Our Armor is Each Other
Our Armor is Each Other
The peace which Jesus says all the seventy (meaning all of Jesus’s disciples, not just the ordained “elites”) can give is not the civil pleasantry that is said – literally – in passing. It is the peace in which new relationships, thicker than blood or soil – spiritual – are created by a loyalty to Jesus that transcends the more demanding loyalties of this world. And when we share that peace with our new relations, the “accusing” forces of this world fall, perhaps as they scream or flail. But whatever collateral damage they cause on their way down, we still have the peace that Jesus gives, of knowing that we are never alone.
The contrast in today’s Good News from Luke is between peace and accusation. Whatever peace we can give to others as the Seventy could give comes from Jesus. And when we give that peace and it is accepted, then the forces of accusation that prey on our fears and griefs and anguish fall from the sky, like “The Satan” that Jesus saw, whose name means “Accuser.”
We all can give that peace. Seventy is a frequently used number throughout the Bible. In the book of Genesis, 70 descendants of Noah are named as ancestors of the 70 nations that would have been known to the ancient Israelites. Elsewhere, 70 seems to be number that symbolizes a compete whole, with everything included.
So while Luke includes the story of Jesus sending out the “elite” Twelve along with Mark and Matthew, only Luke recounts this other missional sending, which seems to indicate that he chose to send all of his disciples out with nothing but the clothes on their back to face the possibility of rejection and having to shake their feet. Fast forward about two millennia and you all are the Seventy.
Not everyone you meet may be ready to set aside their fear, grief, or anguish, which manifests as accusation. So, like Jesus told the first Seventy, don’t treat your peace like a civil pleasantry. Be civil of course. But when you have the opportunity to stop and get to know someone, ask the Holy Spirit breathe between you and that person, that you might not show off the extra protection of a purse, a bag, shoes, or some other armor of protection. Then you can more clearly see if they are looking for relationships not based on exploitation or mutual self-interest, but on a common recognition of the world’s brokenness, and hope for its healing.
And when they are ready to invite you into their space, then you can say as Jesus taught you to say, “Peace to this house!” Then you will be relations to each other, both rooted in the peace that Jesus has now given you both. And if it turns out to have been a misunderstanding, as Jesus promises, your peace will return to you, for you still have the relations that Jesus has already given to you and you to them right here, in this home where suspicion and accusation have fallen away and have no authority, only love.
The peace of God which Jesus has given us and that we are called to give others is not bulletproof armor, literal of figurative. But the more peace we give, the more relations with whom we need no armor.
July 6th, 2025
4th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 9
The Rev. David Kendrick