Preparing the way

Do you remember learning towrite a story, when you were a child? Perhaps you remember painstakingly practicingyour penmenship until you could write it perfectly. Or perhaps you rememberfilling out worksheets, sort of mad-libs, fill in the blank style that taughtyou a bit about what makes a compelling story tick. Or perhaps, like me, youremember the incessant chant that your teacher or your mother would keep saying—”who,what, when, where, why, and how”?

Who. What. When. Where. Why.How. These are the pieces of information that make even the simplest shortstory make sense. And this is true for not just short stories—novels, series,t.v. shows, any good public relations statement… we need to know who, what,when, where, why, and how. It’s part of what makes us tick.

And this gospel lesson fromLuke certainly has all of those pieces.

Who? Jesus, and 72 disciples.

What? Jesus sending 72 disciplesin pairs.

When? Now, already. Get amove on it!

Where? To every town andplace where he was going.

Why? Because the harvest ofthe kingdom is plentiful and the laborers are few.

How?  No purse, no bag, no sandals, no idlechitchat, with urgency, with purpose and focus.

And from there, the story feels like it goes into a list of instructions: here’s how you interact with people who want to hear the good news. Here’s how you respond to people who will not hear what you have to say.  

“The Lord appointed seventyothers and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where hehimself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, butthe laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send outlaborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambsinto the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no oneon the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace to this house!' And ifanyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; butif not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinkingwhatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move aboutfrom house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eatwhat is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, `The kingdomof God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do notwelcome you, go out into its streets and say, `Even the dust of your town thatclings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: thekingdom of God has come near.'”

What do you hear?

When I read this, I keep comingaround to that unmistakable, sinking feeling that this is just one giant to-dolist. Yes, it’s a great story, and it tells us who, what, when, where, why andhow. But there’s so much detail here that I think it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

And you know, I think thereason I feel overwhelmed, and perhaps you do to, is because it feels like there’sjust so much to accomplish. There’s so much to do. So many people to share thegood news with. So many people who are not going to be interested. So manypeople who might be interested if perhaps we could just muster up enoughcourage to say something. And so many requirements—no purse, no bag, no extrapairs of shoes, no other distractions.

Part of me just wants to giveup right now. Lord, you have the wrong person. I can’t do all of this.

I can’t do all of this.

But I wonder, if that’s notthe whole point. I wonder if acknowledging the fact that I can’t do all of thisis, perhaps, the right response.

I think it’s really easy inan individualist culture to hear a lesson like this, and feel overwhelmed becauseI can’t possibly, as one person, manage all of this. If our filter, the lensthrough which we see the world is set on applying everything as personally aspossible, then of COURSE this feels like too much.

Because it is too much forone person. And we might say, yes, of course. That’s why the 72 were sent outin pairs. But it seems like an awful lot, even for seventy-two people dividedinto pairs.

It’s too much because it wasn’tmeant to be done alone. It wasn’t even meant to be done just in pairs. “TheLord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to everytown and place where he himself intended to go.”

He sent them on ahead of himto every place where he himself intended to go.

I’ve read this passage so manytimes over the years, and I’ve never noticed that little line. In the midst oftelling this important story about telling the good news, and what it means tobe a disciple and an evangelist, Luke thinks it’s important for us to know thatJesus only sent the disciples to where he intended to follow later.

He sent them on ahead of himto every place where he himself intended to go.

It’s almost as if, in myindividualist desire for self-sufficiency, and a checklist of who what whenwhere why, and how to get this evangelism job done, I missed, really, theentire point of why I was going to a town, or city, or neighborhood, or friend’shome in the first place.

What’s important here is thatthe disciples are not only sent out to do this work, but that reporting back toJesus and checking the evangelism box is not the end of the story. The seventytwo evangelists, as we might call them, go out knowing that the work they do isimportant, but they do it knowing that Jesus will soon follow them into thesame place, the same village, the same city and neighborhood.

I think what’s sometimesintimidating about the idea of evangelism is that we have to do it allourselves. That we have to grab a friend and put on suits and knock on doors. Thatwe have to go stand on a street corner and figure out what kind of sign tocarry. But in reality, evangelism is more than just doing these things.Evangelism can be entering the spaces that you already inhabit, theneighborhoods that you already visit with intentionality.

Intentional evangelism. That’swhat Jesus is giving instructions for—to be aware of who is willing to hear,who is curious. To be aware of who isn’t ready, and to respond without anger.To be focused, ready to share. And most importantly, to walk into wherever you’recalled to be knowing that it’s not all on you. Because Jesus is following us. Andour work, as evangelists--and yes, you are an evangelist---is to intentionallyfind ways to engage this story—this marvelous insane story of Christ’s love—in theplaces we find ourselves.

So as you prepare to go outinto the world today, consider what spaces you’re called to be an evangelist in.Where are we preparing the way for Jesus to enter?