of which we are only half conscious. The amazing aspect of any human gathering or joint undertaking is that it brings together difference. The whole can be much greater than the sum of individual parts and talents – if do not stand in the way.

To read this story, as some have, for a justification of the primacy and superiority of ‘contemplation’ over ‘action’ misses the point.  ‘Contemplation’ and ‘action’ are two sides of the one coin. We attain to a mindfulness of God and a disposition of profound listening through the gateway of loving service to one another. Worrying and fretting about this and about that gets in the way. Yet, worry and fretting are a natural part of the human condition and particularly so when people might be sick, down, poor, vulnerable or otherwise disposed that way by temperament and circumstances. Even in worry we can look out and look around and look up.

Love is the point

and is the one thing essential and we chose the better part in putting it first and above all else. 

Listen and love.
Flip over
Love and listen
And flip over again
Two sides of the same coin.

These are the rocks with which we fill our daily jar. Once we have these in place the sand and water of daily life can fill the rest of the jar.  We will be surprised how much that is essential can be packed into a prayerful and action-filled day.

And we attain to loving service through abandonment to the real and living God in the here and now of prayerful attentiveness in the sacrament of the Present Moment.

Postscript

Like Martha we may be hosts of Jesus in our own ‘homes’ and souls but that can open up possibilities for others like Mary to hear and to be conquered by the message of love.

No half measures

 ‘… Go and do likewise.…’ (Luke 10:37)

Luke 10:25-37 (Year C: Trinity+7)

This week’s passage from Luke comes in three complementary parts: a reaffirmation of rock solid Old Testament foundational teaching, (ii) a story to explain the point, and (iii) a clear-cut command to each of us.

Rock solid OT teaching

A ‘lawyer’ (it is a ‘pharisee’ in Matthew and a ‘scribe’ in Mark) tried to test Jesus by asking something along the lines of ‘how do I get into a heaven?’  A not unreasonable question and not unknown one among religiously inclined persons, even today.

As a good Teacher, Jesus got the learner to figure it out by posing a question in response to the Learner’s question (Let’s assume that the Learner had some interest in learning as well as in ‘testing’ Jesus). Jesus draws on a key passage from scripture – the basis of the daily Shema recited by devout Jews then and now (Deuteronomy 6:4-9):

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Jesus, however, goes further and draws on Leviticus 19:18:

you shall love your neighbour as yourself

Loving God with all our being and loving our neighbour as ourselves – are two sides of the one coin. In one way, Jesus was not saying or doing anything new. It was all there in the sacred scriptures when God spoke to his chosen people. In another way it was all new because Jesus was restating an Old Commandment and making this very emphatically and very centrally the basis of all other commandments. It was a matter of radically simplified moral theology!  It might have seemed that these two commandments entailed loving God first and then our neighbour as an afterthought. Not so. It means loving God with all our being and loving our neighbour as ourselves at one and the same time.  Loving God comes first in terms of the order of commandments but loving our neighbour comes first in terms of action because it is in loving our neighbour that we know for sure that we are loving God. God is in our neighbour – poor, excluded, lonely, oppressed and hungry as well as in the next person beside you at this moment on a bus, at a counter, in a queue, online ….

And who is my neighbour, again? Jesus as an excellent Teacher spells it out by means of a story.

A story about love

There once were four persons somewhere on the way between Jerusalem to Jericho …

One of them was lying on the side of the road critically injured and possibly close to death.  With great irony, two religiously respectable persons – one a Levite (an assistant in the Temple according to scripture scholars) and the other a priest – made for the other side of the road. Perhaps they were in a rush somewhere (a religious ceremony?).  Or, perhaps they were taking no chances because the scene might have been a trap to lure others only to be robbed and attacked? Perhaps they were heading to report the incident to someone else so that proper and timely help could be organised? (somehow I think not but I am trying to be non-judgmental towards the priest and Levite in this story!).

Moreover – and this seems to be key point in this story – touching someone who might be dead in which case they would invite ritual defilement.  Mercy took second place to a cultic religious observance (not that all cultic religious observances are unimportant and unhelpful then and now).  The fact is that it took a foreigner and someone not of our tribe and religious practice to do the decent thing and to save this victim’s life. Yes, it could have been a trap. How was the Samaritan to know? But, she/he was moved by compassion and she/he did not stop to weigh up the risks. Following emergency treatment the Samaritan took the victim to a local inn and did the modern equivalent of leaving his/her credit card details and PIN with the innkeeper. There were no questions of private health insurance, a promissory note to repay or a contract with terms and conditions. There was just compassion.

In this one gesture and story Jesus cuts through the nonsense, hypocrisy and cruelty of what passes for religion then and now.

Translated into our times and context the story urges us to put compassion first even if, sometimes, this entails some personal risk. Of course, prudence is required. However, we can often cite prudence or the call of other duties or cares to evade a duty of compassion towards the person right in front of us right now.

But, we would be missing the point if we understood this story to be about one person acting compassionately towards another. The truth is that the Samaritan displayed a measureless love for another human being and that measureless love was the love of God unleashed in a broken and divided world. God’s love moved the Samaritan but the response of this foreigner and outsider was one of love with all of heart, all of soul, all of strength and all of mind.  Four ‘Alls’ and four key actors – a Levite, a priest, a foreigner and a victim (and the story does not reveal the nationality papers or denominational status of the victim).

All, all, all, all

Oddly enough sometimes we don’t stop and ponder what the meaning of the phrase ‘all your mind’ actually means. It does not mean suspending our God-given human reason to question and deepen our understanding and commitment.  To ‘heart’, ‘soul’ and ‘mind’ could be added ‘body’.  (Mark and Luke refer, in addition, to ‘all your strength’).  In short, we are called to love with all our being – every bit of it.

The quality and test of love is the capacity to lay down one’s life for those one loves (e.g. John 15:13 – ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’).

Jesus makes something new of something very old and traditional. He is bringing two commandments together and directly linking them by means of a ‘new commandment’ which combines both. It is the hallmark of real Christianity which would follow much later as the Jesus movement within Judaism evolved into a gathering (ekklesia) of disciples a growing number of which would be gentiles.

The symbol, power and truth of the Cross is at the centre of Christian loving as revealed in Jesus Christ.  The cross has two beams:

a horizontal one that indicates love for one another (the two thieves on each side of Jesus, for example, as well as the on-looking crowd including immediate family).
a vertical one that indicates God’s love for us and our love for God.

Now the vertical beam cannot stand without the horizontal one and the horizontal one cannot hold without the support of the vertical one. So it is with one and the same love that has been given to us.

God is loved in and through our neighbour. But, we love our neighbour for himself or herself and not as an instrument to please and love God. That is the way God wants it. After all God who is in all, loves all wants us to love all with our all.

And that’s not all (Matthew 22:40):

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

In one swoop Jesus reduces the 613 commandments of the ‘Old Law’ into two commandments not so much by abolishing them as by rooting then in the essential. And his listeners were left speechless.

How we could simplify our lives and our laws and our canon laws and our rules of community if we took to hear the simple truth that underlying ‘all the law’ and the scriptures is the commandment to love God with our all and to do so sincerely by loving the person next to us now.

Very simple. Too simple in fact.

Love is the one thing you cannot overdo. If we risk everything for love we can liberate ourselves from false/dead religion together with 600 regulations and be conquered by that Love which has loved us from all eternity in the first place.

And so…

Again and again the evangelist closes a particular episode with words very similar to those used by Jesus in this story: ‘Go and do likewise.’ (v. 37). The challenge for any of us is to open our eyes to the world around us and to see need where it may not be apparent or crying out.  There is a twist to this story and it is this. The imaginary Levite or priest carried on – nobody was watching. Who would know? In any case, they may have convinced themselves that the right thing to do was to keep going and not to stop.  If, like the lawyer who posed the question to Jesus in the first place, they wanted to notch up positive credit on their passports to heaven (some might remember from decades ago the little prayer cards with a notice of so many days off purgatory). The point about pure compassion is that nobody is watching except God. But, if someone who says they don’t believe in God (usually it is a case of a 21^st century human declaring that they do not believe in a god invented by human constructs of a bygone age) they may still find God without knowing it because compassion moves them or others. Let’s say God turns up in dry, dusty, sunburnt paths and byways in the desert between some Jericho and Jerusalem in our personal journeys.

Keep calm and carry on

 ‘… And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person.…’ (Luke 10:6)

Luke 10:1-20 (Year C: Trinity+6)

In times of stress

With wars there, terror here, political breakups pending above and discontent from below we live in interesting times.  Given instant on-the-second access to breaking news and commentary (not all of which is wise or well informed) we are hit on every side by sensational and often disturbing news. This can leave us anxious, bewildered, let down, frustrated, fearful, angry, apathetic, withdrawn or in a state of intense and worried engagement (if only to let off steam via social media which serves many purposes).  We do well to take time out and stand aside for a while from the chatter and noise. Yet, we are ‘in the world’ even if we are not ‘of it’ (John 17:15-16). We live and travail and worry and rejoice with others in a messy world not as we would like it but as it is and not as something fixed and unchangeable but changeable (or open to influence). And while the media are full of the big news (at this time it is very much Brexit in this little corner of the globe but in a few months time it could be about something else) we deal with our own issues and pressures day by day in families, workplaces and communities. This is the stuff of ordinary living with all its glories and tribulations. The English writer, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) wrote the following in a poem called ‘If-‘:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you

Line by line

‘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.’ (v. 1)

We are a ‘sent people’ – all of us and not just those who wear special clothes or are greeted with particular religious titles. Being sent involves hearing, saying yes, commitment, perseverance. But, it also involves something else – going with others ‘in pairs’. Some might understand this literally to mean walking down the city main street ‘in pairs’ handing out Bibles etc.!  More practically, it means working together with others where we are planted and being open to the gift of unity of purpose and mission in the simple things of daily life from ‘meitheal’ (a temporary work combination to get a job done) to a generous, joint and committed co-parenting of children who need more than one significant adult in their lives

 ‘He 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.’ (v. 2)

This line is a very familiar one to many Christians and is almost always used in the context of religious ‘vocation’ to some ordained ministry or consecrated life.  But, ideas of harvest, labourers and calling are not confined to special ministries. They also concern you and me and others like us who have planted in a mixed up world needing a calming voice of reassurance, acceptance and friendship. Pray that many more will be send to credible witnesses in the midst of a troubled world.

‘Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.’ (v. 3)

Every day we go on our way through the familiar and the unfamiliar. It might be that we follow a very predictable and habitual timetable every day – getting up at such and such a time, getting such and such a bus, seeing the same strangers on the same bus every day whose names we do not know, working in the same place every day, meeting more or less the same people, returning home in the evening to the same place, doing similar things evening after evening and so on. But, even if habit and routine characterise our lives in this way we must acknowledge that every now and again something completely different happens. It may be a simple encounter or an unforeseen happening – negative or positive as it may appear to us in that moment. Such opportunities arise and we are free to make what we will to do some good, to experience some blessing or to grow in humanity.  Taking time to see and to be open is important because we are sent out into the world where hostile and friendly forces mix as Jesus reminds us in this saying.

‘Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.’ (v 4)

Travel light! With light luggage carried on we get through arrivals quicker!  Half the time we are carrying heavy goods around with us full of thinking and emotions that leave us stuck in the past and we do not realise it. And it slows us down in moving forward. ‘Greet no one on the road’ might be taken to mean ‘take a break from tweeting and checking how many facebook likes you have got on your last post!’. There is more to life!  Seriously, we need to travel light in the goods of this world by staying focussed on Jesus – his Word, his Grace and his Call and moving forward with others in our service to the world. Yes, our call is to serve the world – no more, no less. By this we will see miracles happen.

‘Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.’ (v. 5-6)

Peace of mind and peace of heart is a precious gift. Many worries, uncertainties and troubles may assail us from without and within.  There may be little we can do to change external circumstances. However, we can manage our reaction to these.  We are sent in the name of peace as it says in the liturgy of the mass (the sending or missa) in many rites including Antiochene, Alexandrian, Byzantine and Roman (‘Go in the peace of Christ’). We are sent in peace to bring peace and to remain in peace. If others do not accept this gift we must not allow ourselves to become closed, embittered or resentful. Neither should we linger where it is time to move on at the appropriate time and place.

‘Remain 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. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you;’ (v. 7-8)

In the course of our life journey we will meet different cultures, different personalities and different systems of belief and practice. Without surrendering one’s values and core beliefs it a good and wholesome thing to be open, to accommodate and to include.  We are ‘guests of the nation’ when we go to another culture or country and we should be able to receive hospitality. In this telling of the story by Luke the old dietary laws are no longer a barrier to table communion with gentile Christians mixing with Jewish Christians. We are one body, one bread together in the one Holy Spirit.

‘cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, “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. I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town." (v. 9-12)

When we discover a pathway and peace is established with another we do well to stay in that pathway!  Peace begets peace. Violence, disrespect and bullying can never be overcome by the same.  It is better to walk away than meet disrespect with disrespect.  And when we meet respect we should be thankful and be ready to receive as well as to give.

“‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But at the judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades.” (v. 13-15)

How silly it is to rest on titles, special clothing, denominational status and tribal membership to consider ourselves in some sense more worthy or correct than others. Group egotism is alive and well and not just the individual type.

An Australian poet, Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-1870), once wrote:

Life is mainly froth and bubble

Two things stand like stone

Kindness in another's trouble

Courage in your own

“‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’” (v. 16)

An awesome aspect of discipleship and mission is that the only book that could point to heaven many people have in today’s world and culture is us!  The way we live, the way we talk and act and the way our inner thinking is revealed in words, gestures and non-words and non-gestures shapes others not least those nearest and dearest.

‘The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’” (v. 17)

Like a victorious team returning from an international sports event there are moments of joy in knowing and tasting success.  But, such success is built not only on team work but a combination of external circumstances and the overall plan that God has for the world as he writes over crooked lines and human follies. 

‘He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.’ (v 18-19)

It is precisely when we fail, when have walked away (like many of the apostles did on Good Friday) and when we have almost completely lost trust that God steps into our lives and helps us trust again and again.  ‘Nothing will hurt you’ might read better as ‘nothing will damage you’ but hurt, pain and grief there will be and joy in generous portions too. (the Greek term adikēsē signifies ‘injure’. See here.

“’Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’ (v 20)

If we are honest, we tend to like birthday cards and such things. For a day or a few days every year we are a little more special and we don’t mind it. The difference between being a member of Jesus’ team and many other teams is that our very own names are written in heaven even if the world does not recognise our names or particularly cares because we are a cog in some else’s machine.

Keep calm and carry on!