Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Talk to me

I was trying to post a cute picture but it's not working right now. Oh well. You'll just have to be lured into reading by my incredible insight and witty words.

Let's go with this instead:

Luke 10

Jesus Sends Out the Seventytwo
1After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

5"When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' 6If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

8"When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' 10But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.' 12I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

So this scripture is something that we're reading every week for the next year. You may ask why. We, as a church, have chosen to be a part of Partnership for Missional Church, which will help us discover who we are, what we are doing, what God is doing around us, and how we will chose to join him in what he is doing in our community. We are also reading this text over and over to live in the scripture instead of using scripture as a tool for our own means. It's foreign to me but we're doing it, none-the-less.

What sticks out to you from this passage?

7 comments:

Mamar Kathy said...

Jen,
This scripture reminds me of part of a speech Ben gave at the World Mission Workshop at Okla.Christian.
The Basoga have a proverb which says,"Bita,Zeena nbite, tilgendo!" It says, "You go that way, and I'll go this way, that's not a journey!" They say "If i tell you to go one way and I go another, that is not a journey because you can't know what troubles you may find along the way. Sickness may come,thieves,danger...You may not even end up in the same place. That is not a journey. It is only a journey when you go together." Maybe that is why Jesus sent them out in pairs.
This mission, this life,this gospel life we live is a journey - a mission, but it is not a mission when we live it alone. Our partnerships are gospel partnerships which means we must listen to the gospel in the lives of the other and respond to that gospel by living it with them.

Tara said...

Ok. this has nothing to do with this post...
What colors do you decorate with for Christmas? Like on your tree or other decor..let me know. ASAP.

Jason Hill said...

I'm not sure why he asked them not to greet anyone on the road.

Chelan said...

I wonder if the thing about greeting no one on the road has less to do with being reclusive or rude, and more to do with being expedient and getting to their intended destinations without lengthy hold-ups on the road. (?) I don't know. It's strange. Our church has been doing this Partnership for Missional Church reading this year since July I think. It's an amazing thing to be in the same passage together for so long. There are some people who'd rather not continue (they wonder if there's anything else we can suck out of this used up scripture), but most people are enjoying the comforting predictability of having a passage that we share together intimately. We know what we all think of it, we comment on it every time we read it (our church is small enough to do this). And its remarkable how much deeper we get into this text every time we read it, even when it seems we've said all there is to say about it. It's become special to us. Like starting blocks for a race we are now in the midst of...

by the way, I love what Kathy said. I want to hear more of it.

Anonymous said...

Chezam,
I wish I could take credit for those thoughts, but they are from Ben's message at the workshop. i have ordered copies of his talk & am sening copies to East County & to Ben & Jen. Maybe you could get a copy from either of them to hear more of what he had to say.
Ben & Jen,
I went to the cemetery last week & as I drove up to Adam's grave, I noticed something setting on his
marker - a box of Zebra cakes. It made me smile through my tears.
Kathy Langford

Julia Stewart said...

I remember being confused about (not talking to anyone on the road) until I read my "The Message" Translation in which it states "Don't loiter and make small talk with everyone you meet along the way"

i took this to mean... be purposeful in your interactions

Jen said...

Does it really feel to you that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few? I don't really feel like it's all "ready to be raked in".