Trinity 3
Sermon preached by the Revd Sophie Young
‘Send us out, by the power of your spirit to live and work to your praise and glory’.
These words will be familiar to many of us here. They are said in this church every day, not up here in the pulpit as part of the sermon, but they are said at the end of our daily mass. We come here to worship, and in coming here we are fed by the word – the scriptures – and the sacrament – the bread and wine. And then, at the end of the service, acknowledging what God has given to us, we ask him to send us out and to help us to share that with all those we meet. This is mass. And the word Mass, comes from the Latin word for dismissal, the point at which the congregation is told to GO – to go out and offer to the world that which they have received. Mass prepares us for mission: God’s mission, that he calls each of us to participate in. Not some far off mission that is distant from us and our lives. But the mission of reconciling and restoring the whole world to himself, including the people and places we are set among.
And so, daily we can be fed in word and sacrament here in this place, and then we ask God to send us: and he does. But what difference does saying those words, and believing God hears them, mean? What difference does that make to our lives, and to the lives of those we encounter? What does it mean to go, and to live, and to work, to God’s praise and glory…here in Cambridge, in the places and communities in which God has set each of us?
Today’s passage can get us quite a lot of the way to the answer, as we hear Jesus give very clear instructions to 70 budding disciples who he sends on their way to the places that he intends to go on and visit. They are sent ahead of him, to bear witness that the kingdom of God has come near. There is a sense of urgency, as is so often the case in the gospels. The time is now, it is now that the kingdom is coming near, and Jesus uses the metaphor of crops ready to harvest as a way of helping the disciples understand the task set before them.
This passage and the sending of the 70 is in the gospel of Luke, chapter 10. It follows on from Luke 8 where Jesus himself has been going around the towns and villages curing people and gathering huge crowds to hear his stories and see the healings. And then chapter 9 where it has then been the turn of the 12 who were given very similar instructions from these 70 that we’re hearing about today. There has been a build-up, and the build-up is to these 70 who represent the universal mission. God’s mission to all people, in all nations, to the ends of his earth so that all may hear the good news of his love and be reconciled to him through his son Jesus Christ.
So, this mission is massive. This is it. Jesus is sending out his followers to spread the good news, to all people, that the kingdom of God has come near. The time is now, and it is happening.
And yet, what is so interesting, so surprising perhaps about this story, is how little attention is actually paid to the results of the mission. The reading we heard today is full of instructions for those who go, who do God’s work, and it details what he asks of them as they go. The focus is not on what they achieve on the mission, or how they achieve it. Whether the message is received well or not. How many people were converted? How many accepted or declined this offer of life in all its fullness, life in relationship with Jesus. No. Jesus is not focused on the results, what he is interested in is the willingness of his followers to GO and do as he asks.
So much so, that when the disciples return to Jesus full of excitement, bursting with stories of their success and wanting to share all that has happened with him…. you can feel them almost brimming with pride and exhilarated from all they have achieved…he stops them. And deflects their news. He says, ‘do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven’.
Jesus is pointing out to them that their joy, their future with him in heaven, is not contingent on how the message they take, is received. It is not about whether people accepted or rejected the message they took, whether demons submitted to them, or lives were turned around because of it. Their names are in heaven, he is saying, because they took the message. Because they were obedient and faithful. Not because they were successful. Jesus is clear, do what I ask…..Go….take what you have received, and share it. And thankfully, he gives those of us he calls to be part of his mission, some pretty clear instructions! So, let’s listen up:
First, pray. He said, the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’ then, he says ‘go on your way’. So, it seems fairly clear that the first instruction, before we go out, is to pray for more people to join the mission.
Second, go with very little. You have all you need: the gospel. You know what you have received, you know I am with you. Don’t weigh yourself - or slow yourself - down with excess baggage. Depend on him, and the hospitality of those you meet.
Third, spread peace, wherever you go. I have given you my peace, now you go and give it to others. Accept what is given to you and stay. Don’t keep moving on. Rest into a community, the community to which you have been sent.
Fourth, and share the good news with that community that the kingdom of God has come near. That Jesus invites all who you meet into his family, to be reconciled with God and drawn ever more deeply into loving relationship with him.
Fifth, the response is not yours to judge. The mission is to take the message: how it is received is not your concern, or your success or failure. Judgement is God’s, not ours.
Sixth, do not rejoice in your successes, but rejoice that your names are in heaven because of your faithfulness and because of God’s grace: not because of your works and what they achieved.
So, we have clear instructions: but what difference will they make to our lives this coming week? In the communities in which God has set us, to the people he has set us among? What does it mean when you return to work on Monday and chat with colleagues? When you next speak to your support worker? When you’re sitting in the doctors’ surgery waiting for your appointment? Or getting a taxi and chatting to the driver?
What does it mean for all of us to have lives, this coming week and in the weeks that follow, that reflect the life and love and character of Jesus: in service, in hospitality, in generosity, in love….in our interactions with our neighbours, and friends, and colleagues?
For each of us it will look different. Some of us will use many words, some of us will use very few. Some of us will be very active, some of us less so. Some of us will talk to many people, some of us will talk to just a few. But in all of it, God calls us to be part of his mission in our own way, in our own circumstances, with the people he has set us among. He just asks that we go. He doesn’t ask more of us than we can manage, and he equips us for what he asks us to do. All he asks is that: we go, and we share what we have received in word and action.
And as we come together at the end of this service, today - this mass - and say the words again, ‘Send us out, by the power of your spirit to live and work to your praise and glory’, let us be assured that God hears those words, he sends us, and he comes with us to wherever, and whoever, we go to.
The service is not, in fact, happening in here: the real service is out there.
Amen.