July 8, 2007
Pentecost VI

Witnessing

In today's gospel we read that Jesus commissioned 70 disciples to go forth and proclaim the peace of God to every place that they entered, to bless those they meet and to heal those who are around them and to proclaim to all that the Kingdom of God is near to them. He acknowledges that the harvest is plentiful and that the laborers are few and he follows that statement with "therefore ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way; see I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves".

The instruction that Jesus gives to the 70 disciples was to take nothing with them when they go to do the works of God; no hat or coat, no purse or sandals, no item that a man may trust in, but rather to go with only his word as their tools and his presence as their protection.

We are called to proclaim and to show the healing love of God, to reach out to anyone who will listen and tell them the Kingdom of God is near; to reach out to all those around us and show them by our healing and tender care, that the power of God is at hand.

There is a great need for people to feel the power of God in their lives and to hear that the Kingdom of God is near to them and its resources are available to them in their daily lives.

Jesus sent his disciples and now he sends us out to do this job of witnessing to God's love and care without human tools, without human protection, and without human security because this is the only way in which the job can really get done. We can accomplish all these only to the extent that we really trust in God. It is our own trust in God that others in fact can see, experience and live with the knowledge that God is present and that truly the Kingdom of God is at hand."

Silito

Take a look at some of the previous messages from the Rector