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Sermon - July 8th, 2007
Traveling Lightly
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Luke 10:1-12
David Scholer is a New Testament professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He has lived with cancer for the last five years that has spread to both lungs, has asthma, diabetes, and arthritis. Despite all these problems and the effects of chemotherapy he keeps on teaching. He is 68 years old and one of that seminary’s most popular professor. Students say that he tells them that the ability to live with ambiguity is a sign of maturity. And in a conservative seminary, he is known for his inclusiveness. He tells his students: “You have no right to oppose women in ministry until you have made a friend who is called to ministry and you’ve listened to her story. You have no right to make a statement about homosexuality until you have made friends with a Christian homosexual person.”
I think this is a fabulous modern version of today’s lesson in Luke. Jesus sent them out two by two. He called them laborers, he warned them that they would be like lambs in the midst of wolves. He instructed them to say, “Peace be with you.” He said they should accept hospitality and tell them, “The Kingdom of God has come near to you.”
Wouldn’t it be a challenge for us Christians to pair up with someone we disagree with and go on a mission together, showing the world that we are modeling what the Kingdom of God is like… hospitality, grace, love for one another. The amazing thing about David Scholer’s ministry is that he is saying to the students, relationship and respect for your fellow human being is more important that what you believe. He is saying, your relationships with others needs to inform your beliefs. Get your nose out of the Bible and get to know someone you are judging. And we need to do that with people of other faiths, nationalities, classes. We need to cross those lines that we have drawn.
So, the seventy went out in twos on their mission from town to town, eating with people, healing, proclaiming. When they returned they were filled with joy. Here in the gospel we have an example of effective leadership and evangelism. Jesus equipped the laity; he appointed them. Jesus did this. Jesus who was powerful yet gentle, convincing yet understanding. Why did he need to send people out before him who probably bungled through their couple of testimonies, who probably felt like they were lambs being fed to wolves? Why didn’t Jesus do it all himself, since he was the one?
I know the answer to that. It was not the model of leadership he wanted to portray. Jesus did not use his own power and authority to control people. He did not force himself upon the world. He did not come to save the world all by himself. He came to empower others. He came to help people help themselves and others. Jesus believed in people. Jesus believed in team ministry. He came for a far too important task to do it alone. He called the twelve. He sent out 70 ordinary people two by two. Jesus sent people out to be ministers with him.
And that’s what all of us are called to do--team ministry. We are to encourage each other, support each other, help each other, hold each other accountable, we are to be the best we can. And for goodness sakes, leave the judging up to God. We have no right to beat anyone over the head with the Bible. Let the professor said: We have no right to judge anyone, oppose anyone until we have made a friend and listened to their story.
Jesus told these missionaries that they did not need a purse, bag, extra sandals. Travel lightly, he said. You know, the heaviest burdens we carry into any relationship are our own personal agendas, our prejudice, our perceived limitations and our preconceived assumptions. Leave all of that behind, Jesus said. Easier said than done, I know. It’s about being totally attentive and present to the moment and the person you are with. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Will you succeed or fail? What if are more like the seven-foot tall teenager who applied for a job as a life guard at a community pool, and was asked, “Can you swim?” His response was, “Not very well, but I can wade like crazy!”
So, yes, we will either succeed or fail to make a connection. Now, this story is also in Mark in the 6th chapter with a few differences. In Mark, it says what they did on the mission. Mark says, “They cast out many demons…” (not all). They “anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them…” (not all). And then there’s the good part in both Luke and Mark. Jesus said that if any place refuses to welcome them or hear them, just go on. Don’t take it personally. “Shake the dust off your feet,” he said. That was a custom, shaking off the dust from a place that rejected you, a way of saying, “Let it go and go to the next place.”
I love that part of the lesson. Jesus is telling you and me to leave those situations that are beyond us, leave those situations that we think we have failed, leave the circumstances we cannot touch. Leave them to God and move on. Don’t let what we can’t do control us. Leave it to God and get on with your life.
Do you see what Jesus is doing.” He is giving the disciples, giving us permission to fail. Failure isn’t a crime. Failure is part of life, part of being human. Yes, it hurts, but it isn’t good or bad, it just is! So, don’t dwell on it.
My basketball coach in college had a terrible time teaching me this lesson. When I messed up, which was often, I would get down on myself. It would effect the next five minutes of the game at least so that one mistake turned into a dozen very quickly. She was always telling me to let it go. Move on. Don’t think about it. Stay in the game. That’s what Jesus is telling us. Stay attentive to the present moment because the past is in the past. Our failures are not what define us. If they are, then maybe, just maybe you don’t know what grace is. Grace means we always have another chance.
So, Jesus gives us permission to fail. It’s going to happen, you know. It’s inevitable. And I know, I don’t like it either. Nothing is worse than when a project goes flat. Something are not going to work out. Get used to it. Dust off your feet. Put it behind you and move on. Let God bring some good out of our failure--and God does. Believe me, I do know that.
Conscientious people are usually the ones most plagued by failure. We want to do the best all the time. We want all our relationships to be lasting and meaningful and secure. We want to be able to help everyone, support all who seek support, not let anyone down and be successful in all our endeavors for good. And when we want all of that, you know what we are wanting? To be like God. It’s like this, people trying to be faithful to God, thinking that if we don’t do it, it won’t get done, let alone done right, wind up thinking they have to be God--well, it can’t be done! We have been given permission to fail because it is not all up to us. We are not God! Thank God!
Let me tell you about Fred Snodgrass. He died in 1974 The New Times reported his death, like this: “Fred Snodgrass, 86, dead, ball player muffed fly in 1912.” Poor old Fred Snodgrass. Some sportswriter would not let the world forget that he had made a mistake in a ball game 62 years before his death. The article recounted the mistake. It was the World Series. The batter hit a pop fly. It should have been caught. But Fred dropped the ball, made an error, and that error set up the winning run. The next batter hit a single, drove home the batter on base because of Fred’s dropped ball. The game was over. The Giants lost.
Well, Fred moved to California after his baseball career, raised a family, was a banker and a rancher. He was a leader in his community. He was elected mayor of Oxnard. People there loved and respected him.
Evidently, some guy thought that Fred Snodgrass’ life came to an end back in 1912, when the Giants lost the World Series because of his mistake. But it didn’t. It was just an episode, just one event, something that could have not happened but it did,. And, even though it did happen, it did not spell the end. It wasn’t the last word. There was another day, another chance. So, dust off your feet and move on.
It’s not our mistakes and failures, not even our most glaring, most spectacular mistakes that name us, despite what other people might say, despite what you think. We don’t have to be perfect because there is a power in the world greater than us--God. What we are to do is to be faithful, to do what we can the best we can, to be sure, but to trust that when we fail, as we shall, it’s not the last chance. There will be another bus. Dust off your feet and move on. Not only are we not invincible, we don’t have to be. We have been given permission to be human.
Amen.
Frederick Carlisle Snodgrass (October 19, 1887 - April 5, 1974) was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball from 1908 to 1916 for the New York Giants and the Boston Braves. He played under manager John McGraw and with some of the early greats of baseball including Christy Mathewson. Snodgrass played in 3 consecutive World Series for the Giants from 1911 to 1913. Unfortunately the Giants lost all of them, and he is remembered for committing an error on a routine fly ball in the tenth inning of the deciding game which allowed the Boston Red Sox win the 1912 Series. The play was forever known as "Snodgrass' Muff". Despite the infamy of the "muff," the play only resulted in the ultimately tying run being put onto second base. It did not cause any runs to score. Ironically, Snodgrass made a spectacular catch on the very next play, a long drive by the dangerous Harry Hooper. Tris Speaker came to bat, and Snodgrass' teammates made a worse goof: Speaker hit a simple foul; Christy Mathewson, the pitcher, Fred Merkle, the first baseman, and Chief Meyers, the catcher, met between first base and home plate to catch the ball, but in an "after you" stalemate they let the ball fall to the ground. Shortly afterward the Red Sox scored the winning run. Giants manager John McGraw never blamed Snodgrass for this. Many years later, Snodgrass was interviewed by Lawrence Ritter for The Glory of Their Times. Snodgrass lived out his life later in the West with real estate and investment. However, when he died, the New York Times summed up his obituary with: "Fred Snodgrass, 86, Dead; Ball Player Muffed 1912 Fly."