Evangelism is for Everyone—Luke 10:1-11, 16-20, 7/7/13
I think he’s talking to us. In the all synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus sends the
disciples on a mission. But in all those texts Jesus only sends the 12, his elite crew, and he sends
them only to the immediate countryside. Today’s lesson is different. Luke alone gives us a
second mission, and this time Jesus sends 70.
That may seem like a small thing, but that number 70 carries some symbolic weight. Because 70
was the traditional total of all the nations, Luke is foreshadowing the global range of the church’s
missionary activity. and more important it suggests that evangelism, which is simply proclaiming
the vision of Jesus is word and deed, is a job for everyone, not just the especially gifted. Yes,
Luke is talking to each of us. Want to see his idea of an evangelist? Look in the mirror.
I’m guessing that statement fills a number of us with some anxiety. Many don’t like the
associations of that word, “evangelist.” For them it conjures up images of sweaty, swaggering
men who are sometimes wrong but never in doubt. For others the idea of being an evangelist is
as intimidating as being asked to do brain surgery; they assume that it takes skills and knowledge
which they lack. I suspect those first evangelists had similar fears; there’s no reason to assume
they were naturally smarter or bolder than we are. They too needed a little direction and
encouragement. So this morning I want to lift up a few things which Jesus tells them as they
take up the daunting task of being his evangelists.
The first thing to notice is that Jesus tells them to expect both success and failure. When you go
into a village, he says, sometimes they are going to welcome you with open arms and sometimes
you are going to be treated like a butcher at a vegans’ convention. You can’t control how others
receive you. What you can control, he says, is how you relate to your hearers. You speak a
word of graciousness and peace to all you meet; if it is reciprocated, great, if not, then move on
until your seed finds more fertile ground.
Most of us are much too concerned with short term success and failure. In his classic poem If
Rudyard Kipling reflects on what makes for a life of fulfillment and spiritual maturity. He writes
in part
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;….
Then yours is the earth and everything that’s in it.
There are many things on which Kipling and Jesus would not agree, but here they sound the
same notes. Short term triumph and failure should not overly concern us. Our calling is focus
on what we know to be good, true, and beautiful—to bear witness to that whatever the
consequences. On the personal level that means we need not be devastated when some do not
immediately embrace the Christ we confess; that is to be expected. The way of Christ is
fulfilling, but at times it is also hard. We just keep on keeping on.
There is also an implication for us as a community of faith. It’s easy for congregations to panic
if everything is not going just as we would wish, easy to desperately pursue the latest fads in
search of quick fixes. We do need to be attuned to our ministry context, making the gospel as
accessible as we can, but it is important, as political consultants put it, for us to “stay on
message.” We are never stronger than when we clearly, consistently, and faithfully bear witness
to Christ and serve him in the world. If we do that, we can live with what the world calls
rejection, because God’s judgment is finally the only one that matters.
Related to that is a second teaching which Jesus gives his budding evangelists: “It isn’t
personal.” “Whoever listens to you, listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and
whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” One of the reasons we may find talking
about our faith so hard is that we allow the response of others to become a referendum on our
personal worth. Even if we never say it in so many words we start thinking that success depends
of our being smart, articulate, winsome, and knowledgeable. When others do not respond to our
invitations we start thinking there must be something wrong with us.
Jesus tells his disciples—and that includes us, “It’s not about you, it’s about me. People are not
responding to you so much as to God’s invitation and claim on their lives.” That word is both
humbling and tremendously liberating. It’s humbling (especially to preachers who want to be
memorably eloquent) because it reminds us that the power is in the message not the messenger.
But it is liberating for the same reason. Our job is not to be brilliantly engaging, it’s to be
faithful representatives. When an ambassador delivers her country’s position to a foreign
government and receives a blistering reply, she does not take it personally. By the same token,
we should be neither unduly prideful when things go well or devastated when we meet apathy;
people are responding to God’s call not to our arguments.
The third and perhaps most important word Jesus gives to his disciples is this, “You need one
another.” Jesus sends them out in pairs. He tells them to take very little for the journey, which
means that they will have to depend on others every step of the way for even food and shelter.
Our culture tends to glorify the rugged individualist, but here Jesus suggests that the challenges
of discipleship are simply too demanding to be met in isolation.
Last week I heard about a study of how college roommates affect each other. The researchers
measured whether roommates were fundamentally optimistic about life or generally gloomy and
negative. They discovered that the longer people roomed together, the more they influenced the
basic attitude of their roommate. Joyful people tended to be dragged down by “Gloomy Guses.”
But the opposite was also true; negative people slowly developed a more hopeful attitude under
the daily influence of more positive roommates.
It seems to me that this suggests something very important about what it takes for us to live with
joy and confidence as Christians. These days something we might call “designer spirituality” is
very popular. Some suggest that communities of faith are not terribly important, that each of us
makes his or her own path. Far be it from me to suggest that anyone be slavishly obedient to
unexamined religious dogma. But one of the ways we see in a new way, find strength when we
are struggling, and find a joyous outlet for our religious energy is to join with others in shared
worship, study, service, and support.
This is particularly true when we are talking about leaving the safe confines of Sunday morning
worship and going into the world—and into the world we MUST go, if we are serious about
being Jesus’ disciples. It is hard to go into a sometimes hostile environment by yourself. But
when we go knowing that others go with us, that others share our hopes and conviction that in
Jesus we offer something that can transform the world for good, then we are more likely to
master our fears and offer the gift we have been given.
This morning I have spent some time highlighting words from Jesus which I hope will invite us
to take up the task of evangelism: Don’t worry too much about success, it’s not about you, we
need one another. I’ve focused on things which can help us over the hump because I think we
often find the task daunting. But I want to end where our text does, with a strong word of hope.
Jesus sends the disciples out and they come back pumped. You can hear the amazement in their
voices, “Lord, in your name, even the demons submit to us.”
It’s easy to get discouraged, but sometimes we speak and the word lights up a life. Sometimes
we reach out and one who had known only rejection glimpses the love of god in our touch.
Make no mistake, my friends, the world is hungry for Christ—even if it can not always name its
longing. There are young people yearning for relationships which endure beyond a quickie.
There are executives asking if there is not more to life than just accumulating stuff. There are
children and grandparents who feel forgotten and long to know they are loved and valued.
We have the advantage; we know God loves us with a care which will not let us go; as Jesus puts
it, “we rejoice that our names are written in heaven.” Our task is now to share the wealth. So let
me challenge you: Gently invite a friend to consider the way of Jesus. Take time to heal a
broken friendship. Be a living word of care to someone in material need. In short, be an
Evangelist in both word and deed; let others see Christ in you.