Luke 10

An early ministry colleague named Scott went to Hamma seminary in the early 1970s. Hamma was the theological school at Wittenberg University. Scott told me that Hamma had a reputation for being a progressive seminary. To illustrate, he told me about an assignment in a contextual education class where you learned to do real-life ministry. The assignment was to survive on the streets of Columbus for a weekend. The students were dropped off on a Friday night in downtown Columbus with $2 in their pockets. Hamburgers at McDonald’s were 15 cents, so they could feed themselves. But they had nowhere to stay.

My colleague Scott, however, was an enterprising fellow. Somehow he flagged down a guy in a Lincoln Continental that first night. He gave the guy a made-up sob story about how he was down on his luck and asked if he could spare a buck. From his rolled-down window, the man in his tailored suit said, “I’ve been there, brother,” and handed him a $20 bill. With that kind of money, Scott could sleep in a motel in comfort. And that’s what he did.

I wonder what the discussion in class was like on Monday when Scott revealed that he slept at the Howard Johnson’s while all his classmates were sleeping on park benches. Did Scott get a reprimand for circumventing the aims of the assignment? Or did he provide a valuable perspective? All I know is that no seminary today would give an assignment like that. It’s too dangerous.

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus seems to be sending his followers out on a dangerous assignment. They are to go out two by two as advance teams to all the towns where Jesus will go. Jesus already sent out the 12 disciples, and now he is sending a larger group – 70 people, a blitz targeting 35 towns. They are to heal the sick and proclaim the message: “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”

But the kicker is this: Jesus tells these 70 recruits, “See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.”

Say what??

Jesus explains – They are to take NOTHING with them: no purse, no bag, no sandals. They got no provisions and no protection. And guess what else? Some of the households are going to reject them and their message. They might find themselves being ridden right out of town.

Why is Jesus making them so vulnerable when he sends them out? Shouldn’t he be preparing them to be independent? Shouldn’t he warn them about what to do when someone gets hostile, or at least give them everything he can before sending them into the line of fire?

You’d think so. But Jesus seems to have different priorities. The first thing to know is that Jesus’ instructions reflect the urgency of his message. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few,” Jesus says. Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem, and he knows what awaits there – his death and end of his ministry. Time is short, and there’s a lot to do. Jesus doesn’t want his disciples to slow down by packing a lunch or lugging heavy bags. He wants them to get out there into the harvest of souls and show as many people what the Kingdom of God is about: healing, sharing peace, befriending the friendless.

But the other point Jesus makes is that he wants his disciples to experience the hospitality of strangers. Jesus says, “Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you…Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid.” Jesus understood that his ministry was based on a kind of generosity of spirit that only comes from God. It was important that the disciples understood it from both ends – the giving and the receiving.

It reminds me of another assignment — an assignment in evangelism study I did with my previous congregation. The assignment was for each person to visit a different church and notice how they welcome you. Now it sounds like the purpose of the assignment was to grade the other church: were you greeted upon entering the church? Was there appropriate signage so you knew where to go? Was it obvious what the congregation did for children during worship and where they were supposed to go? Did someone invite you to coffee hour with them?

Those are good questions, but that wasn’t the purpose of the exercise. The purpose was revealed when the class came together to discuss their experiences. What they talked about was what it was like to be a newcomer. Because no matter how familiar the church service was, no matter how well they were welcomed at the new church, they all felt a bit awkward, anxious, and just a little bit vulnerable.

That was the purpose of the exercise: to experience vulnerability. Because when they felt vulnerable, they suddenly understood the needs of a newcomer from a firsthand point of view. Being the newcomer and experiencing the generosity of a good host then informed how they would go about welcoming others. The first step was simply to put aside their own need to greet old friends, to notice who was new and spend some time with them.

I think Jesus was teaching his disciples the same thing. They needed to experience the surprising welcome of God, and that welcome came through all kinds of people. Only then could they share the radical hospitality of God that includes everyone.

Here at Epiphany, we are working on welcome. Pastor Corey has recruited a welcome team to help him evaluate our spaces and practices with an eye to hospitality, and to think about how to create a warm and connected church culture. I think today’s lesson has to be a part of that learning: in order to share welcome, you have to first experience it. And that means setting aside the individuality and independence that we prize and being willing to be on the receiving end of someone else’s generosity. Then you’ll know how to welcome someone else.

In the final analysis, what Jesus is calling his disciples to in this passage is nothing less than being accurate representatives of God. They were bringing the message of God’s kingdom through their actions of healing, preaching, and befriending the friendless. But they also needed to model God’s generosity through their gratitude and humility in accepting hospitality. God’s calling is about giving and receiving.

Jesus’ disciples were called beyond their comfortable community to all kinds of places not only here at church, but everywhere we go. God will provide what we need as we share and receive God’s generous welcome in unexpected places.