Thomas J Parlette
“A Prayer for Volunteers”
Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20
7/3/22
I would be willing to wager that most of you at one time or another have volunteered for a cause you believed in. Maybe you helped collect canned goods for a community kitchen, or tutored a student, or sold Girl Scout cookies, or ran a 5K race for a good cause.
We all have different causes we believe in and motivations for volunteering. But I have to admit sometimes I hear about people willing to volunteer for some pretty strange things.
For instance, a few years ago, NASA advertised for volunteers for a study on how space flight affects healthy bodies. They recruited fit, healthy volunteers who matched the general physical profile of their astronauts, and asked these volunteers to spend 15 weeks in hospital bed, so they could measure how this bed-rest position affects human fitness and functioning. 15 weeks! In a hospital bed! Most of us would be climbing the walls after a couple days, let alone almost 4 months. That sounds pretty miserable – but they got volunteers for it.
Or, there’s the Swedish university who recruited healthy young volunteers to eat four cupcakes every day for six weeks for a study on the effects of fat on the human body. The volunteers weren’t supposed to change anything else about their health and fitness routines or their daily habits. Just eat four cupcakes a day for six weeks. That doesn’t sound so bad – but that’s a lot of cupcakes. I think I would put on 20 pounds or so. No thanks.
But that doesn’t compare to what the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in Hampden Township asked of their volunteers. They recruited a small group of volunteers to purposely drink too much so their officers could get training in the using the Standardized Field Sobriety Test. They had no trouble getting volunteers. (1)
One of the strangest volunteer opportunities I’ve ever heard about happened several years ago when an author named Shelley Jackson asked for volunteers to help her publish her latest short story. The story, titled Skin, was 2095 words long. And according to The Associated Press, Jackson wanted to publish it by tattooing the story, one word at a time, on the skin of volunteers. Jackson began by tattooing the first word of the story on her own wrist. Surprisingly, in a very short period of time, she had more than enough volunteers from all over the world who offered their bodies for her project. (2) Interesting – but not something I would volunteer for.
When I stop and think about how a small group of basically volunteers spread the message of Jesus from Jerusalem to the whole world, while facing persecution, poverty, beatings and imprisonment, not to mention cultural and language differences, I am amazed that it all came together. How is all that possible? And how did it all start? That is what our passage today from Luke deals with.
Our passage begins, “After this the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them out two by two ahead of him to every town and place he was about to go. He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few: ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’ “
Simply put, Jesus is telling them to pray to God for volunteers, for new Christians, to help with the harvest. Jesus is thinking about the future here. Eventually he would be leaving his disciples. It’s time to pass the torch. It’s time for his disciples to carry the message and continue the mission.
So he appointed 72 of them and sent them ahead like his advance team to round up volunteers. Reminds me of an old story about an Army sergeant who came into the barracks one morning and asked if anyone in the squad knew shorthand. The guys in his squad thought that sounded great. Finally, an assignment involving no physical labor – just sitting around and writing shorthand – so all of them raised their hands.
“Good,” said the Sergeant, “They’re short-handed in the mess hall! Get moving.”(3)
In this passage Jesus is saying, “We’re short-handed for this mission. You don’t get it yet, but I’m sending you out to the ends of the earth. So you’re going to need to pray to the Lord for more workers to help you.”
This is the moment when Jesus’ disciples officially become his apostles. In verse 1, where Jesus sends them out two by two, the verb used there for sent is “apostellw” Jesus literally “apostled” them into the world.
A disciple is simply a student or a devoted follower of a teacher.
An apostle, on the other hand is “sent out” or a “person sent.”
There is a big difference. You need wisdom and humility to be a disciple, but you don’t need power. You can be a disciple your whole life. But you’re not an apostle until you go out and share the message and ministry of Jesus with others. That’s when you need power, the power to see and love others with the same passionate, sacrificial love God has for them. That’s when you need the power, the courage to announce the kingdom of God to a sometimes hostile culture. That’s when you need the strength to heal the sick and cast out demons. That’s when you need the power to stand up for truth and light in a world that often embraces darkness and lies.
So if you are ready to move from disciple to apostle, there are three primary steps to the process that we can find in today’s lesson.
The first calling of the apostle is to pray. In our lesson for today we read, “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his field…” There are five different Greek words used for prayer in the New Testament. Each one has a slightly different meaning and portrays a different approach in our relationship to God.
The word used here for “Ask the Lord…” is the Greek word deomai. It is used in the New Testament to refer to the act of begging or pleading.
· In Luke 5, a man covered in leprosy falls on his face in front of Jesus and begs, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
· In Luke 8, a demon possessed man begs Jesus not to torment him. After Jesus heals him, he begs Jesus to be allowed to follow him.
· In Luke 9, a father begs Jesus to heal his sick son.
· In each of these passages the word used is “deomai.”
· If you have ever prayed from a place of desperation or brokenness, then you understand the concept of “deomai.” That’s the attitude that Jesus is asking for here as the apostles pray for help in sending laborers into the harvest. Pray for them as desperately as a parent prays for their sick child, says Jesus. Because that kind of love and prayer will then motivate you to go.
In 1905, E. Stanley Jones was a student at Asbury College, a Christian school in the tiny town of Wilmore, Kentucky. He was planning to become a lawyer. Jones and three friends were praying together one evening when they experienced the Holy Spirit moving amongst them. Within days, a spiritual revival broke out on the college’s campus, and it spread to the town of Wilmore. It was during this time of revival that Jones experienced God calling him to the mission field.
In 1907, he moved to India to minister to the untouchables – the lowest-caste citizens there in that society. He respected the culture and traditions of the Indian people and did not try to impose Western culture or practices on them. Soon his ministry also began attracting well-educated and influential Indian citizens who appreciated his ability to share his faith with intellectual rigor and respect. He brought together people from different faiths to discuss their religious experiences. He was so influential at bringing people together in a spirit of understanding and mutual respect that he was invited to participate in political negotiations not only in India, but in Africa and Asia. Before his death in India in 1973, he had preached to thousands of people, served as a voice of conscience to world leaders, and written 28 books, with the royalties devoted to various church ministries.
Once, while reflecting on the small prayer meeting that motivated him to become a world-changing missionary, Jones said, “Be careful how you pray. You may be the answer.”(4)
Good point. If we pray in the spirit of deomai, begging the Lord to work in and through us, then God will answer us. And we just might be the answer to that prayer.
Another calling of the apostle is to go – offer peace and cure the sick. In verse 5 of this passage we read, “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house…’ “ Peace is critical to Christ’s ministry.
There is a great story of a medieval knight who returned to his castle one evening looking like a bloody mess. His armor was dented. His face was scarred. His horse was limping. The lord of the castle asked, “What happened to you, Sir Knight?”
“Well, sire, I have been laboring in your service, robbing and burning and pillaging your enemies to the west.”
“What?!? – but I don’t have any enemies to the west!”
“Oh,” said the knight. “Well, you do now!”(5)
Jesus was very specific in telling his disciples to go in his spirit, a spirit of peace, not pillaging.
In verse 9, we also read “cure the sick, and tell them ‘The Kingdom of God has come near to you.’”
Healing and proclaiming the kingdom of God were also at the heart of Christ’s ministry. In his three years of ministry recorded in the Gospels, this is what Jesus’ daily schedule looked like. He went out, he offered peace to all who would receive him, and he healed the sick. Read through the New testament and compare how many times Jesus preached in the synagogues versus how many times Jesus taught, preached and healed people in the marketplaces, in the fields and in their homes. The great majority of his time out there was not in a church or a synagogue. Inside these doors, inside this sanctuary, we grow as disciples. Outside of these doors, we go as apostles, to proclaim God’s kingdom in all that we do and all that we say, demonstrating God’s kingdom by the lives we lead. So, our first calling as apostles is to pray. Our nest calling is to go – offer peace and heal the sick.
Our final, and perhaps most important calling as apostles is to announce the coming of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, simply put, is the world as it will be when God rules over all the world. It will be the kingdom of justice and the fullness of peace. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Let your Kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” this is what he was referring to. The birth of Jesus served as a starter’s pistol that announced creation’s race toward the fully realized kingdom of God, when Jesus returns as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Until that day, we are called to announce the Kingdom of God with our words and even with our lives. As apostles, part of our deomai prayer should be to ask God to show us how we can contribute to the causes of peace, justice, mercy and righteousness in our community and in our world.
You may remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr as he contemplated his death just two months before his assassination. He said, “Every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize… I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that Martin Luther King Jr tried to love somebody… say that I was a drum major for justice… for peace… for righteousness. I just want to leave a committed life behind.”(6)
Jesus told his apostles, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest.” You are here today in this sanctuary, in person or virtually, because someone prayed this prayer and someone responded to this prayer. You are here today because 72 believers prayed and went and offered peace and healing and announced the coming of the kingdom of God. But the work isn’t done yet. Jesus calls us to be apostles. I hope that when you walk out of these church doors or walk away from the screen you are using, you will take your part in the greatest mission and message in the history of the world – to announce the coming of the kingdom of God until the day Jesus’ return makes it so.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2, p46.
2. Ibid… p46.
3. Ibid… p47.
4. Ibid… p48.
5. Ibid… p48.
6. Ibid… p49.
