Rejoicing In True Power.

Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20

After this 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. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.” I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.

The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’

This scripture bothers me for the simple fact that if it is not read prayerfully, carefully and in context with the culture of the times, it could easily be used as a foundational scripture for an “Us against Them” mentality. If I came away from reading that scripture thinking that anyone who has rejected my Christian testimony is a pagan doomed to hell, I would be one terrible Christian. This is not scripture that gives us a right to judge others who don’t believe the way we do or condemn those who struggle with the Gospel message.

In fact, it is my contention that most people who seemingly reject Christ are not rejecting Christ at all. They are rejecting a lot of exceedingly poor representations of the Christian message. Most of them have never encountered the real Christ at all – just some other people’s ideas of Christ and they have made judgments based on many unhealthy acts committed in the name of Christ. The Good News of Jesus is often not communicated authentically or effectively.

Having said that, there are two things I want to focus on in this Gospel passage that are important and could easily be missed in a quick reading.

The first is the fact that the disciples returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ They did not return discouraged, frustrated and upset because they had been rejected over and over. It doesn’t sound to me like they came back with sore ankles from shaking dust off their feet. They came back full of joy. Their excitement that even the demons had submitted to them suggests that Christ sent those disciples out with the Holy Spirit of authentic power and love, a power so effective that those who had the greatest potential to reject the message that the Kingdom was near at hand were healed of their bondage to the lies of the evil one. By love and the power of the Spirit, people were released to receive healing and hear truth.

“See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.” As both Isaiah and Jesus proclaimed, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…to set the captives free.” Christ did not send those disciples out to condemn or to speak words of doom; he sent them out to heal and to liberate prisoners through the mighty power of love.

This leads to the second point which is the last line of this week's Gospel passage: ‘Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’  Jesus was saying, “Right. You’ve experienced what can happen when I empower you. Now…detach.  What the Spirit does through you doesn’t make you more important or bigger in God’s eyes. Don’t start getting all full of yourselves. Just rejoice that you are fully loved and that you were loved even before you did anything. This is true power. This is the power of True Self.” 

There was a fellow who had a music ministry. He was a good musician and had a trained voice and he had been invited to give a mission at a parish I was involved in at that time. Before the first evening’s service began, the parish priest asked me to come and meet this man. When I was introduced, the musician was obviously not in the least bit interested in meeting anyone. His whole attitude was, “Yeah, yeah…whatever.”

His music and his talk were the main part of the mission but parish lectors and choirs were also involved in the liturgy with different choirs taking turns each evening of the mission. In front of the people, he came across as warm, humorous, very spiritual and a good speaker. At the end of the first evening, however, when coffee was served, perhaps because he had already met me he sat down with me. He then proceeded to criticize certain aspects of the evening that the parish had been responsible for, especially the performance of the choir. It was as if he felt like his ministry had been diminished by the participation of non-professionals. I was appalled.

This man was very aware of how good he was at what he did. He was so aware of this that he had forgotten that, as far as the Lord is concerned, it’s not what you do that should be a cause for rejoicing; it’s who you are. And who you are has very little to do with what you do. Your ministries, your roles, your appointed tasks or your service to the community means diddly-squat if you don’t know who you are. What you do does not define your importance in the kingdom, even if you are casting out demons, healing the sick or are the absolute greatest at whatever it is that you do.  

Your name is written in heaven. Would you know who you are even if you were suddenly incapacitated for the rest of your life and couldn’t raise a finger to accomplish anything? If that happened, would you feel like your whole definition and purpose in life had just been completely wiped out? Would you understand that before everything else you are the Beloved of God and that the only place where you can find your identity and approval is in the center of his humble heart? Would you know in your spirit that love is the only thing that matters and what you do after that is just bonus? Would you be peaceful in knowing that God doesn’t need you – he just wants you? God wants to share the joy of his creative power with you and he invites you to participate in that creative power but your mission is not to be busy, important and effective. Your whole mission is to be loved and to be a conduit of the love that created you.  

Your name is written in heaven and written in love. The Holy Trinity, the whole universe, all the angels and archangels, all the saints and all the companies of heaven know your name and know who you are.

Do you?