LK 10 : 1-12 (13-16) 17-24 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost+4…Revised 2019

If we choose to omit vv. 13-16 we still need to preach a Jesus who is no ‘Pale Galilean’! We aren’t called to ‘nanny’ people any more than Jesus was / is!

Jesus, the ‘greater than Moses’, &, following in his footsteps, appoints 70 (72?) - does it really matter to today’s congregations? - to share the burden of His work with Him. How can we interpret the strictures Jesus imposes on those He sends out, in terms more relevant to today’s settings & cultures? One possibility that appeals to me is to preach in terms of ‘baggage’ we’re carrying but don’t need to be. What lot of old rubbish are we carrying within us, but need to discard before we can answer Jesus’ call?

Why not explore what today’s equivalents of fields, lambs, & wolves we find our-selves among, might be? What ‘purses, bags, & sandals’ are distracting us from the outreach to which we’re called? Might the ‘no greeting’ along the way bit have something to do with prioritising time? Surely Jesus isn’t simply encouraging us to be rude to people? What can we tease out from this particular ‘rule’ He sets down?

Has today’s pendulum swung too far towards insipid & ineffective varieties of Christianity? So far that there’s no reason at all why Satan (however we understand that term) should feel ‘it’ needs to fall from Heaven or from anywhere else, for that matter? Can we reach out to others effectively enough to make ‘its’ tumbling a bit more worthwhile?!

As for the very down to earth snakes & scorpions (v.19), today’s ones in human form abound all around. Evil is always a more down to earth enemy than ‘up in the air’ ones. But, if we, by Grace, are wearing enough of the ‘whole armour of God’ we can combat & defeat evil at ground zero!   

‘The Complete Gospels’² I often refer to, uses, in v. 9 , the expression: God’s Rule is closing in.^’ That’s a very ‘head-on’ interpretation, I know, & I often ponder whether, read that way, God’s Rule becomes a threat or a promise! Does the answer to that depend on whether where we’re coming from is compatible with where God’s coming from, & how & when we meet? 

Brian 

  

Afterthought: Commenting ad loc, Richard Rohr’¹, SSF, suggests those sent out will be witnesses …who ‘live a believable life, a real life, an attractive life’. I find what he says believable, real, attractive, - & eminently preach-able.

¹ ‘The Good News According to Luke’, Crossroad, NY, 1997, p. 137  ² Polebridge, Sonoma, CA., 1992