{"id":286,"date":"2019-07-07T13:50:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T13:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=286"},"modified":"2019-07-08T01:52:59","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T01:52:59","slug":"fourth-sunday-after-pentecost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/07\/07\/fourth-sunday-after-pentecost\/","title":{"rendered":"Fourth Sunday after Pentecost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are\nthere 70 of us here? How many did you count? It really doesn\u2019t matter. I\u2019m not\nJesus and you are not first century Jesus followers, following a man that you saw\nwith your own eyes and heard with your own ears. Still, there is something\nabout today\u2019s Gospel reading that reaches to the heart of our faith and commitment\nto Jesus Christ. The faith of that 70 must have been great. Jesus told them to\ngo out in twos to spread the word of Jesus; Jesus told them to go out just as\nthey were, with no provisions, no money, no extra cloak and to go barefoot and\nthey did it. How about I send you out, dividing all of you into twos? A couple\ndifferences. You can wear shoes and you can go back to stay at your own homes\nat night; you can even go to your jobs during your normal work hours. So, let\u2019s\nsee! You two, I want you to go to the north side of Phoenixville, to the newer\ndevelopments and share the good news of Jesus Christ. And you two I want you to\ngo to the development at Beyer\u2019s Station. And you two, I want you to go to the\nMerlin Hills section. And you two, I want you to go to the Weatherstone\ndevelopment. And you and you, I would like you to go to Freedom Village; the\nrest of you I will get to in a minute. I want all of you to share the good news\nof Jesus Christ and invite those that you meet to join with us in ministry, if\nnot here at St. Peter\u2019s, at any church they want. What do you think?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Well)\nMaybe I can\u2019t really send you this way, as I said, I am not Jesus, but can you\nimagine how you would feel were I to have such authority and do this for real? Think\nabout it. The idea of doing such a thing is both scary and exhilarating. I\u2019ve done\nit; I\u2019ve gone out, knocking on the doors of people that I didn\u2019t know; one\nafter another. I\u2019ve been yelled at for knocking on people\u2019s doors, welcomed\ninto homes, shushed away by people looking through their blinds, been ignored\nand also listened to. I\u2019ve also stood up before groups of people (not in\nchurch) to talk about Jesus. And again, I received a variety of reactions, some\nblank stares, some intent listening and had people ignore me or go away unhappy\nthat I had the nerve to speak at all. Going out into the world the way that\nJesus asked the 70, is no easy task, even for the most outgoing of individuals.\nBut something happened when the 70 went out into the community. Jesus had given\nthem extraordinary powers and gifts to help them on their missionary journeys,\ngifts needed in a time of miracles and superstition. And they had tremendous\nsuccess; they healed, they exercised demons, they shared the good news of\nJesus. Jesus himself said, that he saw Satan falling from the heavens, because\nof their ministry. We have a great message to offer. The Psalm we read talked\nabout our reasons to rejoice and Isaiah reminded Israel how God had brought\nthem back out of bondage; the message of Jesus includes a message of love and\nforgiveness and salvation. Times and people are different today, no doubt, but\nthey need the same kinds of good news as shared by the 70. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nmay not be the best use of your time and talents to ask you to go door to door\nor find some central location to stand there and preach. Today politicians,\nperformers, athletes and news writers and personalities have followers in the\nmillions who read their tweets. Technology has made it possible to communicate\nwith more people at one time than we could make contact with, using our feet\nand mouths, in all of our combined lifetimes.  Thank you to our members and friends who got\nour website and facebook page up and running. How much more could we accomplish,\nwere we to share our message of Christian love, by tweeting it to our president\nand to the other politicians and personalities, telling them about the love of\nChrist as it is being shared here in St. Peter\u2019s and the need for all people to\nstart treating others with love, mercy and forgiveness, rather than embracing\nthe hostility that seems to be taking our world over. Those of you who tweet,\nor use facebook, or snapchat, or write letters, or call their elected officials\ncan accomplish much more than you think; public forums today are housed as much\nin technology as in the community. But that does not mean that contact on a one-to-one\nbasis is no longer effective. The ministry of Jesus Christ is greatly enhanced\nby the friendly sharing of the stories of our ministry and fellowship and\nopportunities for worship and Christian education with those with whom we are\nacquainted. You never know, who there might be, who lives in your immediate\ncommunity, that might be looking for a church and a way to participate in\nministry, until you lean over your fence and talk with your neighbor.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nthen, think about the idea that you called me as your pastor, and so, maybe I\ndo have at least a semblance of the authority to send you out; you kind-of gave\nit to me. Still times today are different, people do not like being preached at\nand it seems that we today (as those called upon to share the good news) do not\nhave the same level of commitment shared by Jesus\u2019 early followers. You today, would\nnot be going out like lambs in the midst of wolves, yet I can\u2019t promise you\nthat you will all be safe. The 70 all came back safe and overjoyed. I also\ncan\u2019t promise you that you will be able to heal the sick, command demons and\nwalk on scorpions and poisonous snakes, or even be as successful as them. Jesus\nsaid he saw Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning because of their\nministry. Our results may not appear quite so dramatic, but if all of us shared\nour satisfaction and joy of being a part of Jesus\u2019 ministry hear at St. Peter\u2019s\nthere would be a dramatic change here at St. Peter\u2019s, and Satan would not be\nhappy. Let your family, neighbors and friends know how happy you are with your\nchurch and its ministry, talk to them, call them, write out a note, send an\nemail, a tweet, put it on facebook. In this way I am now sending you out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Are there 70 of us here? How many did you count? It really doesn\u2019t matter. I\u2019m not Jesus and you are not first century Jesus followers, following a man that you saw with Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions\/287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}