Week 5 | Sunday, July 3, 2022
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Week 5 PDF version
1 | begin
Pray this prayer from the 1514 Book of Hours (or Sarum Primer):
God be in my head, and in my understanding;
Author unknown [1]
God be in my eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at my end, and at my departing.
2 | explore
Journal on your own about your experiences or share your stories with a group:
Describe a time when you had a mission to fulfill:
1. What was the mission? Why were you involved in it?
2. How did you prepare? What steps did you take to complete the mission?
3. How did the mission go for you? How did it affect you? How did it affect other people?
3 | read
Read Luke 10:1-20. Then read verses 1-11 a second time.
4 | engage
The portrait of Christian life in the U.S. so often fixates on saying and doing. We are taught to use certain words, to pray certain prayers, to read certain texts. We are instructed to take certain actions to address needs in the world and not do actions that would go against God’s commands.
And it can be exhausting.
How are all Christians supposed to have time to read, pray, say, and do all the things that a faithful life seems to require? More immediately, how can all Christians possibly have the energy for all this, especially now in a persistent pandemic?
If you are wondering how to fit doing Christianity into your week when everything is already stressful enough and adding one more thing may just topple the whole teetering structure, you are not alone. And this week’s gospel lesson may have a helpful word for you.
In Luke 10:1–12, Jesus chooses a huge bunch of people besides the twelve disciples to go and spread news about the kingdom of God in nearby towns that he plans to visit. He gives them instructions for their mission and sends them out “in pairs” (10:1, NRSVUE) to different communities.
What Jesus provides in these instructions isn’t much in the way of saying or doing. He does not lead an extensive preaching or teaching class. He details no doctrinal statement or list of do’s and do not’s for his appointees to deliver to these towns. He gives no lengthy plan of action. Most of his comments are about not being armed with resources and about eating with the communities they visit, and the only words he tells them to say are “peace” and “the kingdom of God has come near to you” (10:5, 9).
What kind of mission is this? How is it supposed to accomplish anything without a comprehensive stump speech or action plan? How will the communities they visit understand what the enigmatic kingdom of God that these appointees mention is about?
The key may lie in the body.
What the 72 that Jesus sends out wear, where they go and stay, and what they eat and drink are not tangential matters in this mission. They are integral to the announcement of the kingdom of God because the 72 themselves are living incarnations of the kingdom of God coming near. Just as Jesus himself is the manifestation of the coming kingdom of God, as theologians like Karl Barth have argued, [2] they as Jesus’s followers also embody the nearness of the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom comes near to the towns they visit, to the people they greet, to the homes that welcome them, to the tables that share food with them, to the people with illnesses whom they help care for, and even to the towns that reject them precisely through the bodies of Jesus’s appointees.
Jesus’s instructions enable their bodies to reveal more clearly that God’s kingdom is for the bodies of those they visit as well. Instead of putting distance between themselves and the people they meet through their clothing, resources, or meals, the appointees’ simple bodily presence will show others that their bodies are invited just as they are to be living incarnations of God‘s kingdom too.
The same invitation still stands for us today. You don’t have to be different or better than who you are here and now. “Peace!” has been proclaimed to you, to your body, too, just as you are. Instead of letting saying and doing put distance between you and God’s kingdom, what if you simply embodied the nearness of the kingdom of God?
5 | respond
Journal on your own or talk with a group about these questions:
1. What words and actions do you associate with living a faithful life? How can these words and actions be helpful? How or when can they put distance between you and faith?
2. What might it look like for you to be a living incarnation of the kingdom of God coming near? What feelings and thoughts does this idea evoke for you?
3. What stands out to you in Luke 10:1-20? What do Jesus’s instructions convey to you?
4. How might you receive the message that God’s kingdom is for your body too, as you are, this week?
6 | practice
Take a few minutes this week to do one of these activities:
Just Be
Take a break from this weekly practice and just be, as you are.
Simple Hospitality
Invite someone to share a simple snack, picnic, or meal with you.
References & Credits
1. This prayer is in the public domain. It is reprinted by permission from Book of Common Worship (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), 25, https://bookoforder.info/Book-of-Common-Worship.pdf
2. For example, in Church Dogmatics, volume 4.1, Barth says, “He [the Son of God] comes as the kingdom of God in person.” Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/1, The Doctrine of Reconciliation, trans. G. W. Bromiley (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1956),§59, 216.
Header image of “Footprints in Sand” is by Dim Hou on Unsplash at this link
Image of “Lake” is by Jenn Wood on Unsplash at this link
Image of “Fruit Bowl” is by Metin Ozer on Unsplash at this link
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The scripture reading comes from the Revised Common Lectionary lessons for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost in Year C, which can be found at the Episcopal Church Lectionary Page here
