Year C

Luke 10:1-12, 16 (17-20)

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Paradigm Shift

The sanctuary certainly looks different from down here in the pews. Most of us come to church and sit in the same place week after week. That’s true of me also. We are creatures of habit, and get locked into familiar patterns which can be both good and bad. There is a certain comfortableness with doing the same things in the same ways. But there’s also a danger with doing the same things in the same ways. Like getting into a rut or just going through the motions, or accepting certain ways of doing things without thinking. One pattern that is firmly established in the Episcopal Church and in other denominations is the distinction between clergy and laity.

We have bishops, priests, deacons and laypeople. “We”, clergy, look at things one way, and “you”, laypeople look at things another way. Like on Sunday mornings, I sit up here, and most of you sit down there. That distinction carries into the division of labor in the church also. I do certain things as the priest. I’ve got my jobs and you do other things. You’ve got your jobs. That way of looking at things, that pattern that becomes established is called a paradigm. Paradigms can be both helpful and unhelpful. They are helpful in that they help us sort out the world around us. But they can be not so helpful if they lock us into ways of looking at things, or doing things, that are not good.

When there is a need to change an unhelpful paradigm, change the basic way we think and look at things, we call that a paradigm shift. One example of a paradigm shift is a story you may have heard before. The captain of an aircraft carrier saw a light on the horizon. He had a message radioed asking the other ship to change course. The answer came back, “No, you change course.” The captain ordered this reply: “This is an aircraft carrier; you change course.” The other “light” answered the second time: “This is a lighthouse, sir; perhaps you’d better change course.” The captain needed then to look at the facts in a different way; from another point of view.

This is what America had to do after winning the revolutionary war causing the need for us to sever our ties with the Mother Land, England.  Just about everything had to be looked at differently. Talk about a paradigm shift and this is exactly what Jesus, in the Gospel today, calls the seventy disciples to do.  Jesus calls them to make a paradigm shift. Prior to this, their relationship with Jesus was one of seeing him as their master and teacher. They were the pupils. He was the leader and the active one. They were the followers and spectators. On this day, Jesus called for them to look at discipleship from another point of view. Their work was to offer peace, cure the sick, and share the news that the kingdom of God was near.

Saint Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach the gospel always, and if necessary, use words.” This was the sentiment behind Jesus’ words as he sent the disciples out. And as difficult as it was to make that paradigm shift, they received the power. Jesus commissions this group of disciples and it is filled with a sense of great urgency. He tells them that it is as though all around them the fields are full to bursting with food, waiting to be harvested, perfectly ripe.  Yet, the fields Jesus points to are eerily empty, as though no one is awake to notice what is happening around them. That is why the mission is so important and requires so many. There is no time to carry a purse or bag or sandals.

When they pass people on the road they will barely have time to say ‘Good Morning.’ When they receive a positive response straight away, they may stay and preach the power of God’s kingdom realized in the presence of Jesus Christ and heal the sick. Where they receive a negative, they must move on at once. As Jesus draws nearer to Jerusalem and the cross there is no time to plant, only to gather in. It’s a time for decision.  What is interesting about this story is how little attention is paid to the results of the mission.

We hear that the disciples returned tired and exhilarated, bursting with stories about what they have done. Yet Jesus doesn’t seem to share their excitement. He says to them, ‘Do not rejoice….that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’ They have been able to do extraordinary works of power. But it was not to be about them, it was to be about the coming of God’s kingdom, the greatest paradigm shift. This mission is about life and death. Without the harvest the people will starve and die. Without the kingdom of God, their lives will be worthless. The harvest won’t wait and neither will the kingdom. Jesus commissions the disciples to go and tell others about this great paradigm shift God made in Jesus.

Jesus came to show people that God changed the way God looked at his people. God in Christ now looks at people with mercy and love. God in Christ came to seek and save the lost instead of waiting for people to seek him. Instead of seeing his people die every day for their sins, God in Christ died for them to reconcile them to God. Jesus’ whole life and ministry came about because God changed the fundamental way he deals with his people. And Paul picks up on this paradigm shift in his letter to the Galatians. He tells the community that there is only one kingdom. The old kingdom of the world is dead, nailed to the cross. In this new kingdom of God, people help each other and bear one another’s burdens.

Let us work for the good of all, Paul writes to the church. Let us be faithful about doing the right things and about remembering who we are…called to love God and to love our neighbor. “We are not to grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” The world is complex to be sure, but seeking to live rightly by making decisions that nurture people, enabling them to have homes, health, education, freedom from hunger and want, meaningful work to do, and a sense of choice and safety, is to love unconditionally, this is what we have been called to do as baptized followers of Jesus and children of God. It truly is a paradigm shift for those who decide to follow. We have been commissioned to go into the harvest, like disciples through the ages, to share the good news of God’s kingdom. May peace and mercy be upon us and may we rejoice that our names are written in heaven.