CHURCH

LUTHERAN

Our Savior's of Elderon

7TH PENTECOST 16       INI   LUKE 10:1-11, 16-20

                An old farmer was sitting on the front steps of his tumble down shack chewing on a stem of timothy grass. His cloths were ragged and he was barefoot. A stranger who was passing by saw him there and stopped to ask him for a drink of water. The stranger tried to start a conversation with the farmer so he asked him; “How is your cotton coming in this weather?” “Ain’t got none,” replied the farmer. “Didn’t you plant any?” asked the stranger. “Nope,” said the farmer. “Afraid of weevils.”

                “Well,” asked the stranger, “How’s your corn doing?” “Didn’t plant none,” said the farmer.  “Fraid weren’t goin to be no rain.” “Well, what did you plant,” asked the stranger. “Nothing,” replied the farmer. “just played it safe.”

                       As a church member approached the pearly gates St. Peter asked him how many seeds of faith, how many seeds of the Gospel he planted while he was on earth. “None,” the church member said. “I just played it safe. I was afraid people would think that I was trying to show them I was better than they were. Others knew I wasn’t but I didn’t want to be called a hypocrite. Besides, I don’t really know that much about faith, Jesus and salvation and telling others about it. And come to think of it, isn’t that what we pay the pastor to do? Isn’t he the one who’s supposed to go out and plant those seeds of faith, to go out and win souls for Christ?  Then the church member said to St. Peter; “As I look beyond the gates, I don’t see many people moving about, why is that?” St Peter replied; “Oh, that’s an easy question to answer. There were so few laborers, so few seeds were sown, that the harvest was never brought in.

                Our text for today deals with a subject that we in the Lutheran church have not dealt with in a very effective way. That subject is witnessing for Christ, the subject of telling others about Jesus. Far too many of us are like that old farmer in our story, who just played it safe. He wasn’t willing to try, he wasn’t willing to take a chance, so he had no crop, and no harvest.

                Many are in the same boat when it comes to telling others about Jesus. We aren’t willing to risk, to take a chance, to plant the seed and as a result there is no harvest. We’re afraid of what others might think, we’re afraid of our own lack of knowledge. We’re afraid we might be called names or made fun of, we don’t see the task of witnessing as our responsibility. We like to think it’s someone else’s job.

                Notice that in our Gospel Jesus send out 70 to witness by saying; The kingdom of God has come near to you.  Jesus sent out those 70 men because everyone in the kingdom of God, all believers, have a responsibility to tell others of their salvation. He knew he would be leaving this earth and the only way people would hear about his love for them and the salvation he was providing, his sacrifice, was for the disciples to tell others. So he sent them out to practice, to get a feeling for what they would be doing after he was gone.

                Notice, though, that Jesus does not say that witnessing will be easy.  Instead he tells the disciples they’ll be like lambs among a pack of wolves. He tells them what to say when people accept them and what to say and do when people reject them. Jesus knew that not everyone would accept the good news of the kingdom. But most important, Jesus wanted his disciples, the 70, to get out among people and tell them about their salvation.

                The term for witnessing for Jesus, telling others about him, is “evangelism.” A theologian by the name of D.T. Niles, wrote; “Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find food.”

                We are all sinners which means we all need Jesus and the salvation he won for us by his perfect life in our place and his innocent suffering and death. Jesus knows all people need him and so he’s counting on us to tell others about his saving grace. He wants us to tell others how his grace has changed our lives.

He wants us to tell them what he did so they can have forgiveness of sins, so they can go to heaven when life on this earth is done. He wants us to tell them that forgiveness of sin and eternal life in heaven are theirs as a free gift through faith. And that even faith is a free gift the Holy Spirit works through Word and Sacrament. He wants us to share this Good News with others, to pass the food of the Gospel on to others.

                Jesus wants us to be like the ants in the following story.

A group of missionaries were sitting, visiting and having tea.  Suddenly, an ant appeared on the white tablecloth and made its way to one of the tea plates. It walked around it but didn’t find anything to eat so it headed for the sugar basin. After eating some sugar, it left with a piece of sugar in its mouth. It went down the table leg, along the floor and disappeared under a door.

                Not long afterwards, it returned with lots of other ants. Led by the first ant they climbed up the table leg and across the table to the sugar basin. After they had all eaten their fill they left, each left with a piece of sugar in their mouth. Later, a whole swarm of ants came for the sugar.

                Jesus wants us to be like that first ant. After we’ve experienced the love of Christ in our lives he wants us to pass it on, spread the good news of Jesus. He wants us to talk to others so they can experience the good news of Jesus in their lives. So they can enjoy the peace of forgiveness and God’s help in this life and the assurance that heaven awaits them.

                A pastor gathered a selected group of workers to train them to witness for Jesus. A young worker was talking to a man who had been witnessing for Christ for many years. He was complaining about some of the people he had visited. “I tried to tell them about all that Jesus did for us, I tried to tell them about the love of Jesus. I tried to tell them about the salvation Jesus won for them on the cross. But they’re not interested. They just don’t seem to care.”

                The seasoned witness replied; “I am a poor old man and must stagger under this load of firewood that I had so much trouble cutting.  I can’t feel God’s love. I can’t feel if God is caring for my burdens.  I can’t feel his grace for me.”

                The elderly witness then said to the young man, “My son, if you had offered to carry his load of wood for him he would have listened to what you had to say because he wouldn’t have just heard about God’s love for him but he would have seen an illustration of it in you.”

                Are you willing to carry someone else’s burdens?  Not only during crisis in their lives but also in the ordinary, everyday experiences of cutting wood for the fire? Are you willing to get involved with people on a day to day bases? Are you willing to be truly concerned about them, their faith, their relationship to Jesus?

                Are you willing to be as Luther said, Little Christ’s out in the world?” Are you willing to be with people, to be concerned not only about their earthly lives but also their eternal destiny?

                A general speaking of his soldiers made the comment, “Don’t send me any more of your lukewarm men.” Jesus is saying the same thing in our text. He doesn’t want his followers to be lukewarm. Instead he wants them to be willing to take a chance, to go out and spread the good news of salvation through faith in Christ to all the world.

                He wants us to reach out to those who are staggering under the burdens of life. Reach out to them and show them God’s grace. That might just mean we have to help them carry their burden, to walk beside them in their journey through life.

                Are there lonely people out there who could use a visit from you? Are there sick and dying who could use a prayer and a kind word? Are there those who are grieving, trying to move on, but they can’t seem to get passed their loss?

                The answer to all these questions is “yes.”  And you could be the answer to their lives. You can bring the voice of hope and comfort, the voice of Jesus to those who are struggling. You can bring them God’s peace through Jesus their Savior.

                But, that takes someone who is willing to take a risk. Not someone like the farmer in the beginning of the sermon who was afraid to plant anything because it might not grow.  No we need to take a risk, to go to people, to walk with them, help them carry their burden, to assure them of God’s grace.

                A man was all nice and clean and cooled off after a nice swim. Then he saw a man and his 2 sons trying to push a disable car up a hill. The weather was hot and humid.

                Two voices in his head started yelling at him. One said; “This is a chance for you to help someone, you ought to go help push.” The other voice said; “This is none of your business. You’ll get all hot and sweaty and dirty. Let them handle it, it’s their problem.”

                The man listened to the first voice and helped push the car. The father stuck out his dirty hand to shake the man’s hand.  “I’m very glad you came along. You had just enough strength that when added to ours we could make it over the top of the hill.”

                Are you willing to take a risk, to get yourself dirty for others so they might have a life that is full and rich, so they might know Jesus as their Lord and Savior? Amen.