Now I don’t usually do it , but today I am going to start with a verse from our reading.

The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.

What others, who were they?

In the reading from last week which was take from Luke 9,
just before the passage we heard today,
Jesus was talking about discipleship to his 12 closest followers .

So the others were not the apostles.

Luke is the only one to mention the seventy
or Seventy-two in some translations.

Seventy-two is, according to Genesis,

the number of all the nations of the earth;

It could be that Luke is seeing Jesus in the light of Moses,
who on one occasion chose 70 elders of Israel,

who were given a share in God's Spirit, and were thereby equipped to help him lead the people of Israel

The discrepancy in ancient manuscripts

between seventy-two and seventy emphasizes that the number is symbolic so ;

the precise number does not matter.

Here it represents
the world mission of the Church.

The Twelve had been sent out in two's so that the message could reach more people

This time the Seventy were sent ahead

to the towns Jesus himself would visit to prepare the people for his coming.

Someone has entitled the passage

EVERYONE A MINISTER

I don’t know about you, but when I was a boy,

the thought was ‘Leave it to the minister

And when I got married to Diana,

my Father in Law, as rector,

was in sole control of his village church.

Nothing happened unless he knew about it and agreed to it.

The thought of anyone else running the service, apart from reading the lesson, was unheard of.

So why couldn’t Jesus do it himself?

Why did he need to send out the seventy to do His work ahead of him?

Perhaps we should consider what it was like being Jesus.

How do you think of Jesus?

Do you think of him as Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, compassionate and loving,

the words of a prayer I remember from my childhood, or

A Mighty God ruling the storm, healing the sick and sending pigs down a slope to their death.

Do you think of him as a sort of Superman. With One wave of his arm and all is accomplished?

Perhaps that's one of the hardest questions for anyone reading the gospels,
but this passage gives us some clues.

It's all too easy for Christians to make the

mistake of thinking that Jesus just sailed through life with ease; being divine,

we sometimes suppose,

meant that he never faced problems,

never had to wrestle with difficulties.

Of course, the gospels themselves give us a very different picture.

But, as we said earlier, we are easily fooled into thinking of Jesus as a kind of Superman.

That sort of understanding might seem,

to begin with, to be supported by this passage.

Jesus speaks of seeing the Satan
fall like lightning from heaven.

He gives the 70 power over all evil.

He celebrates his unique relationship with the Father.

He speaks of a fulfilment
which the great ones of old had longed to see.

Surely, we think, this is Jesus the super-hero,

striding through the world

winning victories at every turn,

able to do anything at all?

And so, this often leads us to think, that this Jesus is remarkably irrelevant to our own lives,

where we face problems and puzzles

and severe tests of faith,

Where, despite our prayers and struggles

things often go just plain wrong?

Luke has no intention of describing Jesus as Superman.

The rest of his gospel makes that quite clear, and this passage fits in much better with Luke’s overall portrait than with the one we project, of our shallow modern cultural idea of a superman.

What we find here, in fact,

is the unveiling of the true nature of the battle Jesus was facing and fighting.

He has now determined to go to Jerusalem, and, as we have seen, a new note of urgency comes in as he sends the 70 ahead of him.

The depth of this urgency appears in the discussion, with the 70, of their role and mission. Jesus began his public career with a private battle against the real enemy Satan; t

his battle will continue until its last great showdown, as the powers of darkness gather for their final assault

But the initial victory which Jesus won in the desert is already being implemented through the work of his followers,

and this points in turn to the victory which will come through His last battle on the Cross.

Jesus' task is therefore
not simply to teach people a new way of life;

not simply to offer a new depth of spirituality;

not simply to enable them to go to heaven after death.

Jesus' task is to defeat the Satan,

to break his power,

to win the decisive victory
which will open the way to God's new creation

in which evil, and even death itself,

will be banished.

So how do we relate to the seventy?

The commission which they were given

is very similar to that given to the Twelve *

but there were some differences in preparation.

The Twelve were called to be with Jesus and to learn from him as they travelled so that they could be sent on mission;

the Seventy were not given such training.

Could it be that the Twelve are like those nowadays who are called and tested and prepared for ordained ministry;

the Seventy are more numerous than the Twelve, and receive less training,

but like the Church's laity
they have the same commission.

In recent years,

we have rediscovered what ministry is all about:

We are all to be ministers, clerical and lay, men and women,

all part of the ministry of the whole Church
to the whole world.

You are just as much a minister as the bishop.

Remember the symbolic flames of Pentecost rested on each and everyone in the room because each and every one of us

has a part to play in the ministry of the Church;

It is a mission that will continue with you throughout your life.

So how should we minister?

By gossiping the Gospel in our every day life.

By staying when we disagree with something we do not agree with.

If someone says, ‘There is no God ,or God is a spiteful God ,
we can say that we believe in loving God.

You have all come to church today, you didn’t have to, but in doing so you witness to people that you have a belief and want to worship God or know more about him.

No one has said that mission will be easy.

But just imagine a political party, whose members failed to talk about and work for the

cause, well they would never get elected.

In the same way we should we talk and work for what we believe.

Everyone has right to their own views and we should make our views known to others.

There are many out there who have a bit of a belief and others who are seeking for some better way of living their lives.

We need to help Christ reach them wherever we are.

You may be the only one of us there,

you may have to represent all the rest of us;

to be as Christ to those around you.

It can be daunting to stand alone

and so he sent his disciples out in two's;

But you will never stand alone:

there will always be two of you,

Christ and you, you and him.

And if you let his Spirit work in you and fill you with his love, they will see Christ in you

and he will minister to them through you.