JulWk2

Sermons

July 7 and 8

Sermon

Paul Johnson

July 7 & 8, 2007

A long time ago I had the good fortune to make a pilgrimage to Israel with my family. Part of the journey involved day trip from Jerusalem to Masada which is where in 70 AD the Jewish rebels held out against the Roman army.

              So we’re riding in this bus down to Masada when we start driving along the bluest lake I had ever seen in my life; I mean a brilliant, lapis lazuli kind of blue. Utterly striking…right in the middle of the desert! And chucklehead that I can be sometimes, it took me a little bit to realize that I wasn’t looking at a lake. I was looking at the Dead Sea. I’d heard about it; I’d read about it…and there I was, looking at it. When I realized it was the Dead Sea, something that seemed odd about it began to make sense. We see beautiful water on a beautiful day, and we expect to see water skiing, and fishing, and swimming. But instead, it was absolutely nothing. Nothing was going on, except some waves.

              What we all know from junior high geography is that the water in the Dead Sea is six times saltier than the ocean. It’s so salty that when you float in it, it’s almost like you’re sitting in a chair. Which is pretty neat, except it’s so salty, you can only float like that for a few minutes before your skin begins to hurt. And I can tell you from experience…that it really hurts if you get it in your eyes.
Of course, there’s a reason that it’s not called “Lake
Israel,” or “The Sea of Jordan.” It’s called the Dead Sea because it’s so salty, it’s dead. Nothing can live in it. Fish wander into it, and they die instantly. There’s nothing swimming, nothing creeping, nothing happening, in that water. There are no plants growing in the water, and there are no plants growing by the water. Nothing makes its home there.

And partly this is because there are so many mineral salts in the area. But just as much it’s this way because while water flows in to the Dead Sea, no water flows out. The Sea of Galilee empties into the Jordan River, which empties into the Dead Sea…and then, there’s no place for it to go; there’s no place for it to drain; there’s no flow, there’s no cleansing of the system, there’s no movement. All the water does is stop, and stay, and die. It’s all input, and no output. All it does is get filled. It never gets emptied. So, it’s dead.

              That’s different from the way life works. We all know from high school biology that everything that’s alive is in the process of both input and output, receiving and giving. They both matter, and that’s the way life is. Plants take in sunlight and minerals and water, and give off leaves, and fruit, and seeds, and oxygen. We breathe in, and we exhale out. We eat and drink, and it either comes out of our body as energy or waste. It’s that way for every living thing. It’s the only way things can grow. In and out. It’s a rule of how life and growth work. For there to be life, what’s filled needs to be emptied and what’s received eventually needs to be passed on. It is a universal biological truth that input without output; receiving without giving; taking without passing on…takes us in the direction opposite to life.

              Well today, we’re hearing one of the great evangelistic texts of the New Testament. Jesus sends out the seventy to declare the kingdom of God. The word translated as “send” is “apostollo,” the word that for us has become “apostle.” So this is the story of Jesus making seventy apostles, and sending them out before him to go all the places he was planning on going. He’s sending them ahead. They aren’t supposed to do the whole thing and finish the job, just do their part and get it started. “You go,” he says, “and I’ll be right behind you.”

              Here’s a little bit about this passage; here’s a little Bible for us today:

              This is the second time in the gospel Jesus sends people out. Earlier Jesus sends out the twelve disciples. This time, he sends seventy. This means they aren’t special. They aren’t part of the inner circle. They’re just hanging with Jesus. Apparently, just hanging with Jesus is good enough because they’re the ones he sends out. The number seventy matters because Genesis Chapter 10 tells us that the number of nations peopled by the descendents of Noah after the great flood was seventy. One apostle for every nation. The whole world is to be covered.

              He sends them out in pairs…to strengthen their witness, but also because it’s tough work—maybe even dangerous--to talk about what God has done for us.

              We’re like lambs, but there are wolves out there. And wolves eat sheep.

              But he does not say, “There are wolves out there, so make sure you take your shotgun along.” Instead he tells them to take nothing extra…no extra money; no extra clothes; no shoes beyond what’s on their feet. Travel light, and trust that God will provide. And get down to business. There’ll be all sorts of diversions along the way, but stay focused, and greet no one on the road.

              They’ll know where to stay by the hospitality they receive. If a house receives their peace, that’s where they stay. And whatever it is that’s offered them, that’s enough. Eat and drink what they are given, sleep where they are offered a place to stay. And don’t move around looking for a better deal.

              And if it is that a house does not receive their peace. They don’t have to do or say a thing. They can’t take their peace back, but it might end up returning to them.

              In the towns that welcome them they are to heal the sick. In the towns that don’t, all they are to do is leave, taking with them nothing, not even the dirt on the bottom of their one pair of sandals. In both cases, they are to pronounce that God’s kingdom has come near. And then, it’s up to those who hear what they have to say to decide whether God’s kingdom is good news or not. And if they decide not, it’s not their place to judge. It is never ours to judge who’s in and who’s out. If any judgin’ is gonna be goin’ on, it’s gonna be done by God—not by them, and not by us.

              But here’s what really matters more than all these particular instructions: the mere fact that he sends them out. The harvest is plentiful, and he needs workers to bring it in. Doesn’t need advisors, or supervisors, or observers. He needs workers. Because the job is a big one, and he needs help. And it’s still a big job. A lot of people need the kingdom of God in their lives. Still. And now, the seventy is us. You, and me. And the harvest is still plentiful.

              Six years ago an article was published in The Annual Review of Psychology called “On happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.” Here’s what the study revealed: money does not buy happiness. Once basic needs are met—once people are able to be out of survival mode—there is virtually no relationship between wealth and happiness. Now this means a lot of things, but one of the things it means is this: basically, we’re all pretty much the same. We’re all incomplete; we all got our wonderings; we all got our pressure points; we all probably wouldn’t mind a life that’s a little fuller and more meaningful than the one we’re living. Well, the life lived in relationship with God is better than one without that relationship. Not perfect, just better. And it’s that pretty simple conviction that inspired the birth of this church, and our future.

              There’s still a market for the good news, and we’re all in retail. Jesus tells us that the world needs people who will carry a first good word to those who need a taste of the kingdom…which is pretty much everyone. And he wants us to be the bearers of this first word; to give away the love, and grace, and mercy that God has given us.

Because there’s a neighbor who needs to receive it for the sake of their soul,
and because we need to give it for the sake of ours.
Let me say that again…we need to give it away for our own sakes.

              You see, there’s a spiritual truth in play here in this story. We believe that it is God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Give the kingdom is something God loves to do. And we receive it. We don’t earn it. We receive it. But if there’s only input with no output; if the flow is in only one direction; if our souls only take and never give…well, that’s a little bit like the Dead Sea, isn’t it?

              We each want our relationship with God to grow richer, or we’d be somewhere else this morning. Each of us, in some way big or small, at least once have experienced in our lives that God is good. In some way, each of us have been given a glimmer of the kingdom of God. Because God never stops coming, never stops giving, never stops loving. We’re given a taste, and we want more.

              Well, here’s a spiritual principle: in the spiritual realm as in the biological realm, the path to more; the path to growth; the path to life…is the path of passing it on, and giving away. There’s the input from God, and then there’s the output from us. They both have to be in play. It’s only when we’re empty that God can finally fill us up in a new way. God has given us the kingdom. To enjoy it fully, we have to give it away.

So what I’ll ask us today is what is it? How will we give it away? I think I know what it is for me, but what’s it for you? What’s the output look like? What do you need to do for someone else? Is it to knock on doors to let people know that God is good? Is it to listen to a friend? Is it to show kindness to a stranger we would normally ignore? Is it to say something encouraging instead of something critical? Is it to give away some of our money? Is it to drive as if Jesus were the other guy? I’m pretty much convinced it can be anything, but it’s certainly something.

              It may be that Jesus sends out the seventy for the sake of those who receive them. I think it’s just as true that he sends them out for their own sakes. I think he sends them out because going out, and passing on, and giving away is a requirement to getting to that next place God wants to take us. I think he sends them out because it’s by giving, not keeping, that names get written in heaven. You see, I think he sends them out because he’s not a dead sea. He’s a living water, that just keeps flowing…into us, and then because we want the fullness of life, through us and beyond.