Claimed, gathered and sent

Gospel: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 1 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But ...

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 6/30 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Luke 9:51-62. We have come to a turning point in Luke’s gospel. Jesus is on his last trip to Jerusalem, where he will be “taken up” (v. 51). This refers not only to his crucifixion, but also to the entire event of being arrested, crucified, risen and ascended. Jesus was determined to follow the way of obedience to his Father. He “set his face,” (v. 51), meaning he kept his eye on the prize and nothing would dissuade him from following that path to Jerusalem and all that would happen because of that. I don’t know how many of you were ever in sales. I have been. But…I have to say, Jesus is anything but a good salesman. He doesn’t wrap his product in slick packaging. He doesn’t minimize costs to attract more customers. He doesn’t hide the hard stuff in fine print. He never rushes his pitch to close a deal. Jesus does the opposite. He takes pains to push potential buyers away. “I’ll follo...