Sermon “Do the Work of an Evangelist”
Lord, open our eyes to the reality of your calling and of your work in us and through us. Amen.
Paul tells Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. What does he mean by this? If we look at the context of the passage today from 2 Timothy we find that Paul seems preoccupied with the fact that he is going to die, that he has been wronged, and that he has been abandoned by some people. He’s cold. He’s tired. Yet that’s only a part of doing the work of an evangelist.
Today, on the feast of St. Luke, Evangelist, we look to our Gospel reading from Luke chapter 10. Jesus sends seventy people out in twos. They are to bring nothing of their own. They don’t carry their own supplies. They don’t make provisions. They don’t need any weapons, no extra shoes, and they aren’t to stop in anywhere asking someone to furnish them with all that. Rather, they go to a home in a town and they proclaim the peace of God over that home. What happens then? If it is the right home, the peace of God dwells on it. If not, the peace of God comes back to dwell on them. In their work as evangelists, proclaimers of the good news of Christ coming for sinners, they bring God’s peace. They apply it to the people they encounter. And they will find that God’s peace, his good will, is all they need. In light of the mercy and grace of God, all else that these disciples will need is taken care of.
Our Lord called Luke, who is often pictured as some sort of physician, to be a physician of souls. He called him to go and bring the peace of the Lord to the people he encountered. And Luke left his former life to do just what our Lord commanded.
What of us? Do we see our Lord and Savior calling us to a life that is different from the life from which he redeemed us? Do we see that he loves us too much to leave us in our sin, but rather he changes us? Do we see that he who redeemed our soul will also make us partakers in the bodily resurrection in the last day? Do we see that where Jesus is, all our need will be met? Do we see that we are never alone, that the risen Lord is with us always, even to the end of the world? Then we can walk, as did Luke, rejoicing that our Lord will use us to proclaim his good news, the peace of God. We can bring the joy and comfort of the resurrection with us wherever we go, whoever we are talking to, no matter what we or those around us are facing. We have been given this treasure of the Gospel. We can bring it into every situation.
What if the Gospel is rejected by those around us? Then we can know that they have not rejected us, but have rejected Christ. And the peace of God will return to us.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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