Dear Faith Family,
It takes courage, and indeed faith, to step out into the world as heralds of Jesus' coming and kingdom. This is undoubtedly true if the world you step into has pre-conditioned misgivings about the reality you speak.
On Sunday, we conclude our journey with Jesus and his band of followers through the land of Samaria. Samaria, if you remember, was a normatively secular but religiously familiar place, even if apprehensively so. A place a lot like our land today.
Samaritans had a history of faith in Yahweh. A history of being a people connected to His-story, expectant and dependent upon God. Yet, for various reasons—their choices, political alignments, environmental circumstances, cultural pressures, religious snobbery—they had little space for the "old" faith of the regions founding. While they still wanted very similar things to their Jewish neighbors and ancestors—wholeness and peace and prosperity—the means of achieving their dreams and the relation of such desires to God differed. It would be safe to say that, as is true in our day, amongst the Samaritans was a spectrum of faith and spirituality, ranging from the apathetic to the aggravated, most choosing a more pragmatic view of faith, if any at all. No wonder they were not automatically receptive to Jesus' entrance into their lives (Lk. 9:52-53)
Still, it was into a world much like ours that Jesus sent seventy-two of his courageous faithful to proclaim in word and deed the nearness of God's kingdom (Lk. 10:1-11). These brave and obedient ones went into the world as heralds of a vision they could only imagine, but returned to Jesus as ones who had seen the world beyond their imagination,
"The seventy-two returned to Jesus with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!'" (Lk. 10:17)
Jesus' response to his friends and disciples' fantastical adventure was, "Now you see it! Now you see what I see, the enemy and his end...Satan falling like lightning from heaven." (Lk. 10:18). And while a glimpse behind the curtain of the battles victorious end is a tremendous encouragement in our daily labors, Jesus says that's not the true seat of sustaining joy.
"Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice [find joy in] that your names are written in heaven." (Lk. 10:20)
What sustains your heralding in the Samaritan land we call Dallas is that your life--your words and actions in courageous faith--are written into The Story of the world. The true story continues to be told and experienced through your life as long as we call this moment "Today." Your daily living is not random. Your choices are not benign. Your role is not unnecessary. Your life matters because you are a part of something more.
So my friends, today, with the words of S.D. Smith, I bless you. I bless you as those whose courage and faith to herald Jesus' kingdom has you squarely in the midst of the Story still unfolding in and through you:
May the Ancient Author bless and keep you.
May the Holy Hero be your rescuer forever.
May the Story find you,
through every painful passage,
at home with him in the end.
May you delight in his love
and exalt in his victory then.
May you always aspire to live
as a character you admire.
May you know the delight of discovering
that the Story isn't mainly about you.
May you know and love the truth
and be brave to obey it.
May you make a hard dart at the darkness
with whatever light you bring,
reflecting, like the moon, a light far brighter than you own.
May God give you joy!
Love you, faith family!