We read scripture to be transformed. We are not interested just in adding to our knowledge, or even to our being. For we sense intuitively that we not only fail to hear, but have been trained not to hear God speaking. We know that the domination system has deeply deluded us, through the everyday process of socialization, into attitudes, actions, and assumptions that violate others and rob us of our true life. Therefore we listen all the more keenly, not as those who have and wish for a little bit more, but as those who do not have, and are desperate to find their own authentic lives. Give us your word, O God, because without it we collapse back into the grip of convention and forget who we really are.
July 5: The Mission of the Seventy
1 Kings 21:1-3, 17-21; Galatians 6:7-18; Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
Luke has constructed a second sending, not just of the twelve (9:1-6), but of a larger circle of disciples. Seventy (or seventy-two) probably is symbolic, anticipating the mission to the gentile nations (Genesis 10:2-31). Luke's location of this account implies that Samaritan villages would have been included (9:51-56). These advance agents not only prepare a crowd for Jesus' coming, but also heal. Exorcism is not mentioned in their commission, but this is what most excites them on their return (10:17). They are doing the kingdom thing. Healing and exorcism are better ways of getting attention than preaching or organizing, as the Pentecostals have proven. Since Luke was a traveling companion of Paul, this training manual probably reflects actual church practice.
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