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Before they enter the promised land, Moses urges God’s people to keep the law (Deuteronomy 30:9-14). The blessings that Moses promises they will receive are not a reward for keeping the law, rather the law itself is the blessing. Following it is not a burden because it is what allows us to flourish, to “choose life”. It is rooted not in stone or ordinance but within us, on our lips and in our hearts. It forms our very identity as children of God.
This is the point that the scholar in Luke 10:25-37 is missing. He regards the law as something to perform, something that defines others. He asks Jesus to define his neighbour, to categorise those to whom he owes an obligation. When Jesus replies with the story of the Good Samaritan, he does more than widen the class of those who fall within the scope of the law, he asks instead who has the law within their hearts: who was a neighbour to the one in need. The story is not about who is the object of our care but who is the one who cares for us. Being a neighbour is our deepest identity: we act from love because it is who we are, who God called us to be. Choosing love, is choosing life, not just for the one who receives love but for the one who gives it. When we go and do likewise we too choose life and blessing.
“All the gospels tell the story of Jesus sending the 12 disciples to spread the news of God’s kingdom but only Luke’s gospel, 10:11-20, also speaks of the sending out of 70.
Twelve is a magic number in Scripture, the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 disciples, it symbolises the people of God, the Hebrew nation. Seventy is also a special number, it symbolised all the nations of the earth (see Genesis 10). For Luke, the kingdom of God was not just for the special few but for all people.
Jesus sends the 70 out with nothing, no bag, no purse, no sandals. They will need to depend on the hospitality of those they are sent to, all they offer in return is God’s peace. They are warned that they may face rejection and danger, they are sent as “lambs into the midst of wolves”, yet they return rejoicing at everything they have achieved. Jesus reminds them that they should rejoice only in being part of God’s family, the deeds they have done are the result of God at work within them. Their job is to show up just as they are, weak and vulnerable, with nothing to offer except for what God is offering through them.
This morning, we are baptising two children: one is 8 years old and the other just a baby. Baptising children reminds us that we come to God with nothing, we come just as we are, we do not do anything to earn God’s grace, it is a gift that we can receive or reject.
It is hard for us adults to be vulnerable, we prefer to rely on our own strength and resources, but God doesn’t need these. Sure, God will use whatever we’ve got but our accomplishments and cleverness can so easily get in the way of God’s work. God can use our weaknesses so much more than our strengths. It is for us to decide whether we want to cling onto all that we are so proud of, or to trust God’s power to accomplish what we cannot.
All the gospels tell the story of Jesus sending the 12 disciples to spread the news of God’s kingdom but only Luke’s gospel, 10:11-20, also speaks of the sending out of 70.
Twelve is a magic number in Scripture, the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 disciples, it symbolises the people of God, the Hebrew nation. Seventy is also a special number, it symbolised all the nations of the earth (see Genesis 10). For Luke, the kingdom of God was not just for the special few but for all people.
Jesus sends the 70 out with nothing, no bag, no purse, no sandals. They will need to depend on the hospitality of those they are sent to, all they offer in return is God’s peace. They are warned that they may face rejection and danger, they are sent as “lambs into the midst of wolves”, yet they return rejoicing at everything they have achieved. Jesus reminds them that they should rejoice only in being part of God’s family, the deeds they have done are the result of God at work within them. Their job is to show up just as they are, weak and vulnerable, with nothing to offer except for what God is offering through them.
This morning, we are baptising two children: one is 8 years old and the other just a baby. Baptising children reminds us that we come to God with nothing, we come just as we are, we do not do anything to earn God’s grace, it is a gift that we can receive or reject.
It is hard for us adults to be vulnerable, we prefer to rely on our own strength and resources, but God doesn’t need these. Sure, God will use whatever we’ve got but our accomplishments and cleverness can so easily get in the way of God’s work. God can use our weaknesses so much more than our strengths. It is for us to decide whether we want to cling onto all that we are so proud of, or to trust God’s power to accomplish what we cannot.
The story of Jesus’ encounter with the demoniac in Luke 8:26-39 could be read as just another miraculous healing. A man is set free from all that has imprisoned him: physically, socially and psychologically.
But healing miracles are never just about the person being healed they are metaphors for some larger social ill in need of healing.
The miracle takes place in Gerasa, the site of a massacre of Hebrews resisting Roman rule. The demon calls itself Legion, the term for a garrison of 5-6,000 occupying forces. Even the pigs echo the symbol of the infamous 10th fretensis legion. All of these references would be familiar to those who witnessed the healing.
Isaiah 65:1-9, reminds us that Jesus is entering a dangerous and prohibited place, that dealing with swine and entering tombs is forbidden. The story assures us that there is no human condition so abject and abominable that God cannot enter, bringing healing and redemption.
But just as the people of God in Isaiah have rejected God’s “outstretched hands” and turned instead to other powers, so the crowd in Luke reject Jesus. They are “seized with fear”. They understand that Jesus’s actions are about more than the healing of one the man; they are a challenge to all the forces that constrain and exclude God’s children.
They are a challenge to us too: can we see what binds us? do we believe that God’s power is greater than the forces at work in oppression and injustice? do we have the courage to challenge them? do we want ourselves, and all God’s, children to be free?