Jesus' Advance Team

St. Paul’s Church in Bergen, Jersey City NJ

July 7, 2013

Year C, Proper 9: The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

2 Kings 5:1-14

Psalm 30

Galatians 6:1-16

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Jesus’ Advance Team

            Well, it’s been a pretty big week for Jersey City! I know some of you attended the inauguration on Monday of Mayor Fulop and the City Council. By all reports, despite some rain, it was a great event.

            Last Sunday afternoon, some of us attended a really wonderful service at Mt. Pisgah AME Church to pray for, and to bless, our city’s new leaders.

            I’ll admit that my expectations for this service were pretty low. It’s always dangerous when you get a large number of pastors and politicians together in a place where there is a captive audience and a microphone. I was dreading long sermons thinly disguised as prayers and tedious  self-serving speeches from the politicians.

            But, in fact, this was one of the best services I have ever attended.

            First of all, the music was spectacular. Gail Blache-Gill, the Minister of Music over at the Church of the Incarnation, rehearsed and conducted what was called the “Jersey City Interfaith Choir.” If you know her work you won’t be surprised that she did a magnificent job.

            And I was so proud that five of our parishioners sang in the choir – representing St. Paul’s among singers from only five other congregations.

            At the service all of the major faith traditions were represented and given the chance to offer prayers from their own sacred texts. It was very moving to see a Hindu holy man sitting beside a Muslim imam sitting alongside a Coptic priest sitting with a Protestant woman preacher sitting by a Catholic priest.

            Seeing all those religious leaders praying together reminded me of one of Jesus’ favorite phrases, “The kingdom of God is like…”

            I bet that Jesus would say something like, “The kingdom of God is like religious leaders who disagree about many things coming together to pray for the city, its people and its leaders.”

            And then there was just one speech from a politician. Mayor Fulop offered some very poignant remarks about his relatives who died in Nazi concentration camps and then called all of us to be one Jersey City.

            As I sat there listening to the mayor and seeing the council people so full of excitement and energy, I thought about how much their lives were about to change. People have very high expectations. Their jobs can easily become 24/7 and, if they’re not careful, consume them. And then there is the loss of privacy. It’ll be difficult to walk down the street or sit in a diner without being recognized, interrupted, greeted and engaged in conversation.

            So, for politicians like the mayor and for officials higher up, there is a whole entourage surrounding them, supporting them and protecting them.

            And part of that entourage is what’s called the advance team.

            You know, they’re the people who visit a place ahead of the leader, making preparations so the visit goes as well as possible for the leader and for everyone else involved.

            It’s an important job.

            Well, it turns out that Jesus also had an advance team.

            And we heard about Jesus’ advance team in today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke.

            Luke tells us, “…the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.”

            As you might guess, that number “seventy” is not random. It probably echoes the 70 elders that Moses picked to help him with his work. There was also a Jewish tradition that there were 70 countries in the whole world. So the choice of seventy members of Jesus’ advance team links Jesus back to Moses and may also look ahead to the spread of Christianity beyond the Jews and among non-Jewish people, called the Gentiles.

            Jesus tells his advance team that the “harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Jesus knows that there are a lot of people out there who are hungry and thirsty for the Good News.

            But, being on Jesus’ advance team is not easy work. Jesus acknowledges the danger, saying, “See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.”

            Jesus’ advance team has to travel light. “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.”

            Jesus’ advance team’s mission is urgent so there’s no time for chitchat along the way. Jesus says, “Greet no one on the road.”

            So, what’s the advance team supposed to do?

            Jesus’ advance team is supposed to offer peace to the people they meet. The advance team is supposed to offer healing, declaring to the sick and the suffering, “the kingdom of God has come near.”

            And, we’re told that the seventy members of Jesus’ advance team, maybe to their own surprise, seem to have had a lot of success. Luke tells us that they “returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’”

            Jesus sent out the first seventy members of his advance team long ago. And Christianity has been around for a long time now.

            But, the truth is that Jesus is still sending out an advance team. Jesus is still sending out an advance team into an often hostile and dangerous world. Jesus is still sending out an advance team to offer peace and healing to a world broken by senseless violence; to offer peace and healing to a world scarred by simmering hatred; to offer peace and healing to a world disfigured by selfish materialism.

            By now you know where I’m going with this. Today, Jesus is calling us to be part of his advance team. Jesus is sending us out to share peace and to offer healing. Jesus is sending us out to prepare the world for him.

            And we probably don’t usually think of it this way, but we really become members of Jesus’ advance team at our Baptism.

            And we do our work as members of Jesus’ advance team when we try to keep the promises made at our baptism.

            We do our work as members of Jesus’ advance team when, with God’s help, we gather together to break bread and pray; when we resist evil and, when we fail, when we repent and return to the Lord.

            We do our work as members of Jesus’ advance team when we, with God’s help, proclaim the Good News by word and example; when we seek and serve Christ in absolutely everybody, loving our neighbor as ourselves.

            We do our work as members of Jesus’ advance team when we, with God’s help, strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of all people.

            Just like two thousand years ago, being a member of Jesus’ advance team is a tough job. And may be even tougher for us than it was for those first seventy team members long ago. Today, unfortunately, a lot of people out there have been hurt or turned off by the Church. Today, unfortunately, a lot of people out there dismiss us as hypocrites or fools with our heads in the clouds or in the sand. Today, unfortunately, lots of people out there look for help, strength and hope anywhere but here – look for help, strength and hope from anyone but Jesus.

            So, yes, we have a tough job.

            But, remember Jesus sent out the first members of his advance team in pairs. We don’t do this work alone. We support each other. That’s a big reason why we come together here week after week.

            And we don’t do this work alone because it’s God who gives us the grace, skill, patience and persistence to be a member of Jesus’ advance team.

            So, when we leave this place today may we, the members of Jesus’ advance team, with God’s help, offer peace and healing to our hurting world. May we be signs in an often hostile and dangerous world that the kingdom of God has come near.  Amen.