Sermon for St. Anne’s - Sunday 6th July

Third Sunday after Trinity

Isaiah 66:10-14

Psalm 66: 1-8

Galatians 6 [1-6], 7-16

Luke 10, 1-11, 16-20

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer

I wonder what you think of when the word evangelism comes up? As a child I remember feeling very suspicious of evangelists after reading ‘Huckleberry Finn’ in which a character who calls himself the King pretends to be a reformed pirate whose found God and exploits his listeners’ gullibility and makes a lot of money through bringing them to tears as he talks about how God turned his life around. Just this week an obituary for an American televangelist remembered him more for his hypocrisy than for his faith. And we may have seen and heard those brave men and women who stand on Brighton Sea front or down in the Cliffe telling the crowds hurrying by to repent before it’s too late – everyone much too embarrassed to stop and listen, or to question and engage. Proclaiming the word of God in ways which bring people closer to God rather than driving them away seems rather a tall order for human beings, or so it seems.

But in today’s readings from Galatians and Luke sharing your faith in the way that Jesus invites becomes something which is less about making a noise and exploiting human vulnerability and more about living and talking in ways which enable other people to encounter God through the way we relate to them; for Jesus and Paul the best form of evangelism comes through the simplicity and joy of how we live and what we do and say...

Firstly, the message. Jesus tells the seventy ‘others’ that the message they’re taking out into the world is that ‘the kingdom of God has come near to you’. This is a kingdom which excludes nobody-there are seventy ‘others’ because the original Hebrew version of Genesis Chapter 10 states that there are 70 nations upon earth-so Jesus is sending a messenger for every nation and for all people. Noone is excluded. And this is a kingdom defined not by what its people own, or by the power they exert over other nations or their fellow citizens, but by their sense of being near to God and their desire for peace . Jesus wants the seventy, and us as well, to sense an immediate bond of connection between ourselves and God –‘whoever listens to you listens to me’ he tells us. And to listen to Jesus means listening to God; ‘I speak these things as the Father instructed me’ he tells us in John. Listening is how the kingdom of God comes near to us today just as it did then. Jesus doesn’t sidestep the challenges involved- ‘I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves’ he says – and whereas we might reasonably expect some form of protection from those wolves Jesus offers none- ‘carry no purse, no bag, no sandals...’ It seems to me that Jesus wants us to be as true to ourselves when we’re talking about our faith as we can be-we’re not to hide behind our financial wealth, or behind our possessions or our clothes. It’s as if Jesus is telling us that it's when we make ourselves most vulnerable, when we’re most human that we are closest to the God who speaks through Jesus. And that’s when we’re at our best as His messengers. We are simply to meet the people we talk to about God as ourselves. That’s enough. We don’t have to adopt a way of talking that isn’t our own, or pretend to be something we’re not. And the people who Jesus judges ready to hear the message are those who offer peace and hospitality, those who are ready and willing to listen.

There’s a wonderful simplicity to the directness with which Luke tells us how almost immediately the 70 return and they’re thrilled-because they’ve discovered that the approach Jesus demands actually works! ‘Even the demons submit to us’ they cry, amazed. There is a freedom it seems in allowing ourselves to let go of material possessions and a happiness in communicating our faith through the way we live. The seventy who’ve been told to let go of everything that the world defines as important return Luke tells us ‘With joy’. Joy is such a brilliant word to use here-it expresses the wonder, the excitement and the vibrant happiness that the Gospel suggests comes with enabling God to work through what we say and do. And this is a joy which isn’t about discovering power or how to influence people, but the joy of coming into the presence of God through how we live and listen-‘do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven’, says Jesus.

So, talking about our faith is firstly for everyone-we can all be ourselves and we can all create opportunities for conversations about faith- just by being ourselves, peaceful, attentive, engaged we can be a means by which the kingdom of God comes near to those around us. Secondly it should be joyful-it’s not about control, or influence or power but about enabling ourselves and everyone we meet to share in the sense of being welcomed into a state of deep joy which Jesus says comes with being close to God through what we say and how we act. But how do we do this? How can we become the people Jesus commissions as the 72? Well, this is where Paul in Galatians gets really excited- he tells us to work at getting to know and understand ourselves and then, rather like someone using capital letters in a text to emphasise their points he writes ‘see what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!’ And the message that moves him to take the stylus from his scribe’s hand and write in his own super large letters is this, ‘whenever we have an opportunity let us work for the good of all, and especially for the those of the family of faith’. And working for the good of all is a way of life open to us all-it may be through visiting friends who are ill, or by making the tea and coffee, by volunteering or by taking part in our fund raisers- all these things, which give so much joy to those around us are ways we too can work for the good of all.

And now, in a moment of quiet, let us think about how we too can work for the good of all, and bring the joy of knowing God to everyone we encounter in the week to come.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.