Year C

Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

God’s Fireworks of Freedom

Independence Day is the day we celebrate with picnics, barbecues and fireworks, the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the faint memory of throwing off tyranny like the tea into the harbor. It is a selective memory that takes a day off from work for a bit of fun. The rockets red glare that lingers in the fireworks, barely gives a nod to the violence that brought us here. Jesus sets off some fireworks today of his own as he sends out seventy to do battle with evil and to signal his and the disciples preaching and healing mission of the Spirit that bore the fruits of the Spirit. Their mission foreshadows the story that Luke will tell in the Book of Acts. A story of God’s Independence day that is celebrated not with the rending of flesh but it’s healing, with words of comfort and hope rather than threats.

This mission of the seventy occurs as Jesus travels through Samaria after he has set his face toward Jerusalem and the cross. Just before this text today of the commissioning of the seventy, Jesus had healed a boy with an unclean or evil spirit and revealed again to the disciples the cost of following him. He seeks those who will give their lives for God’s kingdom as he did, and even with this difficult requirement for being his disciple, there are still 70 who are willing to go out in his name to prepare his way. They serve as a kind of advance team, going places where Jesus intends to go. They are to go in pairs to not only serve as the “two witnesses” required by law to establish the truth, ensure fairness and prevent false accusations in case a town rejects the gospel message and Jesus’ mission, but also to be prepared to meet with trouble.

As they are sent off not only is there a sense of great urgency in Jesus’ commission but they are sent off with a picture to ponder as they hurry through the countryside. He tells them that it is as though, all around them, the fields are full to bursting with ripe crop, waiting to be harvested. These fields should be a frenzy of activity as the harvesting was taking place. Instead, Jesus points to the fields that are eerily empty and this is why the mission is so desperately important. The plentiful harvest calls for a large work force to reap the crops before they spoil. Therefore, there is no time for ordinary necessities or precautions. They couldn’t take time to greet people on the road or even try to win people over. There was to be no distractions from the main intent of their mission because their focus was not to be on themselves but on continuing the mission of Jesus to heal the sick, feed the hungry, proclaim good news to the poor for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Where they were welcomed, hospitality was to be accepted. They were stay, offer peace, cure the sick and share the good news that the kingdom of God was near for everyone. Lives were transformed. When there was a negative response, they were to move on. There is no time to plant, no time to delay, there mission is to gather the harvest that God is preparing. This was a time for decision, and as Jesus drew nearer to Jerusalem and the cross, this message would become even more urgent. This mission is about life. Without the harvest, the people will starve and die. Without the kingdom of God lives become meaningless. Now is the time of decision.

We hear the gospel message of love, peace and mercy, and are given a choice. We can choose life or not, the harvest won’t wait. When we choose life, the Lord appoints us to go out into the fields ahead of him to harvest and share his healing message. This theme of harvest comes back in the Galatians text as well, where Paul writes, the fruit of the Spirit is reaped by those who sow to the Spirit.  The text today contains almost the entire last chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians where Paul offers practical advise on a number of matters. Central to the text is the bold declaration “You will reap whatever you sow.”

Paul says, in Christ we have the freedom to choose between sowing to the flesh and sowing to the Spirit.  Those who sow to please their sinful nature or flesh, from that nature will reap destruction.  Here the word “flesh” not only is in reference to the inner struggle within each of us in our decision making, but actually describes a person who considers not God, could actually be in contempt of God. Basically, what Paul is saying is we will get what we give. It is what author John Claypool calls the law of the identical harvest. We get what we give, bad or good. Those who sow to the Spirit, will reap at harvest time eternal life. Our salvation is by faith, not by works, that’s God’s grace, but living under the Spirit’s direction and power causes us to seek to do what is right.

A frequent theme in the scriptures is the change in a person’s attitude and decision making that the saving presence of God in their life brings about. For example, the effect that Elisha’s miracle has on Naaman in our OT text today. Naaman’s flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. His experience of God’s healing  salvation brings about his faith. He becomes a new creation.  To be a “new creation” in Christ, Paul tells us is about working for the good of all and boasting in the cross. In this spirit, bearing one another’s burdens with grace is not burdensome slavery but freedom in Christ. It is salvation. “A new creation is everything”

Jesus uses the healing of Naaman as a model for his own ministry among Jews and Gentiles to make it clear that God’s grace is offered to everyone.  But what is lacking is laborers who are prepared to go forth in the Spirit as described in the gospel. The fields are bursting with a ripe crop, ready to be harvested. There is an urgency; after all, the harvest must be collected in a timely way before all the crops go to waste. The good news is that we as in the seventy have been appointed and given power by Christ to share in the gathering of the harvest and in bringing the good news of the coming of the kingdom. The final report of the seventy is encouraging. The power of hell is being destroyed. People are being healed: the kingdom is advancing. Therefore, we can rejoice, not in the power of our accomplishments, but that we have prepared the way for others to receive Jesus’ salvation…God’s fireworks of freedom.