Psalm 26:1-8 (version: Psalms for Praying, Nan Merrill)
Speak on my behalf, O Beloved, for I would choose the path that leads back home, trusting in your love without reserve. May my heart be as your Heart; may my mind be as your Mind; may your steadfast love guide me as I live according to your will, You, O Counselor, are my strength and my guide; so I choose the path of peace and wholeness. I walk with friends of integrity, and associate with those who live in truth; I love the company of faith-filled people, and count myself among those who make your Word their own. Cleanse my heart in innocence that I might childlike be, singing songs of thanksgiving and proclaiming the Beloved’s way.
Luke 10:1-11
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. 2 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. 3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” 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. 7 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. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11 “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.”
Today's gospel seems a little out of place in the calendar for a holiday weekend, it seems more fitting for the beginning of the church program year. Just imagine in the future, this September, when this church, and all churches, return for a special day in which 70 or so of us gather for worship, then after church we would break into teams, hoping to be invited in for a conversation, a meal, sharing of faith, and a giving and a receiving of peace. There are some faith communities that take this passage exactly as it's written and as I describe it, and odds are, you've been on the receiving end of that experience at least once in your life.
There's one or two ways you might have experienced this if you're a good old-fashioned Presbyterian. You may have been the recipient of what churches used to call the “every member campaign,” during which time you'd be at home and unsuspectingly on a Sunday afternoon, men from the church in their suits would come by for a visit and collect your pledge card.
I remember that myself. One year when I was a member at the Chatham Township Presbyterian Church, they had given us warning that they were coming and so naturally we weren't home. I am not proud of that, I mean, we loved the church, we were dedicated pledgers, but who wants an unexpected visit from strangers on a Sunday afternoon?
Or perhaps you've been on the receiving end of being visited by our Mormon brothers and sisters…that's always an interesting experience. I was visited by two very nice woman one time when I was living in the Manse. They were extremely eager and fervent, and wanted to save me, even after I told them I was the pastor of the church right behind me! They didn't think that that was enough, and they stayed and they stayed and they stayed and they stayed… and finally I had to invite them to leave because I had to “call my mother.”
Neither of these experiences are particularly fruitful, although probably both teams of these visitors shook the dust off and went on to a more receptive house of peace, than mine. Yet Jesus is no dummy. In this text he knew, and knows, this work is not for the faint of heart. He also, as Beverly Gaventa writes, “…wants us to not be too preoccupied with our own success, but instead, just be content with being numbered among God's people”. In this modern day when everything seems to have metrics attached to them, I think Gaventa’s view on Jesus’ mindset is a really great reminder, especially as we, and every church, is lamenting about the remnant of parishioners that has yet to return.
But hidden in plain sight in this text, is a word that we intellectually understand, but often fail to truly grasp. That word is peace. Particularly, sharing in peace. We seek this for ourselves. We want this for others and certainly now more than ever we pray for it continually for our country, and our world.
I think back to those two encounters where the disciples, (the visitors to my home), were seeking to accomplish something, but perhaps they left their peace pipe in the car. I's not only them; we too get so caught up into a variety of settings. Our intention is one thing, but our mindset is something other and we're not in sync when we go to visit the stranger.
Imagine each time if we approached a neighbor or someone who was ill or lonely or in grief and we carried that peace and it preceded us. Imagine if we came through the door of the sanctuary with that peace even before we sat down and grabbed the bulletin and found “our pew”. We first said the prayer of Psalm 26. I want us to look at it again so if you would please take out your bulletin… I'd like us to read this again, together:
“Speak on my behalf, O Beloved, for I would choose the path that leads back home, trusting in your love without reserve. May my heart be as your Heart; may my mind be as your Mind; may your steadfast love guide me as I live according to your will, You, O Counselor, are my strength and my guide; so I choose the path of peace and wholeness. I walk with friends of integrity, and associate with those who live in truth; I love the company of faith-filled people, and count myself among those who make your Word their own. Cleanse my heart in innocence that I might childlike be, singing songs of thanksgiving and proclaiming the Beloved’s way. “
Just imagine if we brought that prayer mindset with us instead of our own agendas to church meetings, or even to worship, to difficult conversations with family or colleagues at work. Just imagine if we carried a heart and a mind of peace before all else, imagine the blessing we could be to each other and to one another and to the stranger. But instead, we carry our anxiety and our agendas and that precedes us, and peace is left in the back of the bus.
When I was in High School, I was blessed to be able to go on, not one but two mission trips, and the first of the mission trips was a profound experience. This trip was to Kentucky in the middle of Appalachia. There were probably 25 or 30 of us and we were staying on a farm and learning all about what it truly means to be in poverty. We were far away from stores, and entertainment, and anything besides running water of the streams from the Appalachian mountains. Julie was one of the staff volunteers who also was a nurse. She had to go make a house call to see Sadie, and she asked if any of us would like to go. I thought, “well I'm really sick of shoveling horse manure, this sounds like a better option.” So my friend Chuck and I jumped in the car and thought “… phew…we are out of there for at least two hours”. When we got to Sadie's house, which was at the end of a dirt road and their lawn was nothing but dirt and rocks. Her son sat on the front porch in a rocking chair with a shotgun. How do you enter a house like that, with peace? But in we went, following quietly behind the nurse, into a single room, two single beds on one side, pots of water, a small stove. The outhouse and the chickens were out back. The walls and the floor in the corners didn't meet, and kittens ran in and out of the corners between indoors and out.
Sadie had broken her shoulder and she was unable to speak, had never been schooled and was in need of care, not only skilled care, but also peace. Julie warned us not to talk to folks when visiting because they don't trust the ‘city folk’. We stood at a distance behind the nurse and just watched, aghast. Neither of us had ever seen poverty like that growing up in Northern New Jersey. But then something amazing happened. Sadie, with wild unkempt white hair, looked at me with the bluest eyes I've ever seen and smiled at me. She motioned for me to come over to her, and I did, and then she motioned for me to sit down on the bed next to her, and with a little trepidation I did… She then turned, put her hand on my face, and she smiled, deeply and lovingly. We never exchanged a word, but the peace that she brought my heart that day has never left me. Poorer than poor, completely educated, doesn’t know where her next meal will come from, but she understood the peace of Christ far better than I.
As we left, I did not wipe the dust off my feet. Chuck and I were utterly silent and left the dust on our boots and the memory on our hearts. When we arrived back to the volunteer farm, we didn't really know what to say to the others and so we kept it to ourselves. It's the kind of stuff you can't just speak - you just have to know.
We all have that peace, friends, but we keep covering it over with our lack of faith and our anxiety. We cover it over with our lack of trust in how big and how wonderful and how precious God really is. So I say again, Peace to you and your house now and forevermore. Amen.