Ordinary 14, July 3. Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
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Jesus is disrupting the comfort of his followers and casting them out to bring peace to the nations in this week's gospel. It's unsettling and yet joyful! Our team come from the length of the country this week, with Jonathan Gale, Gillian Townsley and Richard Johnson joining Mike as he supposedly has a week off in Kapiti!
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
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.”
‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’
The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’
Each week the Diocesan Ministry Educator engages with a panel of biblical thinkers, in a free-flowing conversation about the forthcoming gospel reading. The idea of these conversations is to tease out and float ideas about and responses to the weekly passage, not as an academic exercise but as a creative dance with the text and the Spirit who enlivens the text for us.