Risky Business
Luke 10:1-11, Galatians 6:1-16
As a teenager, I got talked into, persuaded, guilted (I’m going to go ahead and say) into believing that it was my duty as a Christian to knock on doors, barge into people’s living rooms, and share with them a very canned, scripted and memorized interrogation / interview that pretended to be a conversation. It led with this, Let me ask you a question, If you were to die tonight, do you know for certain that you would go to heaven? It made me so uncomfortable. But I thought this is what all Christians, if they were worth their salt, were supposed to be doing. I was not any good at it. Did you learn some method for sharing the gospel? The Roman Road perhaps, the 1-minute Gospel, the Four-Spiritual Laws? To me, this felt artificial rather than authentic. It was results oriented, numbers oriented; save ‘em from the fires of hell oriented. If our evangelical ancestors got this idea from Luke 10, I think they missed the mark on what Jesus was instructing these disciples to do.
In Luke 10, Jesus invites partners to join him because he doesn’t want to keep the work of ministry all to himself. It is transforming and joyful work to be part of. He sends them out 2x2 into the towns ahead of him where he himself will go soon. He commissioned them to share peace, to offer healing, and to proclaim the reign of God.
Jesus’ invitation is to travel light. No purse, no bag, no shoes. As if they wouldn’t be vulnerable already, completely reliant on the hospitality of strangers, they show up with sore feet, no place to stay, no gift for a host.
Sounds great, right? Jesus expects that they will be taken in, fed, shown the gift of hospitality. But he prepares them for what else is possible. Their message may be rejected. They may be turned away or treated poorly. In that case, they are to shake the dust from their shoes and carry on.
In this ancient text, there is a living word for us. We are modern-day messengers called to bring good news to our neighbors in our communities. Imagine Jesus calling us as he did these 72 messengers.
Imagine trusting that we need no more than Love packed in our bags. Sound risky? Imagine offering peace and healing to your loved one, or your neighbor, even when they reject your faith, your message that God has a vision for this world that includes them!
The number of adults in the US who say about faith or religion that they have “NONE” or are “DONE” with all of it is increasing. Why do you think this is? When someone says they want nothing to do with God, I get curious. I want to ask, Tell me about this god you want nothing to do with? Maybe it’s because of the Christianity in their newsfeed, or the Christians around them have represented God so poorly. They see nothing that makes them want to have any part of it. Wouldn’t you like to change that for one person?
I read a story this week from a pastor who was invited to supper at the home of one of his parishioners. It was a very modest home, but Mrs. Wilson was one of the finest cooks. As they were enjoying wonderful plates of home-cooked food, there was a knock on the door. It was a young man, distraught, crying. Mr. Wilson brought the young man just inside the door and spoke quietly with him . In a few minutes, he went back to his bedroom and returned with his Sunday shirt. The young man took it, thanked him and left. When Mr. Wilson came back to the table, he said to his wife, I’m going to need your help mending a shirt.
Turns out the young man had a job interview the next day and had just ripped a three-corner tear in his only good white shirt. He really needed the job. So, Mr. Wilson had given him his only white shirt. The next Sunday in church, Mr. Wilson was wearing a shirt with a three-corner tear that had been expertly mended.
This is what the reign of God looks like today. Receiving and giving the gifts of hospitality - that are ours to do - in our communities. What if we woke up a few times a week and thought, what is mine to do today? What is mine to risk today? The answer is in Jesus' call to the seventy-two: To heal, to spread peace, to reveal God’s grace. And perhaps to take yourself (more) lightly.
Jesus sends us out as lambs among the wolves. We aren’t wolves! We aren’t to be manipulative or intimidating. We aren’t trying to catch someone in their weakest moment – exploit their suffering in order to save their soul. We won’t expect to get our way or assume our way should dominate. In our gentleness and nonviolence we are vulnerable. We may not prevail. It is a risk. It’s their choice to Know the God we know:
It is the God who contradicts
Human appraisal of who is deserving or not;
All our systems of domination, privilege and othering…
If we want our neighbors to know the God we know, we will risk bearing witness to the ways we have experienced God, the healing we have experienced through God, the peace we have known in God.
Will this fly in the face of capitalist greed, and Christian nationalism, and hard core evangelicalism? Yes it will. Being sent out by Jesus to proclaim that God has a vision for this world that includes all of life – whether we believe it or not – is risky business. We are invited by God to partner with God in this work that wants to save people from the hell they are living in on earth. (what Jesus called the 72 to do). We might not be able to heal their diseases, but we can offer hope, and belonging, a place at our table…That kind of healing (restoring) puts families back together and people back to work, and fosters lives of meaning and purpose. We can restore a person’s dignity, restore them to spiritual family. Isn’t that what God’s reign on earth looks like?
To say NO to God’s invitation… Isn’t that just as risky as joining God in the first place? Last week, Juan Garcia (the out-going moderator of the CBF) reminded those of us gathered in St. Louis that we are called to dissent against complacency in our own churches. It’s easy to get comfortable, he said, to let fear of conflict and its repercussions keep us from speaking and living the truth of the gospel with boldness. Our faith is not meant to be passive or to preserve the status quo. The same Spirit that gave courage to the prophets, that stirred the early Baptists to defy kings, and that moved those who founded the CBF in 1990, is in us and with us… He said,
“This is the moment to demonstrate that our primary, fundamental, and ultimate allegiance is to Christ, his Lordship and his Kingdom. This is the moment to stop living a comfortable and safe gospel!”
To say No to Jesus call is to RISK missing out on the real joy of being in relationship, in partnership, with God in this transformative work! Tell me about this God you could say No to…
Beyond our 60th anniversary, we have to keep asking, Who will we be now? Dissenters… Risk takers… for the sake of the Kin’dom.
Once upon a time, I was told that the Kingdom of God looked like knocking on doors, and scaring the hell out of people (literally) in order to see them saved. But I believe that we are called to help each other through whatever hell we are going through right now. The Kingdom of God looks like radical hospitality, giving someone your only good shirt, and doing everything that is mine to do to heal what is being broken all around me.
Endnotes
Garcia, Juan, Reflections of the Moderator, CBF June 2025, Faith to our roots as dissenters
Garnaas-Holmes, Steve Unfolding Light Worship Resources Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Swanson, Richard W. Working Preacher Commentary Luke 10:1-11, 16-20