URC Daily Devotion 23 January 2025

St Luke 10: 1 – 12

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.

Reflection

My friend Jean heard these words anew in her youth in the 1960s and trained as a nurse, midwife and missionary.  Growing up in the Brethren, Jean was bemused to find that, as a missionary, she had to lead worship, preach, and preside at Communion – but only in the mission fields!  Based in Macao she went over the border into China to run a clinic.  One day, during the Cultural Revolution, the border closed  and Jean was imprisoned with a group of nuns.  The horrors of imprisonment led to an ecumenism unusual in Jean’s background and, even more unusually, made her promise God that she’d become honest about her sexuality.  After her release she worked with LGBT people within an affirming church context.  Her gifts of encouragement touched many people and sustained me in my earliest years in ministry.  
 
Jesus, when he sent these disciples off, didn’t promise it would be easy.  Peace was to be shared but it would not always be accepted.  Great things were commanded of disciples – cure the sick, proclaim the kingdom, eat what’s provided – but there will be hard times when the message is not accepted.  Inhospitality will be dealt with as it was with the people of Sodom.  Heady words!

We read these words anew and, perhaps, see the message about few workers more than the one about the harvest being ready.  It’s hard to work as a missionary or minister in our contemporary age; we’re in the midst of social changes that we can only slightly grasp; we know spirituality attracts yet the Church doesn’t.  We know more are called than take up the challenge and yet…the saints of old inspire us as they followed without counting the cost, as they tried to work out the changes they were swept up in, as they tried to make sense of the Gospel in their own contexts and, like my friend Jean, they found in that discipleship meaning and fulfilment.  I pray you do too.

Prayer

God of the harvest,
help us to see the needs around us,
the desire for authentic spirituality,
a thirst for You
amidst the cries for justice.
As the workers are few, O God,
equip us to both work for You,
and see more clearly where You call us to go.
That we may be content, 
speak peace,
heal the wounded,
and proclaim Your coming Kingdom.
Amen.