For Sunday, July 3, 2016 – Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Jesus has “set his face toward Jerusalem,” where the ways of the world are at last confronted by God’s. Any secret quest for accomplishment and entitlement they might have had, any notion about how they might have performed better or used better strategy or weaponry to achieve God’s kingdom on earth, they must now relinquish to the future. Jesus leans into this moment, calmly, clearly giving instructions for a way forward, a way that is not beyond any who will ever wish to follow him.
The first step, simply this: “Go on your way.” Try it out by trying it out. Get started by getting started. Why waste any more days, stuck or afraid or ashamed? Don’t stay bolted to the floor of the familiar. Every day is resurrection; every moment, new. Don’t sit year after year in the same seats with the same people saying and doing the same things, trying to convince each other you are on the way. Jesus says, just go. Get on your way.
Carry nothing and greet no one. We know Jesus was no recluse but turned strangers and enemies into friends. Why would he advise us to carry nothing and greet no one? Perhaps it is how we learn to trust the One beyond us, who gives and receives freely. Perhaps then I, too, can give and receive without consuming you, without needing you to respond. I will not weigh you down with my own worry and fear, and together we can be purveyors of peace. We can speak peace to entire households, entire peoples, peace through the sharing of food, through the sharing of life.
To be on this way means not hurrying from place to place, panting after paradise, but to plant healing wherever you are. Give yourself freely. This is how you say, “The kingdom of God has come near.” Then, if healing does not come, if you are not received or wanted, you can freely leave. Not being wanted is as common as getting dust on your feet; this, too, speaks of God’s kingdom coming near.
When you listen to one another, deeply from your hearts, you listen to me. My way is simple and filled with joy, but only a few ever head out into my harvest of blessing. For these few, there will always be plenty—plenty to receive and give and learn and do.
