Beyond the Patio

The Urgency of Sharing the Vision
Day by Day
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

I have had the experience from time to time of what I could only describe as a “lost opportunity”. Sometimes it has been in regard to ministering to a person. I have had the feeling , or at least an inner urging, that I should see a certain person and I didn’t act on it. Later I discovered that I should have acted on this feeling but because I didn’t, I missed an opportunity to minister to the person effectively. It was then too late to pursue it. I had the opportunity but I lost it.

In the course of everyday living, there is an urgency in many decisions that face us. We must decide or lose the opportunity to do something worthwhile in our lives.

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This is the kind of urgency that we have in the Gospel this morning. The Seventy are sent out to announce that the Kingdom of God has come near to them in the coming of Jesus. You can’t help but feel the sense of urgency. Jesus himself uses the image of the harvest when he sends them out. The harvest is always urgent. One has only a certain amount of time to act in order to bring in the harvest. Also, the way the seventy go out expresses a sense of urgency. They do not carry a purse, bag, or sandals. When people didn’t carry those things, it was a sign that they were on urgent business. They didn’t observe the common courtesies on the road. They didn’t say “hello” as if they were preoccupied with something that was more important.

What could be that important? A NEW AGE had arrived. The healing acts that these people performed were a sign of the new age that was breaking in. You know that the miraculous healing in the New Testament were not performed only because people needed them. Their meaning was beyond the personal needs of the people who were healed. They were definitely signs or symbolic acts that this new age had come in Jesus. It was a time of testing and of hope, but the opportunity for choosing this new thing that was happening in Christ wouldn’t go on for ever. Every moment of our lives is a time to decide whether we are to live by the vision that Christ has given us. 

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It is always time to choose and not to miss the opportunities that confront us.
We must never miss the opportunity to express love, which is at the heart of the kingdom of God, in every situation. The effect that simple acts of love can have on a person is simply amazing.

It is always something that we do and not just talk about:

The story is told of a Franciscan monk in Australia assigned to be the guide and “gofer” to Mother Teresa when she visited New South Wales. Thrilled and excited at the prospect of being so close to this great woman, he dreamed of how much he would learn from her and what they would talk about. But during her visit, he became frustrated. Although he was constantly near her, the friar never had the opportunity to say one word to Mother Teresa. There were always other people for her to meet.

Finally, her tour was over, and she was due to fly to New Guinea. In desperation, the Franciscan friar spoke to Mother Teresa: If I pay my own fare to New Guinea, can I sit next to you on the plane so I can talk to you and learn from you? Mother Teresa looked at him. “You have enough money to pay airfare to New Guinea?” she asked.

Yes, he replied eagerly. “Then give that money to the poor,” she said.

“You’ll learn more from that than anything I can tell you.”

We all need to know that we are loved, unconditionally. The greatest gifts that we can give is love.  It is contstant need even in our own families:

In his autobiography, The Son of a Ragman the actor Kirk Douglas talks about his mother as being warm and supportive but the impression he had of his father as being stern, untrusting, strict, and cold. One evening at school, the young Kirk Douglas had major role speaking and dancing, and singing in a play. He knew his mother would be there, but he seriously doubted that his father would. To his surprise and amazement, he looked up and saw his father. After the program he wanted his father to congratulate him in the ordinary sense, but his father true to form, wasn’t able to say anything. Instead he asked his son whether he would like to stop and get a five-cent ice-cream cone. As Douglas reflects back over all his awards in life, he said he prizes that five-cent ice cream cone even more than his Oscar.

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We must never miss the opportunity to sow the seeds of peace, because it also is of the essence of the Kingdom of God. Now, God’s Peace means a lot of things. It is not just the absence of war, but it is the presence of Justice and Well-being for all. It also means everything mentioned in the peace prayer of St. Francis. It begins:

“Make me a Channel of Your Peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt , faith. Where their is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light, and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine master, grant that I may not seeks so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

My father sowed the seeds of peace. He was railroader, worked as a locomotive Foreman in the CN shops. When he died, the men from the shops came over to see my mother and “to pay their respect” . They said, “We are dreadfully sorry about Bill’s death. We are not certain what will happen now in the workplace. Our peacemaker is gone.” Hopefully he sowed enough of the seeds of peace that it would grow in the lives of others.

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We are all proclaiming the Kingdom of God as surely as the Seventy were sent out to do. Sometimes this is getting together with all the other people who have the same vision of a just and compassionate community to right a wrong that exists.

I think of the movie of Erin Brockovich which is based on a true story of an unemployed single mother who became a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brought down a California power company accused of polluting a city’s water supply.  As Erin works on her case, she receives acceptance from her co-workers gradually and also from those whom she wants to sign the petition. She also is required to show some great courage when she receives some threats to her family. Her case in a small California town that is plagued by bad water requires endurance from her and from her children and boyfriend/neighbor.  As she gains the trust of the town, a sense of community between these people develops. They begin to understand that all of their medical problems are interconnected and that by joining together as one community they have a greater chance of achieving their goals. Erin’s efforts and the support of the community resulted in  her law firm becoming involved in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in American history against a multi-billion dollar corporation.

Sometimes when you have to stand up for what you believe is right is like being sent like lambs in the midst of wolves but when something is accomplished in the name of love, justice, peace and the well-being of all people, there is a satisfaction and joy that overcomes the obstacles. And strangely enough, the satisfaction is not from who gets the credit but by being part of the new age that is often known as the Kingdom of God.

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It was urgent in today’ s Gospel when the Seventy went ahead of Christ and announced his imminent coming.

It is equally urgent for us day by day to proclaim Christ message to others by the way we live.  There is a hymn that goes like this:

Once to every man (one) and nation
Comes a moment to decide
In the strife of truth with falsehoods
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah
Offering each the bloom or blight;
And the choice goes by for ever
Twixt the darkness and that light.

Don’t miss the opportunity to spread the Kingdom of God wherever you find yourself this week. It is Urgent.

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