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Luke 10:1-20
As you might remember, I went to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada back at the beginning of June. One of the matters we dealt with and probably the most pressing was (and these are my words) the imminent death of this denomination if we do not make some drastic changes right now. We appointed a commission, for once not a committee, that has the authority of the Assembly to act to effect certain changes. The changes appear to be mostly structural and among them will be the establishment of regional resource centers that will help congregations with everything from Sunday School resources to legal advice. I don’t know. Time will tell.
I have some thoughts on the matter if you care to hear them. Jesus and the early church ushered in the inbreaking of the Kingdom or Reign of God. The early Christians met mostly in homes. When they met, they nearly always ate together. They were known for their love, generosity, and how everybody was an equal. The institution we call the Church with its buildings and paid clergy has existed ever since Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the late 300’s AD is indeed largely palliative. It unfortunately has served as the religious impetus of European/North American Imperialism, Colonialism, and Westernization, as well as the Morality Police of Western Culture. We need to remind ourselves that the institution we call the church is very different from the gatherings of the early church. What we call the Church in our culture is not synonymous with the Kingdom of God that we heard about in our reading from Luke. Sometimes the two overlap. Sometimes Kingdom things happen in churches. Sometimes church activities are manifestations of the Kingdom. But, please, do not confuse the two as being the same. Terrible things have happened when we have done that.
At many points over the centuries the Kingdom of God has broken in and the church served it resulting in things such as the civil rights movement, the abolition of slavery, hospitals, public education, worker’s rights, and soup kitchens and food banks for example. The Kingdom of God does not exist as an institution but rather it is embodied by everyday people like us. It manifests in places like the kitchen of my best friend’s mother, Mom Landis, who gave a sense of home to this somewhat orphaned child. The door was always open and there was always something on the stove to eat for whoever stopped in and a Bible not far away giving evidence that she actually read it. Mom Landis went to church but the Kingdom of God could be found at her kitchen table. What we call the Church and the Kingdom of God are not synonymous.
Back to our denomination, we’ve commissioned ten people to come up with how to save a whole denomination from imminent death. We’ve got the commissioning part right. If one interprets what we did in the light of the reading from Luke, commissioning people is a good place to start. The translators used the word “Appointed” here but commissioning is the better word, I think. To commission is to empower to act with the authority of the commissioning body or person. In Greek, the word literally means to make visible. What Jesus did here was to empower his disciples to make his Kingdom visible.
If it were up to me to call the shots for the denomination, I wouldn’t have commissioned just ten people with the authority to tweak the structure of the denomination. I would rather go to every congregation and start commissioning disciples of Jesus to go and make the kingdom visible. And now, to quote Al Pacino’s famous courtroom line from the movie Scent of a Woman, “I’m just getting warmed up.”
Let’s humour Jesus here for a minute and try to imagine doing in our community what he did back then. I would divide you up into groups of two and section off the neighbourhoods of this town into as many sections as there are groups of two. You would leave your homes and go to that neighbourhood with only the clothes on your back, wearing no shoes, and no money. You will be barefoot and hungry and sleep in the street unless someone takes you in. You will look like the poorest of the poor. You will have to rely on the hospitality of the people in the neighbourhood.
While you’re on the street, don’t greet anybody. Don’t say “hi” or “how’re you doing”. Just keep announcing, “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Come and follow and believe this good news.” If people stop to talk to you just ask them what they need prayer for and pray for them. When the prayer is answered, tell them, “The Kingdom of God has come near to you”.
If someone invites you to their house, go with them and when you get there proclaim “Peace be to you”. Peace is rest. It’s the laying down of burdens. It’s well-being. When welcomed into a home, stay in that home. Don’t house hop. Eat what is set before you. In this day of dietary restrictions, food allergies, and overwhelming choice that may be the hardest thing to do. Pray for your hosts particularly for their healing. When they are healed, tell them, “The Kingdom of God has come near to you.” You may be interested to know that in Greek there are two words that can be translated as salvation and both are synonymous with healing. Again, stay in that house. That home may wind up being where the gathering meets.
The idea here is that the Kingdom becomes visible when in loyalty to Jesus we take the risk of being completely reliant on God; when we open ourselves to utterly accepting the hospitality of others and that’s not easy as proud and self-sufficient as we are. The Kingdom of God becomes visible when we pray, especially when we pray for healing. When the Kingdom is present, Peace is felt and people gather.
I realize I probably just scared the socks off of every one of us, myself included. What I just described though not from the twilight zone is definitely beyond the comfort zone. I think I have fairly well described church planting, which is what this denomination really needs to do if we Presbyterians want to be around in 25 years, but we probably don’t have to go to the extreme of living in the street hoping someone will invite us in. Yet, we need to rethink Church planting. The goal isn’t to wind up with a building, or even paid clergy, and certainly not a denomination. The goal should be making Jesus’ Kingdom visible. Work which involves hospitality, gathering, and praying for real needs.
I can think of something that congregations can do that takes advantage of the fact that we have buildings. Something that involves hospitality and gathering, could involve prayer. All our churches have kitchens. Pick a regular night, monthly or weekly, for a potluck or a regular morning for coffee or even breakfast or put a pot of soup on ( a big pot). Get the word out to the surrounding neighbourhood. Just let the church fellowship hall and kitchen be a place the immediate neighborhood can gather and see what comes of it. Southampton’s been doing this for a couple of years now. Cornerstone in Tara has a Friday coffee as well that is doing remarkably well. These things aren’t resulting in new faces in the pews, but new faces come to the kitchens, friendships are made, and Jesus’s Kingdom is there. Amen.
