I love this weeks gospel reading from Luke where Jesus sent out his troops mob handed.
Seventy men were sent forth with some very detailed instructions....it was a bit like a canvassing job I did when I was a student! The Labour Party were having a membership drive in marginal constituencies. A group of about ten students were given bed and board in strange towns and sent out to make members!
Our instructions were much the same,
"Don't mess about if you get a bad reaction...just be polite and leave!" There was no injunction to shake off the dust , just an injunction not to waste time.
The line at the end of the reading where Jesus has given them authority to tread on snakes and scorpions would have come in very handy in Greater Manchester.
Sending out people to make friends and influence people was not a new idea then ....it had been done before.
Reading about the 70 who were sent out directly by Jesus I wonder how many actual converts were made and if they stuck to the teaching after it had all gone quiet again.
I doubt very much that the members I made way back in the late 50's stayed for long in the party.
Hopefully the men sent out by the Son of Man may have had a greater and more lasting effect!
God willing!
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5 comments:
Surely this is a timely message for the Church today?
Because we seem quite shy about evangelism and I've yet to see a missionary from the CofE on the high street, while I quite often see them from some of the new churches abounding now - who are quite evangelical, but some of their doctrine seems more like that of the US Christian Right.
Perhaps we should do it with tea and tea cakes on the high street, allowing the often quoted saying 'More Tea Vicar?'
If we are truly serious about growing the church (which is the constant refrain my my diocese - than sitting around in meetings discussing it won't do it. We need to be out in the community alongside people. There's some good stuff going on, but we seem to be inept at finding and spreading good practice and ideas. Or worried about encroachment on our parish boundaries.
I am one of those who is quite shy about going around evangelising. I get embarrassed...and prefer to do it with a smile and a laugh but I admire those who do go out and do it!
This is something that has long troubled me, and others too I know! Today I had a strange dream just before getting-up time, when I heard the words "Incoherent in belief". I'd forgotten that until now.
It is odd I know that I had no difficulty in canvassing for a political party but am strangely embarrassed when talking about God....unless its in a sermon of course!
I think its because it has been the most important part of my life for many years. This makes me incoherent at times because its very emotional.
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