Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – Year C (Luke 10:1-11, 16-20)

It seems simple enough. Begin with a prayer that others will join you in your ministry. Work in teams. Don’t get bogged down by stuff. You need to be free to move around. Offer God’s blessing. Offer God’s healing. Preach the Kingdom. Accept the material assistance that you need, but demand nothing more. Don’t bully anyone and don’t go where you aren’t welcome. Do not succumb to the belief that any of this is your doing. This is how, little by little, town by town, evil will be conquered and the Kingdom of God will be established. It seems that Jesus’ little seminary formation program laid out in Luke 10 ought to be easy enough to follow and yet failures abound.
Every day the news is filled with reports about the abuse of power and authority. Christian ministers have never been immune to this temptation. Money, fame, power, even on a small scale, work their woe among church leaders. And without wanting to suggest a great left wing conspiracy against religion in the media, there is certainly some gloating going on when religious leaders, particularly those on the right, are caught doing something wrong. As for most Christians, we feel some anger but mostly sadness when those religious leaders in whom we have put our trust, disappoint us. We are all too aware of the power of sin in the lives of our ministers and leaders and yet, except for the most cynical among us, we expect something better. For better or worse, we hold them to a higher standard.
Suppose though, that Jesus’ teaching on ministry isn’t just for ordained or professional ministers. What if what Jesus is talking about is really about discipleship and is addressed to all the baptized? Perhaps that higher standard to which we hold religious professionals was really a standard by which we should measure ourselves. I believe that in Jesus’ address to the seventy we find a key to living the Christian life that is available to everyone and which has the potential to change not only individual lives, but the whole world. Pray, work together, live simply, preach the Kingdom in word and deed and recognize that all you do and achieve is ultimately God’s grace at work in and through you.