When I was in pastoral ministry I tried to make it a point never to repeat a sermon,  although I followed the lectionary so every third year the same text would come up again. But I tried to be fresh.  However this morning, because I had to prepare this last night, I had to go into what pastors’ call "the barrel". So today you are going to get warmed over leftovers. This message was offered back in 1989, the last year in which I was in the pastoral ministry before getting into an administrative post in the district in which I served.

The story that was read for us in the gospel lesson today is really unique to the gospel of Luke. In all of the gospels there are stories of course of Jesus calling the twelve disciples, and then sending them out. And the word that means to be sent out is the word Apostle. So the disciples were called to learn and then they were sent out as Apostles. So when ever you hear that word or see that word Apostle, you know it means those who are sent.

In the gospel according to Luke, those who are sent are 70, and in some text it says 72. But they are to go out ahead of him to every town and place where he himself was about to go. Now we can’t be sure why it is only Luke who reports the sending out of the 70. But that is the way it is. Perhaps it is because Luke was, as we have learned, a physician. So he was concerned about the 70 going out to care for people.

We want to look at this story today of the 70; there are three things I want to lift up about the story. First thing we have to notice is about the condition of the ministry. And the world in which the 70 are sent. For Jesus says there is a large harvest but few workers to gather it in. There is more work to be done than there are people to do it. That is a condition with which we are all familiar. No matter what we do in life it always seems to be true, especially if what we are doing is worthwhile ministry. Like doing good deeds; deeds of mercy and caring. Take for example our work in the church, including the kinds of outreach we get involved in. As I was going over this last night I thought that Open Door is a prime example. Then Joyce reminded me this morning of the work of Stephen Ministry; caring for those who have concerns in their life that are causing them difficulty. Also visiting with the sick and the homebound. Whatever we do, regardless of what it is in the church, there are never enough workers to do the work.

I remember going to a workshop in a church I was serving, and you know when you go to a work shop and you have a leader there is always going to be news print on the wall to give you some idea what it is we are supposed to learn. This leader drew a  huge circle on this piece of news print. He said now this represents the church. And then inside the circle he drew some concentric circles. He kept going down to a tiny little circle in the middle. Now this circle in the middle represents the frantic few. The few who always feel it important to be doing the work of the church. And one of the unfortunate things about this is that the frantic few get very critical of everybody else. Because they feel like they are the only ones doing the work. But what is important for us to see in this story is that Jesus says that this is the way it is. And He doesn’t make any judgments about whether its right or wrong or good or bad. He says this is the way it is. There will always be a frantic few doing the work. And it doesn’t make any difference, I’ve discovered, whether it's in the church or anywhere else. Especially if what we are doing is worthwhile.

I’ve been involved in many social organizations through out my ministry. And in every case it’s always the frantic few who are involved. And what happens very often is that it leads to burn out. Burn out for those who are so heavily involved that they become very tired of the work that they are doing. This is why Jesus says that we need to pray that the Lord will send us more workers. So that we will have more people helping us. One of the concerns we have had with regard to Open Door is that we get more volunteers from other churches. And that other churches begin to join in the help. This was one of the primary motivations for starting the coalition for compassion and justice. Primary motivation was to help other churches to see what we were doing so that they would come in and help us. Especially from those with churches on the outlying part of the city. The point I want to make is that the work is always bigger than we are. And that will always be true. That is the one thing we can depend on, and as unpleasant as it maybe for us to hear, there is a large harvest and few workers to gather it in.

The second is in the story is equally unpleasant to our ears. The 70 are told  'I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.'  It’s a jungle out there. Some of you I’m sure will remember a TV series called Hill Street Blues. Do you remember how it started that every week? It started with the policeman gathered in a room with the chief telling them what they needed to do during the coming day. They gathered to be sent out into the city. As they were given their assignments. They were always urged to be careful out there. It’s a jungle. The world in which we are called to serve has lots of dangers. The work to which we are being called is not easy. And this is not to say of course that we must think negatively of the world. This is God's world out there even though sometimes it’s a jungle. Even though the condition of the world is jungle like, we should not think of this in negative terms. At the same time it helps us to realize that the task of proclaiming God's Kingdom in the world is not easy. It is never easy. Proclaiming God's word is never met without resistance. Jesus never promised a rose garden to his followers.

One of the people I’m indebted to when I look back at my past ministries is a man by the name of Father Claude Duteal who was an Episcopal priest. He graduated from Georgia Tech and was very proud of that. He majored in engineering and then went to study to become a priest in the Episcopal Church. And throughout his life he always struggled with the demon of alcohol. But in the middle of his struggle he started something, which was called the Institute for Human Services. If you catch the acronym there it’s I H S, which is very common in the church: In His Service. Claude began this ministry with a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and some instant coffee in one of the seediest sections of Honolulu that you could imagine. Honolulu does have seedy sections and so does Waikiki. We think of these places as pristine communities. But it's not so. And in this seedy part of Honolulu, Claude started this ministry. And today this ministry goes on. They have a budget of about 2-3 million dollars. They feed about 250 people 3 times a day and they house at least that many every evening: homeless people, people in need, people for whom God cares.

Claude’s ministry was characterized by something that he told us one time. He said we should have tough love but not sloppy agape. Carol reminded me that this hall is called Agape Hall. The kind of love, which gives and does not expect anything in return. Now when I think of tough love we, as clergy are always easy targets for con artists or people who want something out of us. When I was in ministry I was one of the first people to be called when somebody new arrived in town who needed something. And I knew that a lot of times I was going to be a victim of a con artist. So how do you deal with con artists when you want to do good? You want to help people. You want to do that which is helpful to them. Claude would say the world does not need our sentimental piety and 'do goodism'. For often when we want to do good we are calling attention to ourselves as those who are doing good. Sentimental piety is what Claude was referring to as sloppy agape. What the world really needs is tough love. The kind of love that can wrestle with the realities of the world. The kind of love that can resist being taken in by the world's con artists and not feel guilty. The kind of love that can offer the world real substance in its caring in both short and long term.

I remember when some friends of ours in Hawaii got a cat. It was the ugliest cat you ever saw in your life. At the same time, we got a cat in our family and it was a beautiful little kitten. This kitten was easy to love. But their kitten was very difficult to love. But, you know, that is what is going on in the world. Sometimes people are hard to love. And that’s when tough love is needed. Love that can deal with those that are unlovable. Those who don’t look good or dress poorly and who don’t take baths. Tough love cares for those that are hard to love; the unlovable.

There is a story in the Old Testament about Ahab and Naboth’s vineyard. Naboth had a vineyard and it was right next door to the palace of the King Ahab. I think of some of those houses in Caborca— these palaces, and right next door these houses in poverty. Well King Ahab got the bright idea one day that it would be great to have that vineyard as his vegetable garden. That’s what the text says 'vegetable garden'. But in any event he wants this vineyard. He tries to buy it first, and then he tells his wife he tried to buy it but couldn’t get it. So his wife connives to have some bad rumors about Naboth spread around the community and soon they get an idea that this Naboth is a pretty bad character and they end up stoning him to death. And Elijah is sent down there to talk with Ahab and he reminds Ahab that he did wrong. You may be the King but you did wrong. That is tough love to be able to tell the King, someone in power, that he did wrong.

As Christians we must sometimes tell our leaders that their policies are wrong. We must decry the plundering of public treasure by those who peddle their influence in government. Those like lobbyists who want to buy the influence. They never give anything that they do not expect something in return. You can count on it. We must abhor the immorality — those with the lack of morality — of those in business who use the bottom line of profit as the only justification for whatever they do. Ken Lay was indicted last week for his activities with Enron. Whether he is guilty or not is for the courts to determine, but he allowed some things to happen. Ken Lay is a Methodist. He’s a member of the First United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. He is one of us; part of us. I wonder if he thinks about all the people that were hurt by what he allowed to happen. Jesus was not a sentimentalist. He was a realist. A realist whose offer of compassion was grounded in real caring for real people. Ken Lays who are hard to love. Go, I send you out like lambs amid wolves.

Finally, we notice in the closing words of our lesson today, how surprised the seventy people are when they return from their mission. We are told they came back with great joy. They said 'Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we gave them a command in your name'. There are many times in life, of course, when we never have the joy of knowing the results of our deeds of ministry. They go unnoticed. There is no recognition. No publicity. Nobody to give accolades. Nobody to wave banners. The results, if there are any, may not be seen until long after the deed itself is forgotten. Indeed this is the way; if I hear Jesus correctly. This is the way it’s supposed to be. Do you remember what He said? Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. To remain incognito. That’s hard to do. You know when I do a good deed; I’m the first one to try to tell you about doing it. There are times however when we are indeed surprised by what happens as a result of something in which we have been involved. Even when a deed has been a small gesture of kindness or compassion. We are surprised by, not what we have done, but what God has been able to do with that ministry. With something very small like a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and some instant coffee. God is able to do miracles and that is why when Paul wrote to the people in Galatia and told them to not become tired of doing good. For, if we do not give up, the time will come when we will reap the harvest. Maybe not now, maybe not even in our lifetime. Did you ever consider that? The good deeds you do now may not have results in your lifetime. But it is God's harvest. And that is what makes it important. The point is not to let the lack of immediate results deter us from what needs to be done.

Our joy, as Jesus reminds us, is not in the fact that we have great power; we do have power, the power of our own lives. But what God receives as part of His kingdom is our ministry. Whatever deeds we are able to perform. However small and seemingly insignificant that ministry might be, it is part of the whole of God's work of tough love in the world. A part of God's mission. This is where the true joy of the gospel comes and is found in tough love. But not in sloppy agape.  

Let us pray.