Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
The Minnesota Timberwolves. The North Carolina State Wolfpack. The Red Wolves of Arkansas State. Many athletic teams, wanting to convey strength and power, use wolves in their name and as their mascot. And not just teams. One of the most common clan names among Native American peoples like the Cheyenne and Chippewa is the "Wolf Clan," the wolf symbolizing courage and success in hunting. For years I lived near Groton, Connecticut, the home of Electric Boat, which built formidable attack submarines in a class of ship called "Seawolf." Whatever else we might think of them, wolves are strong and fierce predators, fully capable of taking care of themselves and defending themselves against all enemies. We cannot say the same thing about baby sheep. To my knowledge, there is no NCAA team called the Fighting Lambs. In a dangerous and competitive world, we might like to cuddle with lambs, or sing about them in nursery rhymes with our children, or eat them for dinner, but to identify with them, to be like them? Probably not.
And yet here's Jesus telling his disciples, and by extension, telling us: See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. He sends those seventy out today with no weapons and few possessions. They are meant to be vulnerable; they are armed only with a mission. That mission includes conveying peace to everyone they meet, curing the sick, and announcing that the kingdom of God has come near. They are to show others by their words and their actions that the God of mercy is close and accessible to all people. If a town rejects them, they are to shake off the dust and move on. No threats, no coercion, no talk of hellfire and damnation. The only thing those disciples are commissioned to do is to proclaim the good news of God's love.
Now, anyone who is half-awake, anyone who looks around at our nation and our world recently, can be forgiven for asking, "What happened??" Why are so many current followers of Christ so filled with rage? Why are so many baptized Christians so focused on pronouncing judgment and condemnation? The answers to such questions would be long and depressing, but that's not what I want to talk about today. I want to remind us that the Good News of Jesus Christ has not changed. The mission Jesus gave his church has not changed. We are still called to convey God's peace everywhere we go, to be people who don't stew in anger and who don't give into hatred, but people who work for reconciliation and unity. We are still called to care for those who are sick in body, mind, or spirit. And we are still called to proclaim that the love of God is real and present, that the kingdom of God is within us and always available to us. There are any number of ways we can carry out that work and I am grateful for the many ways to strive to do that. But I want to highlight two things from this Gospel today that I believe are crucial to fulfilling our mission and to fulfilling us as human beings.
The first comes at the very end of this passage. The seventy disciples return and they're elated. They have had astounding success: even the demons submit to them. And they should feel good about all they have seen and done, but Jesus tells them: do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Rejoice that you belong to God and will belong to God forever. There is no greater joy, no greater bliss, than experiencing God's unconditional love and realizing, really knowing in our hearts, that we are safe in that love every moment of this life and for all eternity. Jesus lived, died, and rose again to assure us of this; his Spirit lives within us even now so that we can know this and feel this. We are all loved and cherished; we are all going to be okay, everyone we love is going to be okay. We can relax and breathe and let go of the fears, anxieties, resentments, and jealousies that both make us unhappy and make us less effective witnesses for the Gospel. There is so much fear in our world. People are constantly scrambling to protect themselves and get all they can get for themselves.
The world doesn't need frightened, angry, and insecure Christians just adding to the fear. Jesus knows what the world needs: joyful, peaceful people who are willing to be vulnerable and open, lambs who are willing to live among the wolves and show them that God's love is the ultimate reality, the very basis of our being. We need to be those people, for our own sake and for the sake of others we need to share that good news.
But to do so, we need each other. Which leads me to the second crucial point in this Gospel. Jesus sends the seventy out two by two, and then they all come back together again. No one is in this alone. No one can proclaim the Gospel alone because no one can fully experience the Gospel alone. We can certainly believe in God without ever darkening the door of a church, and God certainly loves us whether we are members of a church or not. But it's only together that we can be the light of the world, which is why Jesus forms a community. It's in community that we experience unconditional love - we can't do that alone. It's in community that we learn the reality of grace and forgiveness. It's in community that we are fed and inspired and empowered to live lives that are filled with the Holy Spirit. I know personally that I could not bear witness to Christ without the love and support of this church. Time and again, it's spending time with you in worship and friendship that reminds me of the sheer beauty of Jesus and the amazing power of God's love.
Put another way, together we can learn to live less like wolves and more like lambs. We can help each other let down our guard more, be a little less defended, a little more vulnerable, and thus more open to receiving and sharing the love of God in Christ. And that's a win for everyone. It gives the Holy Spirit more room to flow, it fills us with more joy, and it blesses all the people we come into contact with . And as those seventy disciples discovered, those aren't bad results for a bunch of sheep.
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