Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Usually there’s a character in each bible story we read to whom we easily relate. For this story, the easy one to be is one the 70 who are sent out. But what happens when you put on the shoes of another character in the story? Maybe the shoes of a person in a town that DIDN’T welcome a pair of messengers from God. Suddenly this isn’t JUST a story about telling others about the Kingdom of God, but it ALSO becomes a parable about how WE “townsfolk” are called to welcome those who come to us. People who come with no purse or bag… not even shoes on their feet. What if “THOSE PEOPLE” have been sent to us by Jesus the Christ, to bring US something WE most desperately need… the gift of God’s peace?
When I did that this week, a particularly horrible image came crashing into my mind… the image of Óscar Ramírez, and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie. They were the father and daughter who drown in the Rio Grande river this past week. The picture of them, face-down in the river is now buried under a growing pile of other horrific pictures that have come out this week showing us in graphic detail our national sin.
But those two… they struck me because they were a PAIR of people… coming to my country… coming to me without purse or bag… without even shoes on their feet. Were these two a pair of disciples sent to me with nothing… no purse, no bag, not even sandals… with nothing to offer… NOTHING… except the Peace of God which passes all understanding?
Or maybe they were the angels the book of Hebrews talks about when it says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Or even worse than that, am I the ‘accursed’ that Jesus tells to depart from him into eternal fire at the end of Matthew’s Gospel because they were thirsty and I gave them nothing to drink, they were strangers and I did not welcome them, they were naked and I did not give them clothing, they were sick and held captive and I did not visit them.” Were Óscar and Angie the least of these? Were they, in some mystical way, Jesus the Christ, and was I the one who cared for them so horribly that it led to their deaths? Am I? Are WE... then… the deserving recipients of that final statement of cold, hard, truth given by the disciples in this lesson as they dusted off their feet and headed out of town? “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me, rejects the one who sent me.”
I don’t know about you, but I REALLY don’t like the idea of living in the shoes of the people who have chosen to be less than welcoming at best, and responsible for the deaths of “the least of these” at worst. I don’t like it at all! But I think the Holy Spirit works through the lectionary more often than we like to give her credit for, and I think this week the Holy Spirit is working through this lesson to show us our national selves in the mirror so that we can clearly see where we are and be called back onto the path that Jesus walks.
If the welcome that Óscar Ramírez, and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie received from our country is NOT the welcome you wanted them to receive… if THAT is not the welcome you believe we should give to those who come to us without purse or bag or shoes on their feet… If the hospitality our country has shown to those escaping deadly and horrific violence is NOT the hospitality that you want to show strangers who might just turn out to be angels in disguise… If the food and drink, shelter and medical care “the least of these” have been receiving by our country is not sort of care you would have our country offer Jesus himself… then it’s time for each of us to tell our town, our state, our nation and our world that the horrific welcome which those strangers have been receiving in our names and with our tax dollars is NOT the welcome WE want to give them! Because the welcome that Oscar and Angie and the dozens of others that have died in our custody have so far received in our names, is a welcome that leaves each of us playing with that eternal sort of fire none of us, I believe, really wants to play with.
At the end of this Gospel lesson, the 70 return excited for their success. But Jesus tells them, success isn’t what’s important. What’s really important, Jesus tells them, is not whether you succeed or fail, because we will do all the right things at times and still fail to make the change we know is needed. What is really important, is that you’ve been out there living the Jesus-Way… being active, vocal and determined. Persistently walking that Jesus-path toward the Kingdom of God. Doing what you can, in the place you find yourself, in each particular moment… THAT’S what we want Jesus to write beside our names in that book in heaven.
May we all, even though we are far away and all too often feel painfully powerless these days… may we all be as active, as vocal, as determined and persistent as we can possibly be in shaping the welcome our country gives the refugee, the foreigner, the purse-less, bagless and sandal-less... the stranger, the angel in disguise, the least of these and in all of those… we will be doing nothing less than welcoming Jesus himself. Amen.
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