18 Oct 2014 - Lucan out for our brothers

Luke the Evangelist

Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.

That includes us! He calls us friends:

I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father (cf. Joh. 15:15).

That means we need to start making known the good news which Jesus tells us. We worry that we aren't qualified but we emphatically do not need to wait until we feel ready to get out into the fields. On our own we'll keep stockpiling money, sacks, and sandals, and never actually leave.

behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;

It doesn't depend on our resources. The important stuff isn't complicated. God loves us. He died so that we can be with him forever. He wants to give us the power to live the lives we are meant to live by his Holy Spirit.

The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.

Jesus wants us to have a genuine concern that all of the crop be harvested. None should go to waste because of a labor shortage. The glorious splendor of the Kingdom is so glorious that it hurts Jesus to see crops wither without that light. His own precious blood is such nourishment for the harvest that it causes him grief to see a drought that need not be.

He calls us to focus. He calls this mission to be such a priority that we don't look to the left or the right but keep our faces set forward toward

 greet no one along the way.

Yet even though we are facing forward it is still important that there are those who walk with us side-by-side.

The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.

The support that Luke provides to Paul when he feels abandoned is an example of how important this can be. Whenever possible, we are meant to depend on brothers and sisters who are on the same mission we are.

Luke is the only one with me.

Because they are both focused on the mission they are committed enough to be there for one another. Because they are there for one another they are more able to enter into mission.

The glorious splendor of the Kingdom is the task at hand. It deserves our full attention.

cure the sick in it and say to them,
‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.’”

Let us rely on those God sends alongside us and let us in turn be faithful friends to them. We are empowered to do this because he first calls us friends and sends us out.