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 This can leave us anxious, bewildered, let down, frustrated, fearful, angry, apathetic, withdrawn or in a state of intense and worried engagement (if only to let off steam via social media which serves many purposes).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!