PROPER 9-C, July 4, 2004

Have you ever wondered or thought about what might happen if we honestly took today’s Gospel seriously. I mean seriously. I don’t mean thinking it is a nice story or thinking that that was then and this is now. I mean, what if we took Jesus’ command to those seventy others and applied it in the same way to our own lives. What if we were those seventy, today, July 4, 2004 ?

What if? If we did take this Gospel seriously it might mean the following, or something like the following. After the service is over, all of us would gather in Gundrum Parlor: all of us, no exceptions. It would be a tight squeeze, but let’s say we did it. Once we gathered there, there would be a place where all the men could empty their pockets and all the women could place their purses. Then everyone would get into his or her automobile and drive in any direction until the gas ran out.

We would not take anything with us, just the clothes on our back. There would be no money in our pockets, no extra pair of shoes or shirts or socks, no make-up, no blow dryers or curling irons. Nothing. Once we ran out of gas, wherever we were, that would be where our ministry would begin. The first home we came to, we would knock on the door and say "Peace to this house." If the person who answered the door took us in, we would stay there, eating and drinking whatever they provided. If not, we would keep on knocking until someone would take us in and we would stay there as their houseguests.

Then we would begin to tell people about Jesus and about our faith in Jesus. We would lay hands on the sick and cure them. We would stay in that community for as long as it would take us to get the message out. That might be months or even years. But we would do so – just like the seventy in today’s Gospel. It would be another Independence Day, a day when we started another revolution.

So what do you think? I think you’re thinking, "If this guy’s serious, we have a serious problem on our hands. Somebody in the back of the church better get out his cell phone, dial 911 and get the men in the white coats here as quickly as possible. The Rector has gone mad." Isn’t that what you were thinking as I painted that picture of what it would be like if we took this Gospel seriously?

And if those thoughts did not enter your minds, certainly thoughts about how this passage did not apply to you, certainly how this passage did not apply to the twenty-first century probably did. Why, we are too old or too young or have too many responsibilities. We could not possibly drop everything and set off to God knows where to do the impossible.

I mean, even if we did believe the Gospel was speaking directly to us, how far would we get anyway? People would think we were crazy. We would get doors slammed in our faces every step of the way. Look at what happens when a Jehovah’s Witness knocks on our door, or those young Mormon Missionaries. And those missionaries at least have a place to stay and a bicycle to ride and money to purchase food. We would have nothing.

Even worse, we would have to find some good person who would take is in and feed and clothe and house us for as long as we needed – for free. That just does not happen in this day and age. So if you’re thinking I’m serious, you also have to thinking that I have finally lost it and Jim Spencer better get hold of the Bishop as soon as possible. We have a crazy priest on our hands.

Well, I am serious, But hold the cell phones. Yes, it is true that today is different than it was two thousand years ago. The way we spread the Gospel message today may be different than it was 2000 years ago. Today, we send our missionaries off to seminary, certainly off for some formal training, before we send them off to preach the Gospel. We even pay them. We certainly do not expect them to go only with the clothes on their backs and depend on the kindness and generosity of people who don’t know them from Adam and who might reject their message as well.

All that is true. But, in many ways, it is beside the point. The point is, we really do not take the Gospel as seriously as we could, certainly not as seriously as we should. The other point, and it follows from the first one about not taking the Gospel seriously, is that Jesus is serious and Jesus is talking to everyone, not just those who are ordained. Everyone is to be a missionary. That responsibility will vary in some ways, but we are all called to teach others about our faith in Jesus.

So, if we don’t have to drop everything and go to an unknown place with no money in our pockets and only the clothes we are wearing, (thank God!) how do we fulfill what Jesus is asking us to do in today’s Gospel? Very simply: do what Paul in today’s epistle says we should do, live as he says we should live.

He says, first of all, that one of the vital acts of Christian ministry is to point out wrong when we see it, in a spirit of gentleness, of course. Seems so obvious, doesn't it? Try it some time. The next time you see a fellow worker, a neighbor, an adult, someone else's child doing something you know is wrong, speak up and say so. Not too easy to do is it? But that is one task, one responsibility, of our ministry.

A second task of ministry is to bear one another's burdens. When we see someone in need, no matter who that person is – no matter gender, race, religion, color – if that person is in need, we need to help. That is our duty and our ministry.

A third task is just as vital and it is just as often overlooked: and that is simply to do best job we can, whatever our job is: be the best parent, best student, best child, best boss, best worker, best volunteer – best whatever – wherever we are and whatever we are doing. Doing the best we can is a hallmark of Christian ministry.

A fourth task is to carry our own loads, not pass the buck, not ask someone else to do what we are supposed to do, not doing our job so poorly that someone else has to do our job over. We are to serve others and not have others serve us.

And finally, as Paul reminds us, we must work for the good of all. The question to be asked is not, "What's in it for me?" but rather, "What's in it for all of us?" If what we do is simply self-serving, or simply for the benefit of a select few, then what we are doing is not Christian ministry. We are doing something, but we are not doing Christian ministry.

There you have it: Christian ministry is making sure we help get rid of wrong in word and in deed, bearing one another's burdens, doing the best job we can, carrying our own load, and working for the good of all. It is "Matthew 25…and all that jazz." It is always using whatever gifts we have been given, wherever we are, to love and serve everyone we encounter: at work, at play, at school, at leisure, wherever. That is our ministry and that is our mission filled, yours and mine.

Hopefully we are all doing or trying to do that kind of ministry. If we are, we have discovered that ministry is a slow process. The mission field is often loaded with land mines: with roadblocks, rejection and ridicule. The seventy disciples did not meet with unqualified success. Not everyone accepted them. They were probably thrown out of some towns and not even allowed to enter others. But they persevered. So must we.

How we live out our faith, how we do ministry, how we preach the Gospel message, will differ one from another. The responsibility to do it does not. The questions each one of us must honestly ask of ourselves and honestly answer are: "Do I really believe I am one of those 70? Do I really take the Gospel seriously? And am I living it in my daily life as best I can and as fully as I must so that all I say and do speaks to others about my faith in Jesus?"