Sermon on sending out the 70, and us.

Sermon. 7 July 2013. St Anselm’s Hayes.

Gospel: Luke 10.1-11, 16-20

It is a great pleasure for me to be here, to be part of this gathering. I am going to say what I have said to you before: You can be proud that you have kept on gathering, you have been faithful in gathering, over so many weeks, over (let us be honest) over years. There is a kind of pride that is a sin, and there is a kind of pride which is an honest assessment of the way you have held on to God’s grace. Your faithfulness in gathering here is not your own achievement, it is God’s. But you can take pride in your responsiveness to God, in the face of quite a list of difficulties. 

In some tiny way, I share in your pride that we are where we now are. And in a bigger way, I share in your joy that your future has become clear, and you are to have your own priest. Now – or soon – there can be a different kind of gathering, or a gathering with a different energy. When we gather, there are a number of different ‘foci’, different focus points we gather around. 

·         There is the Word; we gather around God’s Word, and in a special way the Gospel, the story of Jesus.

·         There is the table, the bread, wine and water; we gather around the feast that God in Jesus is inviting us to.

·         And... And there is the chair, brothers and sisters, the chair for the priest/president. It is not that the priest/president is a focus in himself/herself. But the priest/president is there – centrally, ‘there’ – to remind us that with God it is never not personal. With God it is never not personal. So the human person, who somehow by God’s grace ‘holds’ the worship of all, is as good a focus for our worship as any other. And just to be clear: this is not because the priest-president is a saint, or any more holy than anybody else. The priest is God’s own ‘work in progress’ – a mixture of glory and sin – like the rest of us. But the Church has singled out this person to be the particular ‘work in progress’ who has this ‘holding’ role. 

And you, dear sisters and brothers, are once again to know who your own priest is. I rejoice with you.

And.. I note the irony – how typical of God to give us an irony! – the irony that as we all look forward to new gatherings, God’s word today is all about sending out. Jesus sends out the 70. They are dispersed. As Jesus sent out the 12 (sent them away from him), so now he sends out the 70 (sends them away from him). Why?

The short answer is because that is what Christian mission is. Christian mission is the movement that comes after gathering. We gather, hear, eat - and are sent out. To do what? 

To be urgent – always putting the mission first, not getting caught up in games of niceness, not even greeting people on the way. To be vulnerable, not relying on riches to impress or manipulate people. To be open to whatever comes along and content with it, not moving about from base to base as we reassess our strategies. To be with people - as gentle and as reliable and as truthful as we can be - insisting that the Reign of God is as close at hand now as it will ever be. That was the mission of the 12. That was the mission of the 70. That is our mission. 

Just one detail. It’s a strange thing. But the manuscripts differ. Some say 70; others say 72. And, even stranger, that is not unusual in the Bible. In Genesis 10 there are 70 – or 72 – nations. In Numbers 11 Moses appoints 70 – or 72 – elders. For that matter, those who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek numbered 70 – or 72. Why? 

Actually, it is no mystery. To us, 70 is something of a round number. But to biblical minds, so is 72. That is because to biblical minds, the number 12 is about as important as 10. 70 is a round number because it is 7 x 10 (if you are thinking in terms of 10s). But 72 is also a round number of sorts, because it is 6 x 12 (if you are thinking in terms of 12s). 

Whether that convinces you – or interests you in the slightest – it is possible that Luke is using whichever number it is symbolically. If there are 70/72 nations in the world, then to send out 70/72 apostles may be giving a big, big hint that at some point the mission of Jesus would move beyond the People of Israel and address directly all the nations (the gentiles) of the world. And of course, that is Luke’s story. For Luke is the one gospel with a second volume, the book of Acts, where just that happens, the mission of Jesus is taken not only to Jews, but to gentiles (the nations) as well. Luke, by the way, is the only gospel which has this account of the sending of the 70/72.

When you bring all of these matters together, the symbolism of this sending out of the 70/72 seems to be strong and deliberate. This leads some people to say: Thus it probably never happened in history. I leave that with you. It seems to me to be very likely that Jesus sent out, in different ways and at different times perhaps, more than just the 12. His movement was not huge, it didn’t take over the whole Jewish nation. But it must have had more than 12 missionaries, it seems to me. So, for me, something like the sending out of the 70/72 must have happened. 

And, you know, actually, once you have your own priest in his chair, it won’t all be about gathering. You will be encouraging him to feel ‘sent out’ into the highways and byways of Hayes. He will be encouraging you to feel ‘sent out’ into those same streets, to see joys and agonies you may not have seen before, to see what can be done, who needs our prayers, who needs our silence, who needs our smiles, who needs our anger, and so on. 

And even within the gathering, there is a certain kind of ‘sending out’. I hesitate to say it, but I will. At times, when you meet with your new priest, he will do things you do not expect him to do. He won’t always meet your expectations. At times when your new priest meets you, you will do things he does not expect you to do. You will not always meet his expectations. There is nothing wrong in this. As Thomas Merton said: ‘Even saints cannot live with saints on this earth without some anguish, without some pain at the differences that come between them.’ Just because we don’t meet each other’s expectations. So, even within your times of gathering, each will, as it were, send the other ‘out’, beyond what we now call their ‘comfort zone’. That is a good and healthy part of the Christian common life. 

So, brothers and sisters, gather well! And be ready to be sent out. 

You will not always be able to ‘cure the sick’ you meet, as Jesus commanded the original 70/72. But you will usually be able to do something with them, alongside them, or just perhaps for them. 

That is how I see the Christian healing ministry we will have a chance to enter into, in just a moment. As Christians, we can be honest about the mixes of health and unwellness that we all, in different ways, are. And so we can be with each other in that, stay alongside each other in that, and perhaps, by God’s special grace, be for each other and for a step, a nudge and ray of healing, or insight, or consolation. 

What this means, quite concretely is that we will have some brief intercessions, and after them, I will stand, once again, here. And you are invited to come forward and receive the laying on of hands. 

You won’t have to say anything. In particular, you don’t have to say what is wrong with you, or say that anything is wrong with you. If you just have a sense that some strengthening in God is what you need, just come and stand before me, and I will pray. We will have some music in the background so that if you do yourself want to say something, then you can and others will not hear. But that’s up to you.Then, you can go back to your seat. Or, if you stay there, I will then anoint you with oil specially consecrated for these purposes. 

Or... none of this. Do not come forward just to please me, or because you think I will be embarrassed if nobody comes forward. I won’t be embarrassed. I am offering this, not demanding or expecting anything.

But, if I do anoint you, I will say this set prayer. It is this:

‘I anoint you in the name of God who gives you life, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Receive Christ’s forgiveness, his healing and his love. May your wounds be Christ’s wounds, and may Christ’s peace be your peace.’

We are not part of the original 12 apostles. We are not part of the original 70/72 apostles. But we can still be ‘sent out’ into the particularities of our own lives, knowing in some new way that our wounds are Christ’s wounds, and Christ’s peace is our peace. Amen.