From the Pulpit: Jesus looks for trouble
“…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 laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” (Luke 10:1-3)
The Good News – as we speak of Jesus as “Gospel” – states clearly that the troubles of life won’t win. At the heart of a Christian’s life is a growing understanding that we are loved, protected and sent (says Jesus, like lambs in the midst of wolves) in the middle of a broken, yes, troubled world.
To retreat from the community to which we are called is not an option, then. This world desperately needs people of faith to gently go and be the incarnate Word who will not rest until there is peace again, joy again across the land.
Jesus teaches us how to do this. “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people,” Jesus called out to his first disciples. And the people to whom Jesus referred were almost always the ones in trouble: crooked, cheating Zacchaeus would soon discover the power of compassion; the Samaritan – that enemy from the other land –was the one who would prove to be “good;” the adulterous woman was not beyond a new beginning (and neither were her accusers); the parents of the dead child would discover that their child was only sleeping. Over and over and over again Jesus’ ministry is for the sake of those in trouble.
My prayer for our Brandon community is that we will each distance and stay at home as physical health requires, all the while we continue to answer our baptismal callings to go, get out and serve those in our day who are struggling. There is trouble into which we are called to speak and serve. Let us remember, the life of a Christian is not defined by how well we stay clean/avoid trouble. The followers of Jesus are those who have learned to look for trouble and, with Jesus at our side, enter in.
