The Gospel for TUESDAY, May 10, 2005
Luke 10:1-17
After this the Lord appointed seventy–two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself would be visiting. And he said to them, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to do his harvesting. Start off now, but look, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Take no purse with you, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, let your first words be, “Peace to this house!” And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you. Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house. Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is put before you. Cure those in it who are sick, and say, “The kingdom of God is very near to you.” But whenever you enter a town and they do not make you welcome, go out into its streets and say, “We wipe off the very dust of your town that clings to our feet, and leave it with you. Yet be sure of this: the kingdom of God is very near.” I tell you, on the great Day it will be more bearable for Sodom than for that town. ‘Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. And still, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the Judgement than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be raised high as heaven? You shall be flung down to hell. ‘Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those who reject me reject the one who sent me.’ The seventy–two came back rejoicing. ‘Lord,’ they said, ‘even the devils submit to us when we use your name.’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
The Great Dichotomy
“We wipe off the very dust of your town that clings to our feet, and leave it with you. Yet be sure of this: the kingdom of God is very near.”
A Reflection
Near? It's here!
The kingdom would not condemn an entire body of people for the acts of those who seem to represent them. I think the translators blew this one. Or the redactors.
But what are we doing to proclaim the kingdom of God to our fellow humans?
I was impressed by Marcus Borg's analysis of the gospel with Matthew's name [I'm impressed by Marcus Borg, let me admit it....]. Borg points out that the writer using Matthew's name did not want to write the name of G-d [that's how we moderns do it], and so talked about the kingdom of heaven, thus making people think that the kingdom is pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye. In fact, he was talking about the kingdom that Jesus spoke of, with us, while He was here. The gospel with Matthew's name unwittingly promotes an "out there" God, not a God-with-us. Not a Jesus next to me. Not a Holy Spirit in my heart always.
So, why is it that we take a perverse pleasure -- pride? -- in thinking that those who had their city's dust shaken in their faces, that they would suddenly realize that they had committed a really bad act? They wouldn't. Not in 28AD, not in 2028AD. They would be unrepentent, just as we would be should some wacko show up at our front door and tell us to repent of our evil ways. What ways? When?
But for those of us who are [were] ready to receive the Word, praise be to God for the great grace we have received when the messengers arrive.
A Collect
Gracious Spirit, your never-failing love for us is the ongoing evidence that we are your special creation; make us always the conduit for your love to our sisters and brothers, for we are called to be your messengers and your voice in the world. Amen.
7:31:05 PM 
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