After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town."
The other day I was with a group from church and we were thumbing through an old hymnal looking for a song. We don't use hymnals anymore and haven't for 15 years, when we built our new building and the chairs we ordered to replace the old pews showed up without racks for placing either the hymnals or communion cups.
Tucked inside the pages of that old hymnal was the order of worship from our last service in the old church a decade and a half ago. I had never seen the order of service and had not given it any thought before. I was amazed.
We had been in between senior pastors and so Stephanie Nash, another pastor on staff, preached the sermon. "Packing Light" was her sermon title. And she just happened to be with our little group thumbing through the hymnal, so she could tell us what she had said on that last Sunday.
Like the 72 in today's lesson, the congregation was being sent out. And the instructions were to pack light -- as in to pack only what could be taken. There were movements in the service of recognizing all the liturgical elements that would be packed and taken along for the journey -- the cross, the dove above the sanctuary, etc. The rest would have to be left behind with the old building. To move forward, much would have to be left behind. The pews with the hymnal and communion racks were just one example.
But there was another meaning to her title "Packing Light". The church was not only needing to pack light; they were also needing to pack Light -- as in the Light.
We all have to Pack Light at some point in our lives. We are sent out, whether willingly or not, from the safe and secure world we have known and into the unknown. We cannot take everything. We have to leave much behind. There is grief in this. There is trepidation. There is darkness and unknown.
But there is something else. There is Light. There is the Light of the world. And it goes with us. And that is enough.
A good word for our church on that last Sunday in the old building. A good for us anytime.
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