Paul's letter to the Colossians contains a well known litany describing Jesus as the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation. The litany ends with the statement that God has brought peace through the blood of the cross.
Paul's litany is a response and challenge to Rome. The Roman Empire in Paul's time ruled the Colossians in Asia Minor along with pretty much everyone else in the known world. The Roman Empire promoted a sort of civic religion and the focal point of that religion was adoration of Roma, the very embodiment of the Roman state. All the citizens of Rome were required to worship the image of Roma and swear allegiance to Rome and everything Rome represented: power, dominance, progress, economic security, and order.
Rome perpetuated and ensured conformity to Rome by terror. Crucifixion was the central element of Roman terror. Crucifixion was used only for political dissidents; those who challenged Rome's sovereignty and the rationality of Roman rule. Crucifixion was all about control.
Paul conceptualized the emerging Jesus movement as set against Rome and everything that Rome represented. The Church was also centered in the cross, which became through Christ, not an instrument of terror, but an instrument of reconciliation. God used the cross not to destroy Rome, but to seek Rome's reconciliation with God. And through the cross, God reveals the inadequacy and idiocy of Rome's notions of rationality and progress.
Supporting the work and mission of Caney Spring United Methodist Church and Berlin United Methodist Church, two churches partnered in the ministry of making disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world, located in Marshall County, Tennessee.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Looking at the Commissioning of the Seventy from the Other Side
In Luke's gospel, Jesus commissions seventy missionaries to proclaim Jesus' message. The seventy are sent out two by two to places where Jesus had not yet gone. The seventy later return with positive results.
Sermons on the commissioning of the seventy normally looks at the story from the perspective and role of the seventy, remarking on the need for courage and diligence in responding to God's call and proclaiming Jesus' message. Another way to look at the commissioning is from the perspective of the townspeople who hear the message from the seventy proclaimed.
Consider yourself from the perspective of the townspeople. You have no prior exposure to Jesus' message. You have never met the two individuals who enter your town. Remember that this is in a cultural setting and a time in history where it was rare to travel very far outside your birthplace. If you were a devout Jew, the message would have sounded heretical and would have stood in the face of everything that you had ever been taught. Similarly, if the town where the seventy entered was outside the boundaries of Israel, the teachings of Jesus, grounded in Judaism, would have seemed even more strange and alien.
The willingness of the townspeople who heard the seventy to listen to the message of Jesus and embrace it required greater virtue than then willingness of the seventy to be commissioned. Embracing Jesus' message would have required open minds and open hearts that were willing to set aside everything that had previously been known, practiced, and embraced, and hear something new.
I don't think that Christian people today would have done very well with the seventy. We have become extremely set in our ways of thinking about God. We are sure that we have it all figured out. At best, we are willing to listen when the message comes to us in a setting that is well established for the proclamation of God's word (i.e. Church), and when the message is delivered in a way that conforms with our preconceived understandings of God using language that we are familiar with.
As the Church, we have to be willing to listen for God's Word that will speak to us outside of our preconceived notions of where, when, and how God is supposed to speak. If we are willing to listen, there is no telling what wondrous things God has to share with us.
Sermons on the commissioning of the seventy normally looks at the story from the perspective and role of the seventy, remarking on the need for courage and diligence in responding to God's call and proclaiming Jesus' message. Another way to look at the commissioning is from the perspective of the townspeople who hear the message from the seventy proclaimed.
Consider yourself from the perspective of the townspeople. You have no prior exposure to Jesus' message. You have never met the two individuals who enter your town. Remember that this is in a cultural setting and a time in history where it was rare to travel very far outside your birthplace. If you were a devout Jew, the message would have sounded heretical and would have stood in the face of everything that you had ever been taught. Similarly, if the town where the seventy entered was outside the boundaries of Israel, the teachings of Jesus, grounded in Judaism, would have seemed even more strange and alien.
The willingness of the townspeople who heard the seventy to listen to the message of Jesus and embrace it required greater virtue than then willingness of the seventy to be commissioned. Embracing Jesus' message would have required open minds and open hearts that were willing to set aside everything that had previously been known, practiced, and embraced, and hear something new.
I don't think that Christian people today would have done very well with the seventy. We have become extremely set in our ways of thinking about God. We are sure that we have it all figured out. At best, we are willing to listen when the message comes to us in a setting that is well established for the proclamation of God's word (i.e. Church), and when the message is delivered in a way that conforms with our preconceived understandings of God using language that we are familiar with.
As the Church, we have to be willing to listen for God's Word that will speak to us outside of our preconceived notions of where, when, and how God is supposed to speak. If we are willing to listen, there is no telling what wondrous things God has to share with us.
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