Do all of you remember the Flintstones? I remember a recurring theme in the show that bedeviled Fred Flintstone. It went like this: Fred had two options, a virtuous option, and a not so virtuous option, and poof, on his shoulders would appear two versions of himself, one with angelic wings and a halo, and another with horns and a pitchfork. The devilish Fred Flintstone would encourage Fred to be selfish, and to act based on his own will. The angelic version of Fred would help him to make a virtuous decision which usually was for the good of those close to Fred. The show typically had Fred initially listen to the devilish version of himself, soon realizing the error of his ways, Fred would make an about face, and fix the problem he created by following the advice from his angelic side.
I am sure this cartoon heavily influenced me as a young child because I remember vividly being yelled at by my parents, after doing something wrong. I remember them asking me this question, “Why did you do that?” I would look up at them, and say, with a straight face, “The devil made me do it.”
I think, I thought by saying that, it would cause them to realize that I was, in fact, the victim in all this, and some wily supernatural trickster was the one to blame, so maybe it is he who they should be spanking.
Being a father of three amazing children, I can say now that I have great sympathy for my parents.
I have found myself saying something to my children, I think every day, for so long now that I cannot remember when I said it the first time. See if this sounds familiar to you: “How many times do I have to tell you not to…” You can insert whatever you want that pertains to your family. Recently, every time I say those words, I immediately see God repeating those very words back to me.
In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he says, “God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” What Paul speaks of in Galatians is the field for which Jesus sends out his seventy disciples in today’s Gospel text.
Pay attention to some key points. Jesus sends them out to prepare towns for Jesus’s arrival, and he tells them to greet no one on the road, which is an indication that their mission is urgent. Jesus tells them to heal the sick and to declare to both those who reject them and who accept them, the same message, that the Kingdom of God has come near.
Jesus sends the disciples to do this with one essential modifier: he tells them they are to be “as lambs in the midst of wolves.” As many of you know, lambs, like children, are at their best when they follow the direction of their shepherd. The seventy are sent out into the camps of the enemy. They are sent out by perfect goodness, Our Lord, to confront an evil world. Jesus arms them with the peace of God, with the discipline to stay with whom they are called to stay with and not to wander from house to house, and to peacefully walk away from those by whom they are rejected. He teaches them they are not the ones being rejected, but that Jesus is the one whom they reject. Jesus is teaching how to sow to the Spirit.
How would you instinctively go out into the territory of the enemy? Would you tie a red handkerchief around your forehead, strap a row of machine gun bullets to your chest, and have on combat boots like Rambo? Or perhaps you have a more intellectual way of handling the enemy; in that case, maybe your plan is to belittle them and prove how stupid they are, and how your way of life is far superior to theirs. Those ways of engaging others are the ways we sow to our own flesh. That’s us listening to the devil on our shoulders.
The reason sowing to the spirit works, and sowing to the flesh does not, is because we are inherently selfish creatures, with our self-interests at the forefront of our minds, and if you don’t believe this, I have a few books on world history I will happily lend you. When we sow to the flesh, we pervert good. We take what is meant to be good, and we use it for our selfish desires. The evil in our world, and each of our lives, comes from taking the good God provides us, and using it for our self-gratification, and not to the glory of and for the glory of the source of that goodness which is God. As the seventy return to Jesus, they are excited that even the demons are subject to them, but Jesus corrects them – not to rejoice in overcoming evil, but to rejoice in the source of goodness, that through His grace their names are written in heaven. Jesus focuses them on the good, on His love.
What we should learn from the sending of the seventy is that when we engage with those who do not yet know Our Lord, or with those who actively persecute Christians, or with those who hate the church, we should not engage with them like a conquering army or an arrogant apologist. We should engage them by keeping Jesus’s commandment to love God and to love our neighbors. We are called to be as lambs among wolves, or as Matthew puts it, to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.
When we engage the world, when we engage those who are hostile to our faith or confused by it, we must engage them with love, engage them with humility, and treat them as a brother or sister. It is that kind of laborer Jesus needs to collect the harvest. The harvest is as plentiful today as it was two thousand years ago. What will you do? Trample it by sowing to the flesh, or collect it, as an offering to God by sowing to the Spirit?
Sermon preached by the Rev. Christian M. Wood
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
4th Sunday after Pentecost
7 July 2019