Feast of St.Luke- Luke 10:1-7

Brothers and sisters, on this feast of St. Luke, let us listen carefully to how the Gospel begins. "After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come." Luke 10:1.

Notice that little word: other. Other seventy. Jesus has already chosen the Twelve. He has already named His apostles. Now He reaches past them and appoints more. These are not the famous names. We are not told who they were. They have no titles, no collars, no mitres. They are simply disciples, men and women who had been listening, following, and watching Jesus.

And here is something worth pausing over on St. Luke's day. Only Luke tells us about this sending. Matthew does not record it. Mark does not. John does not. Luke, the physician, the careful historian, the one who tells us he "had perfect understanding of all things from the very first," saw fit to preserve this story for us. I believe he did so because he knew who would be reading it. Not just bishops and priests. Ordinary believers. People with jobs and mortgages and families and worries.

So let me say it plainly, before we go any further. This Gospel is not about me. It is about you. The seventy were not the Twelve, and you are not the Twelve either. You are the seventy. And the Lord is looking at you the way He looked at them, and He is saying, "Go."

Then Jesus says something that has echoed down twenty centuries. "Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." Luke 10:2.

Now, I have heard this verse used many times, and I have used it myself, as a call to pray for vocations. And it is right to do so. Please keep praying for priests and deacons The Church needs them, and St. Timothy's needs them.

But look at what Jesus does in the very next verse. He has just told them to pray for labourers, and then He says, "Go your ways." In other words, the people who are asked to pray for labourers are the very people who are being sent as labourers. The prayer and the answer are standing in the same room.

I think many of us would be a little more comfortable if we could pray for labourers and leave it at that. It is easier to ask God to send someone else. It is easier to think the harvest belongs to the professionals. But the harvest is not a parish office. The harvest is the workplace on Monday morning. It is the school pickup line. It is the hospital ward, the construction site, the neighbour's porch. The harvest is great, and it is great precisely because it is everywhere, and no priest can be everywhere. But you already are.

Every Christian is sent. Not just clergy. By your baptism, you were handed a sending, and no one gets to opt out of it.

So where do we begin? Jesus gives very practical instructions. "And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again." Luke 10:5-6.

Peace be to this house. Notice that the first word of the mission is not a sermon, not an argument, not a program. It is peace. And the first place of the mission is a house.

For most of us, the first house we are sent to is our own.

Let me paint a picture. Imagine a home at six-thirty on a weekday evening. A parent has come in from work, tired. Homework is spread across the table. Someone is upset about something said at school. The phone is buzzing. Dinner is not ready, and tempers are not far behind. This is the mission field. This is where the seventy would have been sent, if they had lived in our day.

Now imagine that one person in that kitchen decides to be sent. Not to give a speech, but to say a quiet word of peace. A mother who chooses to answer a sharp word with a gentle one. A father who puts the phone face down and asks his daughter, "How was your day?" and actually listens. A teenager who says, "I'm sorry," first. A husband and wife who say grace together, even when they are barely speaking, and let God's peace sit down at the table with them.

Nothing about that scene would make the evening news. But I tell you, the kingdom of God has come near to that house. That is exactly what Jesus tells the seventy to say a few verses later: "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."

And notice the honesty of Jesus here. "If the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again." Sometimes our peace is received, and sometimes it seems to bounce back. Even then, it is not wasted. It returns to us and makes us more peaceful people.
Peace offered is never lost.

So the family table is not a distraction from the mission. It is the first altar of the mission.

Jesus is not naive about this. He says, "Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves." Luke 10:3. He knows that the world is not always gentle. Some homes are wounded. Some workplaces are sharp. Some families carry old hurts that make peace feel impossible.

And then He says something almost shocking. "Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes." Luke 10:4. No money bag, no travelling bag, no backup plan. Why? Because the mission does not depend on what we carry. It depends on Who sends us. We do not have to be strong enough, clever enough, or holy enough. We only have to be willing, and trust that the One who sends us goes before us. Remember, He sent them "before his face." He was already on the way.

Brothers and sisters, you may feel today like you have very little in your purse. Little time, little patience, little confidence in your own faith. Good. That is exactly the condition of the seventy. And they came back, Luke tells us, with joy.

So here is what I ask of you this week. Just one thing. When you walk through the door of your home, whether it is this evening or tomorrow morning, pause on the threshold and say quietly, "Peace be to this house." Say it in your heart if you must. And then live it at the table, in the hallway, in the hard conversation.

You are not the Twelve. You are the seventy. The harvest is great. The Lord of the harvest has sent you. Go your way, and bring His peace home.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.