Peace on this house

We bring ourselves to this place, this moment in time, we bring ourselves to worship you, O God. We come knowing you and yet seeking to know you more, to offer you our prayers and praises, and to receive your blessing. Amen.

Creator God, you are our all, you created and crafted us. God of the journey, you are our journey, our aim, our purpose, our goal. God of welcome, you receive each of us, no matter who and what we are. God of peace, you give us peace, and you call us to be one in you and to share that peace. Amen.

God of blessing and abundance, God of peace and love, you have offered and given us so much, you have revealed so much to us, you have guided and guarded us on our life’s journey, and yet…we are so often ungrateful. So often we ignore what has been given. So often we have failed to see all that you show us. So often we have not sought peace with those around us. So often we have not shared with others your word of love and peace. Forgive us, O God, that your blessings have been squandered by us, ignored by us, misused by us, abused by us. Forgive us, O God, and in the silence of this moment, accept our confession. Amen.

Assurance of forgiveness

Blessed be you, Lord God, for your forgiveness. Blessed be you, Lord God, for your guidance. Blessed be you, Lord God, for your acceptance of us. Blessed be you, Lord God, that we can know our sins, our failings, are forgiven. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Hymn 566: Take my life and let it be

READINGS

Luke 10:1-10, 16-20

Luke 10:16–20 ESV

“The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Hymn 351: In Christ alone

SERMON

Last week you may have heard about the cost of discipleship, you may well have heard how Jesus spoke to three followers explaining the cost of following him.

This morning we are looking at the reading where Jesus sending out 70 followers.

Why send 70 in the first place there is probably symbolic meaning to the number, as we find this throughout the bible.

Jesus had already commissioned 12 out of his many followers who were called apostles relating to the 12 the tribes of Israel. Seventy was the total number of Jacob’s family who went into Egypt. And there were 70 representative elders when the Israelite's left Egypt.

Some Bibles will say 72 which has its own symbolism. This in many ways fits better Noah’s sons gave rise to 72 families to populate the earth even though Jesus only sends the 72 to spread the word in Palestine, the end goal is a mission to all nations.

If we look back to Luke chapter 9 Jesus sent the twelve apostles into the Galilean towns to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.

Now in chapter 10 as he begins his final journey to Jerusalem Jesus sends out the 70 people ahead of him, in pairs, to spread the good news. He sent them in pairs probably to support one another, to encourage each other when inevitably they reached a town that rejected the message.

He tells them “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few”

You may know the saying “make hay while the sunshine’s”

At harvest time there is a need to gather the crops as quickly as possible, timing is critical to ensure the produce is ripe and ready to gather, to soon and it’s unripe to late and it has a tendency to rot, and so it is apt that Jesus uses this image that would be very familiar to the people of the period, a lot of work is needed in a very small window of time.

And so, Jesus sends out this group of people with this urgent message.

A message so important that they are told not to speak to people on the road as this will slow them down. Do we have this sense of urgency?

What do we know about the 70 people? Well not a lot, we can surmise they were committed to Christ.

But we know nothing else.

So, what does it mean to us today?

For one thing it appears that they didn’t need to be exceptional people, they were ordinary followers of Christ just as we are today, for them and us, it is the message we carry that is exceptional.

The driving power is Jesus himself.

No Christian can excuse themselves in this service by pleading, I don’t have the skills, I’m to old, we are all commissioned by God to tell of the good news.

When I was working, I spent a lot of time in hotels, this is my small suite case, I took what I considered my basic needs, clean underwear, and socks always a priority, a washbag with toothbrush and paste deodorant. Spare shirt, and maybe spare trousers and maybe a jumper in case it’s chilly. Plus, iPad.

And obliviously I had my car with my Laptop, phone, and anything else I needed.

If my company had said off you go but leave your car and everything just walk to the next job and I’m sure you can borrow what’s needed, if you ask nicely the hotel will feed you and give you a room for free! But thankfully they never did.

Jesus tells the Seventy to take very little with them. Why would he tell them this?

Can you think of any reason why he would do this?

I don’t think it’s a cost saving exercise.

If God recruits his workers, he will provide everything they need to bring in the harvest.

It is this relying on God to provide that is the crucial point. In other words, you are putting all your faith in God to provide, you are not relying on your own ability or strength, but God’s provision.

They are told to receive hospitality when it is offered, but to moving on swiftly when it is not.

He tells them if people don’t listen to their message, it is God they are rejecting.

Spreading the good news, engaging in hospitality, and sharing God’s peace – these are all ways of giving and receiving God’s blessings.

How does this play out in our lives?

Are we spreading God’s peace sharing with all we meet offering hospitality?

It’s also interesting that they are told to stay in the first house they are welcomed into, not to move around. I suppose in practice, if the word is accepted by the town the offer of accommodation may well vary. You may stay will a poor family and then be offered a much better place to stay. But Jesus tells them to stay in the place they are first received.

There is a lesson here, as there are situations where minsters look to move into a more desirable area, certainly in some religious orders where there are promotions to higher positions, there are some speakers and Christian song writers who are like diva’s demanding this and that and the other. Instead of humbly excepting the place God puts them.

Jesus told the 70 that whenever they entered a house the first thing they should say was, ‘Peace to this house.’ Are these empty words?

Is this just a fancy way of saying ‘Hi’?

Obviously not, because Jesus goes on to say (Luke 10.6): ‘And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.’

Can you remember when we learned to say “bless you” when someone sneezes?

It an automatic reaction for many of us, and I don’t think many people think of God or what “bless” actually means when they say it.

A lot of people think its rude not to say “bless you” whether they believe in God or not.

It can be described as “an utterance without specific meaning in response to someone sneezing”

It is considered to be polite just something you say when someone sneezes.

. But is that all a blessing is? Is it just an utterance without specific meaning?

In the same way, most acts of worship end with a blessing of some kind. Is that just a full stop, words spoken to end the service, but without any significant impact or meaning?

Jesus describes peace as a major factor of our lives. It is as if we all have a portion of peace that we can offer.

But this peace can never just hang about in the air. It is either received – and will enriches the heart of the person – or it bounces back to the one who is offering it.

God’s Spirit works to enhance the relationship between the one who offers and the one who accepts it.

Back to sneezing… It is thought that the practice dates back to a time when people believed that a sneeze somehow loosened your soul from the rest of you. It might even have escaped along with the ‘achoo’. But, by saying ‘bless you’, the soul was restored to its rightful place and the devil was prevented from snatching it away. It’s doubtful that anyone would believe that explanation today, whether they believe in God or not, but the idea of blessing someone in response to something physical is interesting. It demonstrates that a blessing is an act of love; it reveals a desire for the other person to be protected, and it is motivated by a hope that they will remain whole.

When the 70 return, they are full of joy from their experience and what they were able to do in Jesus’ name.

Jesus does not want them to be obsessed with power but to “rejoice that their names are written in heaven”

a warning about the danger of spiritual pride to all who are used mightily by God.

Salvation is the most important thing.

They had experienced life totally in God’s hand, depending on him entirely and the results amazed them.

Today we to can be amazed by God’s provisions for us, but we need to as the old hymn says, “trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey”

Hymn 545: Be, thou my vision

Offering

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

We bless you, Holy God, that you journey with us: That you hold us by the hand and guide us: That you never force us or drag us: That you accompany us on every step of life’s journey: That you are with us in our waking and our sleeping: That you are with us in stillness and our doing: That you are with us in our journeying and our arriving and our departing: That from the moment of our birth to the moment of our dying and beyond you are our God: We bless you, Holy God, that you journey with us: Amen.

Loving God, you call us to bear one another’s burdens, so we seek your discernment in aiding those struggling to stand beneath the ravages of physical and mental ill health. Peace and mercy be upon them. Help us to speak up for the marginalised and the vulnerable burdened by the ever growing onslaught of social media. Peace and mercy be upon them. Help us to get alongside and bring comfort to those fighting their way through the dark forest of grief. Peace and mercy be upon them. Lord, with an ever growing population there is great need of you in the world today. We pray for all those in the field of mission, at home and abroad, particularly for those just stepping out on their journey. Peace and mercy be upon them. May your blessings be poured out to all in need as we journey in step with your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Hymn 487: You Shall go with joy

BLESSING

Where there is conflict, let there be peace. Where there is fearfulness, let there be peace. Where there is anger, let there be peace. Where there is violence, let there be peace. May God’s peace rest on our homes and all who live in them. Amen.

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