Luke 10:1-11
October 30, 2011
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Tomorrow is Halloween and you can go to a pumpkin patch to bring home a pumpkin. You can find pumpkins along the sides of highways and kids can jump on the large inflated play areas. Even in the Safeway, you can haul a pumpkin home to decorate because it’s a time of harvest.
Just like the countless number of pumpkins that are laid out for us to pick just the right one, Jesus is telling us that the harvest is plentiful. The fruits, vegetables, the pumpkins, all the produce are ready to be harvested. Now it’s time for us to be workers and laborers out in that field to bring in the harvest.
The Mission of the Seventy
The passage for today and for our 2012 Canvass theme is Jesus calling 70 disciples to do his work in the world. Earlier in Luke 9:1-6, he called 12 disciples but now he sends out a crowd. When we think about sending out just a few people, we tend to assume that these few folks have special gifts or expertise to do the job. But in this case, Jesus is sending 70 disciples because the focus is on the task that is at hand. The harvest is plentiful and he needs as many people on the workforce as possible to go into the field to get the job done. In fact, Jesus asks these 70 disciples to pray that even more laborers will be enlisted for the work that needs to be done.
Jesus has preached, taught, and performed miracles throughout the land. At this point, Jesus commissions 70 disciples to take his message to all those places he himself expects to go. Jesus is expanding his mission and after the Pentecost recorded by Luke in Acts, we see that there will be many more laborers, workers, followers, disciples who will accomplish the mission he has set before them. After 2000 years, Jesus is authorizing us, all 500 disciples strong to be laborers because the harvest is plentiful.
We are here this morning because we feel that Christ has called us to himself. Christ has done things for us we could not do for ourselves, namely he has saved us and made us part of his reign. When one is in Christ, then one receives gifts from Christ—peace, joy, purpose, and many other gifts.
This morning we are reminded that we who are called by Christ are commissioned by Christ. He commissions us to do the same things that he does in the world. Jesus heals and teaches, preaches and saves, but he never does this by himself. He wants us to do this too. Right from the first he commissions people to do the same work he does in the world. Jesus “co-missions.” He doesn’t work alone. His mission is a cooperative mission.
God’s Harvest
I grew up in the city and the closest thing that I got to growing a crop was how my mother used to grow Chinese vegetables in our backyard in Boston. We had bok choy and dow gawk. She would grow zucchini so big that they didn’t taste sweet anymore. She thought the bigger the better like a big pumpkin. To this day, I still don’t understand fully how a little seed or a small seedling put into some soil can eventually produce such wonderful produce like bok choy, zucchinis and big pumpkins. But they do.
When Jesus was sending out the 70, he told them that the harvest is already plentiful. These 70 disciples didn’t cause the people whom they will encounter and meet in their homes that they are ready to hear the good news of salvation from God. God put in the hearts of people to be ready to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Just like how pumpkins grow on their own, God has told them about his grace and mercy and now all we need to do is to confirm for them that the good news is Jesus Christ.
So we ask ourselves today, “Where do you think Christ has commissioned and sent you and me to work in his name?”
Jesus gives the 70 disciples difficult work to do in the world. They are not to burden themselves with a lot of baggage and rollaways. They are to expect rejection and resistance. It won’t be easy. In other words, they can expect to receive some of the same rejection to their service of Jesus that Jesus himself receives.
In this passage, Jesus gives us instructions on how-to-do mission. Begin by “going on your way.” Choose a direction, start with what you have, what you know and go on your way. But then as a way of preparation, remember two things: first, a very scary notice: “you will be like a lamb into the midst of wolves,” second, a demand that is no less frightening: “Carry nothing!” “No purse, no bag, no sandals.” Well, do you still want to go?
Now I have been on a few mission trips and when we were planning to embark, we would start to list all of the things we need: bottled water, cell phone, insect repellent, anti-diarrhea medicine, motion-sickness medicine, painkillers and power bars. But Jesus tells us to have our hands-free, spirit-free to whatever might come. But we think that the world has changed and it’s scarier. So, we pack even more things: extra pair of socks, batteries, cameras, flashlight, first-aid kit, take shots against all the dreadful illness we might find.
Then when we are out in the mission field and we come upon a stranger, no matter who you find, you say: Peace to this house!” Just like I always say at the end of the worship service, “Go in God’s peace,” we are to say to people, “May the peace of Christ be with you.” At the core of our mission, without anything to provide, completely vulnerable before the other, we offer peace.
When we are doing mission, we are to stay. Don’t rush off when you feel like it. Don’t turn your visit into your own agenda but remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide. Do not move from house to house. While we are there, we are to offer the ministry of healing and to cure the sick. We give of ourselves to be present with those we meet so that there would be trust and love.
One of the most significant proposed plans that will begin next year based on the mission work that we have done since 2006 is to partner with Mike Mann and the Integrated Tribal Development Project in Chiang Mai, Thailand. You have heard about Lanna Coffee even if you don’t drink coffee. After 5 years, we have learned that we can make a difference in the livelihood of people in Northern Thailand just by drinking coffee and giving to the Lanna Coffee Project to support the New Life Center and the House of Love.
But we want to do more. As a church, we have entered into this house in Thailand and realized that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. We can continue to buy a pound of coffee now and then and send a dollar each time to support missions but Christ is showing us that we are to stay and remain longer in this house to cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you. Peace be with you.’
The Missions Committee will be leading us beginning next year to partner with Mike Mann by adopting a hill tribe village and our hope is that we would work with this village for a number of years sending mission teams to bring fresh water, develop agribusinesses, perhaps build a school and a health clinic and to proclaim good news in Christ Jesus. We do not plan to move from village to village but to remain until the work is done.
In Luke 10:17, the 70 disciples that Jesus sent out returned with joy—joyful that they have actually witnessed the reign of Jesus taking visible form through them. While it is true that Satan will fall from heaven like a flash of lightning and that snakes and scorpions won’t hurt them, Jesus warned them to not rejoice that all these evil things in the world will submit to them but that their names will be written in heaven. In other words, don’t worry about taking credit for what will happen on earth but remember that you will be remembered in heaven.
Today’s Harvest
Do you believe in this morning’s Gospel? I do. I have seen this scripture be true for myself. But I have seen this scripture lived out in you too. You have taught me the truth of Jesus’ promise. I have seen you encountering great difficulty in your daily discipleship and persevere. I have seen you revoke the world’s resistance that made you stronger. I’ve seen you have to admit to failures and you have not been crushed but moved on.
I have seen you be the visible evidence of Jesus’ resurrection and Jesus’ commissioning of ordinary folk like the 70 to do some extraordinary work.
I have seen many more than 70 people who come to teach Friday Night School and prepare a welcoming dinner for the students. It’s harvest time!
I have seen many more than 70 people who serve in the Sunday school and lead our church boards and committees. It’s harvest time!
There were only 7 people who went on the last Thailand Mission Trip in March this year but came back with an even more determined commitment to stay and partner with a hill tribe village to proclaim the good news in Jesus Christ. It’s harvest time!
I have seen many more than 70 youth and young adults who serve at summer Day Camp to reach out to our community children. It’s harvest time!
I have seen many more than 70 people, in fact over 150 persons and families who sacrificially give of their resources of time, talent, and tithes to support the life-changing ministries of this church. It’s harvest time!
I have seen you stay here in Chinatown and remain faithful for over 130 years, not being restless and moving constantly around, but remained here to cure the sick, feed the poor, liberate the prisoner, and proclaim the day of the Lord.
Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way.”
Let us pray.
We stand amazed, Lord Jesus, that you have called people like us to do work like yours. We know the wide scope of your work! And yet, if your work is to be done in this world, it’s up to us to step up to your call, to confirm your confidence in us, and to serve you as best as we can. The harvest is plentiful; give us what we need to do the work that you call us to do. In Christ, we pray. Amen.