Empowered

Luke 10:17-20

Wow! This exchange between Jesus and the 72 sounds like something out of a summer blockbuster horror film! Demons! Serpents! Devils! Lucifer falling! I bet the special effects were incredible!

And sadly that is as far as many readers get within this story. The real message comes in Christ's last word--as so often happens in scriptural lessons. The point is not the power of the 72 over demons and monsters, but that God knows these human servants of Christ. The rest is just window dressing.

The vast majority of human beings come to faith to find answers for the questions and troubles of life. They want to find meaning, purpose, and intent for their time on earth. They also want hope, healing, and happiness in the face of the overly prevalent suffering that so infects the great mass of human existence. So, one Sunday morning they take the plunge and come to church.

Now, comes an ironic point--they really do not want or need the message that demons and critters will fall beneath their power. What they need instead is the assurance that all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

That is where being known by God comes into play.

Christ assures those who follow him in his work that that, above all else, is sure and certain. They are known by God. God walks with them. God is wherever they happen to find themselves.

Isn't that what we long for deep within our souls?

If God walks with us, then there is strength for this day. Life is a complicated mix of everything. A day may start great. We got enough sleep. We actually awakened before the alarm jarred us upright, so grace came first. Our beloved got the coffee going and the bagel tasted great. So far, so good. Then we get in the car, crank it, and nothing happens. The battery has entered the Kingdom of God, may God have mercy on its lithium soul! After a scramble to reshuffle schedules, we work out rides to work, school, and errands with one car. Then as we get our coffee boost, the cup comes with the lid booby-trapped--it pops off just as we take it, emptying itself all over our clothes. Getting home to change is out of the question, so we go to the important meeting of the day smelling of dark roast and looking like a coffee planter's dream of tie-dye. And on goes the run through normality. With God, though, comes an assurance. With God, we know that God is good and grace abounds. That helps. That begins to slide things into perspective. We can seize the reality that today is just one day--there will be another.

So, the first lesson of this weird little episode with Jesus and those who follow is this--the presence of God is the most important piece of any walk and work of faith.
The second is the actual practice and action of faith. With God's presence comes a call. God never leaves people alone, but rather calls to them to work. Grace comes with responsibility. Redemption comes with vocation. Love comes with the addendum to share it.

Now, we can take the first part of this conversation as it is meant to be taken--the example is extreme, by intention. If the 72 can do all this stuff, imagine how more readily we can handle the normal mess and mishap of daily living. We cannot excuse ourselves by saying it is beyond us to really engage in the work of faith.

As we sit here on a Sunday morning, we need to see this moment as akin to a pit stop in a car race. The cars stop to get serviced and re-equipped for the next segment of the race. Well, that is the hope for what we are doing here in church. Our hope is that this moment of worship, reflection, prayer, and praise is equipping us for the next six days of actual living. It is here that we discern what it is we might do over the next week.

And what that might be?

The simple answer--the basic work of ministry--sharing the good news, teaching others what it means for us, and showing compassion to all whom we meet.

Fine. How?

We share the good news when we share with others that there is hope, healing, and happiness possible. As we interact with whomever we meet, we take in where they are, how they are, and what they are. We enter their experience. As we do so, we do so sharing love for them. We share with them the assurance that all can be well and all manner of things be well. We do that by paying attention to them as if they were the real people they are, and also in a way that lets them know that we know they are children of God. We do that with the commitment to take other human beings seriously. Look at them. Listen to them. Be with them.

We teach others what this presence means for them. We do not just tell them to be of good cheer, we begin to show them how to actualize it. As we listen and experience their experience, we begin to look for possibilities. What might they do? Where might they be? How might they be? We do so in ways that helps them find their way. Sometimes that may be as literal as helping a child find her parent in a grocery store. Other times, it may just be through the simple presence with someone as they figure their way through a conundrum. Sitting with your college senior as he seeks to figure out what to do with that imminent diploma--that works. Still other times, it may be asking someone to reconsider what they say and do. For instance, you might listen patiently while someone rails against someone else, then you gently let them know that there might be another side to the issue. In all these ways, we teach the ways of love, compassion, and grace found in Christ.

We meet others with compassion--which probably should be the first of these three works--when we meet them in love that asks nothing of them but what they need and is willing to go with them wherever it is that they go. It is this compassion that allows us to be present with another in the good news of Christ. It is this compassion that informs what wisdom we have to share with another. It is the love that teaches us how to take another human being seriously as a child of God. It is also a love that leads to greater things. Compassion leads directly to help. Help leads to hope. Hope leads to happiness. Happiness is holy.

So, an extremely weird conversation actually becomes a means to grace for all of us. It reminds us that the starting point is always finding God with us, then comes the actualization of that presence as we live it.

Now, go and do likewise.