“Today
is holy to the LORD your God. Do not be
sad, and do not weep”– for all the people were weeping as they heard the words
of the law. He said further: “Go, eat
rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing
prepared; for today is holy to our LORD.
Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD must be your
strength!” Nehemiah
8:9B-10
He
said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the
master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like
lambs among wolves.
Luke 10:2-3
Piety
Receive
me, Lord, as you have promised, and I shall live; do not disappoint me in my
hope (Psalm 119:116).
Study
With 800,000 Federal employees (including this humble
writer) on an indefinite furlough, for a nanosecond, I thought about saying
something about my colleagues who have been deemed “essential” or non-exempt
from furlough. During the current
government crisis, they have the privilege of working without getting
paid. A few laborers to harvest the work
of the nation.
But that may be a coincidental analogy. Upon reflection, it’s not the focus of this
reading from Luke. For that, the Holy
Spirit gave me a special scene to witness yesterday.
Jesus sent his disciples out two-by-two. Jesus knew that sending workers out into the
field alone would be a great risk. Maybe
they would be injured or beaten up.
Maybe they would be discouraged when their efforts were in vain. Sending the disciples out in pairs might help
assure that they would both be safe and not get depressed or sad.
Nehemiah had another solution…live it up! Nehemiah advised his followers to eat rich
food. Drink sweet drinks. Every ordinary day is holy to the Lord. What is ordinary in our eyes is extraordinary
in the Lord’s eyes. So every day is a
day to celebrate.
Yesterday (Wednesday October 2) we had temperatures
reaching a high of 88F. On a bike ride
to Ashburn, I stopped to rest at a picnic table where there were several groups
of people. Some wore biking attire and
when finished, they headed back onto the trail.
They had work to do to get to the end of the road and back to their
homes. Some had business attire. After finishing a tempting rack of ribs
(Carolina Barbecue is at mile 27 of the Washington & Old Dominion Trail),
they would be heading back to work – filled with those ribs, macaroni and cheese,
potato salad, and other rich foods. They
had work to do. Off in the distance were two young men wearing dark
slacks, white shirts and neckties. They
had the telltale signs of being on their missionary year for another
church. They took turns snapping digital
pictures of each other in front of the big smoking grills out front. They had the look of young men who had traveled far from their homes to do this work. Maybe they wanted to send souvenir photos home or
post images to their social media sites. After
their lunch and “modeling” session, they went back to modeling another type of
behavior for us -- knocking on doors two-by-two, passing out literature for their
church and speaking to whomever would listen.
THAT is what Luke and Jesus are talking about. Not some political-economic crisis. They are talking about going out and being an
itinerant preacher just as Jesus was on every ordinary day.
Action
We make a lot of appointments. Meeting up with a co-worker for drinks after
work. Meeting up with a family member to
do some shopping. Meeting up with a
contractor or worker to get some task done around the house. Have we ever made the kind of appointment and
commitment of those two young men – who have given up a year (or more) of their
life to live far from home and every day pick up their duty assignment for
evangelization in a new neighborhood? Just think how hard it is for us to recruit friends for
a Cursillo weekend. Imagine how much
harder it is to talk to complete strangers!
Who will you talk to about Christ today? How will you talk to them? And remember, always speak to Christ about
someone before speaking to someone about Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment