Think of a time you were a guest in someone’s home, and they lovingly served something that you’d not only never eaten before, but that you would never consider eating.  It’s not one of a series of choices, it’s what they put on your plate in front of you. We were taught as children and we teach our children, be polite!  Eat it!  Don’t make a face.  Be gracious.  Be grateful.  The most extreme example of this that I know of comes from the Peace Corps experience of one of our young adults who served in Malawi.  She was welcomed as an honored guest in the impoverished village to which she was assigned.  She was invited to dinner by grateful villagers and served mouse on a stick.  She dutifully ate it with a smile on her face. 

The closest I’ve come isn’t very close.  Years ago we had an elderly couple of church friends; the wife was very ill and the husband was her tender caretaker in the home for years.  I’d visit with Holy Communion, and there would always be fresh-baked something for us to enjoy.  (The husband is quite a baker.)  He assumed I drink coffee (maybe because I’m Lutheran J), and there’d always be a fresh-brewed pot and a cup of coffee for me served in a beautiful china coffee cup.    I briefly debated whether I should tell him I don’t drink coffee, but he’d gone to such pains to be such a kind host, I chose not to.  And you know what?  I enjoyed the coffee I shared with Warren!  I think it was flavored by his loving devotion to his wife Betty and his deep appreciation for the Lord’s Supper I brought and for our time together, a little oasis in a world that illness had shrunk considerably. 

Remember what Jesus says in today’s Gospel, His advice to the earliest Christian missionaries?  “Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you….”  He didn’t have mouse on a stick or coffee in mind – more like pork, shrimp, the whole world of Gentile food and beverages that weren’t kosher.  In other words: forget keeping Kosher, forget the cleanliness laws, just be sure to preach the Gospel!  If we’re invited into someone’s home and we reject their offer of food and drink, we are not in table fellowship with them, and that is the heart of community, eating and drinking together.  My companion is literally the one with whom I break bread.  If I reject your offer of hospitality, are you really going to hear anything else I have to say??

Jesus is telling His followers, “I am calling you to go beyond your comfort zone,” not just in matters of cuisine.    Be open to the Holy Spirit taking you to new places, introducing you to new people, in foreign contexts.  Be willing to put yourself in a position where you’ll be scared, then ask the Holy Spirit for courage.  I saw a great quote recently: “Ships are safe in port, but that’s not what they’re for.” 

Go beyond your comfort zone, but don’t go alone.  We’ve got this whole animals-on-the-ark scenario, disciples heading out 2 by 2.  It’s probably not a coincidence that Jewish law required at least 2 witnesses in trial cases.   Also, the ancient world wasn’t a safe place to travel.  As we’ll be reminded in an upcoming Gospel, it was easy to end up dead or in a ditch while traveling on the road to Jericho….  So strength in numbers made sense for travelers – even if the number was 2 and not a whole caravan of people.

We’re not meant to do God’s work alone either.  It’s why we have teams for various church ministries.   A pretty good metaphor is that one voice does not make a choir.  Even if it seems like we’re working alone on some things, that’s never the reality, because whatever we’re doing, even if it seems brand new, is rooted in something that came before, in work someone has done previously.  In Scripture we often find the metaphor of sowing seed and eventually harvesting a crop.  We have it in both today’s epistle from Galatians and our Gospel from St. Luke.  In the Gospel Jesus says:

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”  (Luke 10:2)

When I was little I’d hear that and think of “praying for vocations”: asking God to call people to professional ministry, priests and sisters, since I was in a Roman Catholic context.  Ask anyone who works at our bishop’s office, and they’ll confirm that the laborers are few; there is a true shortage of ordained ministers, priests and deacons alike, in our ELCA and in our NJ Synod.  But ask anyone who serves on a committee, task force or team of any kind here at Holy Trinity, and they’ll let you know that volunteer lay laborers are too few, as well!    Youth & Family Ministry is looking for teachers for our new Saturday evening 5th-6th grade class, as well as for traditional Sunday morning Sunday School.  Deacon Ned’s looking for camera operators, especially for 8:45 worship.  Worship & Music is looking for someone to fill the altar candles, torches, and eternal light with oil, so those lights of Christ don’t gutter out!  Social Ministry would be so grateful for more helping hands with healing service luncheons, especially in the summer.  Care Corps is always grateful for folks who can set up, serve, clean up after lunch or refreshments following memorial services, like Louise’s last Tuesday or Chris’ this coming Saturday. 

In keeping with the theme of harvest, Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians:

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.  So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith. (Galatians 6:9-10)

I frequently insert that final verse at the end of our weekly Gift Given in the printed announcements.  The Message contemporary version puts it this way:

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good.  At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.  Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

 It’s just plain human to get discouraged at points.  Maybe it’ll help to remember Jesus didn’t bat 1,000 either!  A couple weeks ago we heard how the Gerasenes begged him to leave the neighborhood after He performed an exorcism on the man possessed by a “Mob” of demons.  Last week He called a man to follow who asked for a rain check to catch up after he buried his father.  He prepares His own disciples for the rejection that’s bound to come, advising them to shake the dust of those towns off their sandals before they haul out of there.  He even describes His followers as being sent out “like lambs among wolves”  (Luke 10:3), not much of a sales pitch.  After all, in that scenario, who’s betting on the lambs to come out ahead? 

And yet, our Lord tells the returning, rejoicing seventy, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.”  (Luke 10:18)  Lambs do not survive close encounters with wolves unless God is on their side.  The praying Jesus urged those early missionaries to do, and the intercession He offered with the Father, led to amazing results: open minds, open hearts, to the Gospel.  In the midst of the disciples chest-thumping about the success of their missionary journeys, Jesus tells them, “…do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20)

One of our church friends recently traveled abroad and sent me a photo from a Danish cathedral of an imposing statue of St. George on horseback, atop the dragon which represents Satan.  An explanation directs the worshiper to follow the line of St. George’s sight: it is not on the dragon he is about to strike with his sword but on Christ hanging on a nearby crucifix.  “In medieval times it was thought that a human being could fight evil, but could only ever get it onto its back.  To crush evil, God’s help was needed.  So St. George now raises his eyes to gain power to administer the killer blow.” 

With God all things are possible – eating a mouse on a stick, surviving rejection, serving wholeheartedly on the most difficult days.  “Preach the Gospel.  If necessary, use words.”  Amen

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