Luke 10. 1-11: The mission of the seventy-two

What does the word “mission” conjure up in your minds?  Write one word on the paper that sums it up!

Mission is about going. It comes from the Latin word “Send”.  It is a journey!  Jesus sent his twelve closest allies out to tell the good news of of God's Kingdom. Then he sent seventy (or seventy-two) others with a similar mission.  Later he sent people like Cuthbert and Aidan to bring the Gospel to our part of Scotland.  A hundred years ago eh sent people to the new community of Rosyth who were believers and started a children's work and soon after this Church. And he sent Andrew and Maria to Northern Iraq. And today we bless Alan and Kay because he has sent them to be part of KLM Church in Edinburgh.  And he has sent some of you to be part of this church.  And he is sending all of us to our community.

I want us to learn four simple things about this “Mission journey”..

1. Travelling together. Jesus sent the seventy-two out two by two.  Isn't that good?  The whole business of reaching out to other people may be a scarey journey sometimes.  But we travel together. We can support each other. We can pray for each other.  We can challenge and encourage each other. We can take care of each other. And in fact, Jesus sent them in twos as a mission strategy: in Jewish culture the evidence of “two or three witnesses” was reliable. The very fact that we travel together is a prophetic thing: it is a challenge and a rebuke to our individualistic society.  It is vital that we build community.  We are not an organisation. Sure we have an AGM (coming up!) and accounts and so on; but these must never be allowed to define who and what we are. We are a community.

2. Travelling where Jesus plans to go.  That's what Luke records (v. 1) “to every town and place that he intended to go.”  And what is exciting is that whatever they were going to do there, however well they got on, whatever mistakes they made, they knew that Jesus was planning to follow on after them. They were part of his plan for reaching these places, and they were places that were often left out and looked down upon.  But he was going to visit these towns, preach as only he could preach, heal as only he could do, debate as only he could do and triumph as only he could do.

That should be an encouragement to us, too. Our journey may seem scarey, difficult. It may seem like “Mission impossible!”  But Jesus is sending us where he plans to go. The situations that we fumble in; the situations that we find threatening – like lambs among wolves – are the situations that Jesus wants to visit, to touch, too speak to.

3. Travelling light.  Jesus said “Don't carry a wallet, a travelling bag, or sandals, and don't greet anyone on the way.”   No wallet meant not only were they going with very little, but they intended to stay that way: the wee leather bag might be really useful for putting the collection in. In fact the Greek word purse literally means a bag to throw coins in. it could be a begging bag.  No rucksack for food; no shoes, made them the poorest of the poor. Being told not to greet anyone on the way seems harsh and distant.  But remember that greeting other people involved long social rituals, asking questions, having a drink together.  It's actually about having a sense of urgency and being different in a way that will make people sit up and think.   No time for empty small-talk.  Greeting someone on the way in an Eastern context could involve stopping for a drink and something to eat,) It was the same when he sent out the twelve: Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.  I like the Message translation of the mission of the twelve (Matthew 10. 9-10), which says “Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light."

We carry a lot of baggage with us as we travel together.  As individuals we are all caught up in the economic and material realities of the world we live in.  Some of you are working long hours in difficult circumstances; some of you who thought you had reached retirement, are finding yourselves as busy as ever you were – just with a bit less energy!  It's good, sometimes, to review our lifestyle and be sure that we are not on  a treadmill.

And as a Church, we have committed ourselves to improving our building.  That is good.  It isn't right to let it fall down,  God has given us a special location here to use for mission.  But it must alwasy be a sending base for mission.  We need to be careful that – as we get on with the job of fixing the building – we don't  allow all our energies to be distracted into fund-raising; we don't develop the habit of simply going to our community asking for money; and we don't allow the financial needs of the building to become a pressure to the people who make up the Church.

We can add on a lot of extra stuff to carry in the life of the Church.  If we are going to have the time and energy to do the real stuff God's Kingdom is made up of, we need to ensure that we keep the structures and activities of the Church light.  If we are going to have the time to talk to people who don't know Jesus, we need to keep the demands of Church light. If we are going to get the best out of busy people, and avoid burning them out, we need to keep the demands of the church light.  If we are going to develop relationships – with each other, with our neighbours and with Jesus, we need to keep the structural stuff of he Church light.,


As a Church, we need to remember that “We are the equipment.”  In a very real sense we are the Church.  There's a wee sign outside that says “Church.”  I know why it's there and I know what it means.  But I sincerely hope that one day it will be replaced with something a bit more theologically correct: we are the Church. We are the equipment.

Rainbow at Durness.  August2012. 

4. Travelling to bless.  There is a simple strategy Jesus gives the seventy-two as they go out into the villages.  As soon as you enter a home, say, “God bless this home with peace.” If the people living there are peace-loving, your prayer for peace will bless them. But if they are not peace-loving, your prayer will return to you.”  (vv 5f)  You travel to bless.

This first thing we want to do as we journey among people, in he world around us, is bless them.  And that means...  to speak good about people and to speak good into their lives.  It is as old as creation itself:

Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

It is something the people of God, from our very earliest roots in the Old Testament:  this is what God said to Abraham in Genesis 12. 2f: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  Who does God want to bless through his people Israel? All nations. Who does God want to bless through you and me? All nations.

We need to learn how to speak blessing into our world.  To speak positively and affirmingly about eh people we meet week by week. To speak good things from god into the lives of others, and expect our words to make a difference.

After all, God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.   (Eph 1:3)  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

© Gilmour Lilly September 2012