Way Of Love: Spiritual Practices For DisciplesChikamu

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What I find especially meaningful about this passage is that the “seventy others” Jesus sends out into the world are not discharged randomly to make their way as best they can, like pairs of honey bees leaving the hive in search of flowers. No, they are part of a larger plan. Jesus sends them ahead of him, to the places where he intends to go. In this sense, wherever they go, Jesus is right behind them, and they can trust that he is literally backing them up every step of the way.

I find this fact comforting. Whenever we step out in faith into new situations, taking new risks to witness to Christ’s love, we can rest assured that Christ follows behind us, making more of our efforts than if we were completely on our own. This means it isn’t all about us and what we can accomplish; we are simply called to partner with Christ in Christ’s work.

When I was a child, my father always dropped me off in front of our small church so I could save seats for the family while he parked the car. I would spread out my coat on a pew along with some bulletins and wait. I always felt so small and vulnerable as other adults began to fill the pews around me. But my job was simply to keep the space open, clinging to my father’s promise that he and the other members of my family would be coming behind me to fill it in. In a similar way, whenever we step out as a witness for racial and social justice, speak up for peace, or care for someone who is lost, lonely, or in need, we may feel small and inadequate to the task. But we too have the promise that if we keep the space open, we won’t be alone for long. Christ comes behind us to fill it in, to do the work he has come to do.

• As you look at your daily life, how can you go ahead of Christ and create a space for him in the world?
• In your life, what would it look like if you embraced the truth that you are one of the “seventy others”?
• Outside of the people who are closest to you, how would anyone know that you are part of the Jesus Movement, that you are a follower of the Way of Love?

The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, Dean, Washington National Cathedral Washington, DC