CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: Whoever Listens

Pentecost 4, Proper 9 | July 7, 2019

By The Rev. Hunter Silides

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say,‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’

“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me. The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

- Luke 10:1-11, 10:16-20

From the time I started reading the Bible in my teens, I read this passage and identified with those 70 “lambs,”, blessed and brave, whom Jesus sent ahead of him into towns where he intended to go. Followers of Jesus originally traveled out into a world that had not heard his story, evangelizing many who in turn carried the message even further. At the center of this model of mission and of this Gospel reading is this magnetic phrase: “Whoever listens to you listens to me.” The whole endeavor of evangelization hinges on this: In order to receive the gift of the lambs’ message, the “wolves” must listen. So here is a telling confession: For the first time in my life in preparation for this reflection, I wondered about those wolves. Why might we want to identify with the characters in this story who still had so much to learn? What part of proclaiming Christ involves simple listening?

The model for Christian mission has evolved over the centuries. Converting nonbelievers to Christianity took on an institutional urgency when Imperial Christian Rome began to expand. The “lambs” spreading Christ’s peace around the globe were armed, first with words, then swords, then guns. The message of Christ’s unifying love became a single point on a long agenda that colonizers imposed upon all whom they encountered and subjugated. Christians were “bringing the kingdom” alright, but not necessarily the Kingdom of God. As the Doctrine of Discovery was revealed as a mere justification for European colonization and exploitation, the theology of what it meant to share the story of Jesus’ saving love had to shift. 

By the time I was appointed as a missionary of The Episcopal Church in the late 1990s, the understanding of mission had made an about face from the old model. As the Anglican theologian John Corrie describes it, “The incarnational approach to mission therefore brings us alongside people, working with them rather than for them, sensing with sensitivity how to be visible and involved, but not in an intrusive or aggressive way. With this approach we are willing to listen to different points of view, and we work to be as inclusive as possible.” There it was again: Listen. Jesus was speaking to all people everywhere when he said “whoever listens to you listens to me.” Any act of sharing one’s authentic experience reveals Christ to the listener.

My husband and I went to a small village of Alaskan Natives north of the Arctic Circle. The “mission” in which we served was 150 years old. The story of Jesus was well known among those to whom we were sent. There were sacraments at which the members of the mission wanted us to preside, but the primary need was not for us to do much talking. We were there to listen to our parishioners’ experiences and acknowledge when something of Christ was revealed to us. Often, that something turned out to be how, through suffering and oppression, their faith had transformed and brought them into deeper relationship with God.

Truth be told, I was pretty awful at listening at first. I was a representative of the dominant culture of the United States (by which I mean white folks above the poverty line). We dominant culture people are, by and large, a chatty bunch. We fill the air, the airwaves and every kind of media with our story, our way of life, our walk with Jesus, our values, our biases and perspectives. I had, deep inside me, the idea that I ought to have something to say about the suffering of my parishioners, but my words were the last thing they needed. What they needed from me, a missionary of the church, was that I listen attentively to their experiences as a people for whom contact with the Doctrine of Discovery had not gone so well. My call was to behold Christ in those to whom I was sent.

I’ll be honest, I am still working on this listening. We all prefer to tell what we know. But in this moment in history, perhaps Jesus is calling us all to listen to the stories we don’t already know; to give others a turn at being the “lambs” for a change. We wolves might need to bark less and listen harder. The sacred echo of Jesus’ voice resonates in the stories of those who have been unknown and overshadowed. “Whoever listens to you listens to me.” If we succeed, the reward is greater than any other, for the Kingdom of God will have come near.

The Rev. Hunter Silides is the chaplain of Canterbury School, Greensboro.