Proper 9 July 4, 2004.

Isaiah 66:10-14

Psalm 66:1-8

Galatians 6:1-16

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Here in Isaiah is one of the classic metaphors for the Lord: "as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem" (66:13). Here, YHWH is identified by the attributes of the feminine in two ways: YHWH creates, and YHWH directly gives comfort. The place of comfort is Jerusalem, the home from which the people receive nourishment like that given by a nursing mother. Jerusalem suckles her inhabitants "from her consoling breast" (v. 11). Jerusalem overflows with prosperity, and it is through the wealth of Jerusalem, the place of ingathering for the faithful, that YHWH will make comfort possible for the people.

The repetition of the verb rendered "comfort" encompasses its use in the present, in the future, and in an ongoing mode. This is a complete comfort, incorporating huge empathy. YHWH gives comfort on the basis of having been moved to pity and compassion for the people. It is no small matter that these verses are nearly the final words in Isaiah. They constitute a crowning vision of both deliverance for those who have been called back together to the holy city Jerusalem and retribution against those who oppose it. The lines drawn between YHWH's compassion and YHWH's wrath frame in clear relief the two-edged promise of respite for the faithful and retribution against the enemies of the faithful. God's respite and retribution are set against each other in such a way that the delicious succor approaches ecstatic heights. The people will "be satisfied ... drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom ... nurse ... be carried ... dandled ... bodies shall flourish like the grass." This is certainly seductive! Notice the special quality of the verb "to nurse." It can be used of both the mother and the child. Marianne Sawicki's book Seeing the Lord (Augsburg Fortress, 1984) provides a wonderful examination of this verb with regard to nursing as an image of formation in the Christian faith.

While it is beyond the scope of this periscope, preachers may be helped by considering the larger context of this passage. Later Isaiah verses promise that some emissaries will be sent to gather the people who have been dispersed until all have been brought to the "holy mountain Jerusalem" (vv. 19-20). There, as in v. 14, the people will be renewed. Both the epistle and gospel readings for this Sunday describe sending out those who will gather others together. So, even in the Old Testament lesson, we are given the setup to the same movement: going out in order to bring others back into the community.

The replenishment offered in the arms of the nurturing mother stands in contrast with the promise (v. 24) that the enemies of Israel will be laid waste (v. 24). Therein lies a powerful juxtaposition of sorrow and joy, acknowledging (v. 10) that those who have been mourning over the fate of Jerusalem are now called to gladness and rejoicing. Jerusalem's exile and destruction has ended. The turn toward new life is utter and full, yet as fresh as a newborn: delicate, in need of tender care, and radiating hope. The image of YHWH's comfort dominates this text along with the comfort to be enjoyed in the company of all the people of the covenant gathered in to the holy mountain, Jerusalem.

Likewise, in Luke, Jesus appoints those who will be sent out for another sort of ingathering. It is well to remember what precedes this story of sending, because what leads up to it is a litany of wonders, beginning in the eighth chapter of Luke with Jesus healing the Gerasene demoniac, Jairus's daughter, and the woman with the flow of blood. Those marvels are followed by Jesus' first commissioning of disciples, the query from Herod about who this Jesus might be exactly, and what we might construe as Jesus' response to Herod's question: Jesus' feeding the 5,000, Peter's confession that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus' teaching about discipleship, and then Jesus' transfiguration on the mountain. More healings follow until finally this great healer and teacher moves on to Jerusalem. En route, he sends seventy disciples out ahead of him, as we see in today's lection. This trajectory offers us the image of the sending out as something that resulted from a buildup of healings and teachings: a pattern that is a kind of nursing along. Once the point of Jesus' mission has been fed and filled out in enough minds and hearts, the time becomes ripe to hand over the task of preaching, teaching, and healing.

It is a vital detail that these who are sent are not sent out on their own, alone, but in pairs. We may be reminded by these pairs that Jesus has promised to be present wherever two or three are gathered together in his name (Mt 18:20), putting the lie to individualized or competitive endeavors done in the name of the Holy One. The work of preaching and teaching is not for the sake of the preacher's enhanced standing in the community. It is not about any one church being superior to another because of its size or gain in numbers or its charismatic leader. The work of ingathering (or gospel spreading) is such a rich message, it needs more than one person (or even one church denomination), not only in obedience to the need for Jesus' presence but in order to get the story right by imparting it with adequate complexity.

God's word for this day is about the comfort to be experienced in the nearness of the presence of God. And if there is any doubt that such is the case, let Paul's words to the conflicted Galatians guide the sermon. Again, we find enlightening oppositions in the scripture. The people are to "bear one another's burdens" (v. 2), and yet "all must carry their own loads" (v. 5). These contradictions express the multidimensionality of the gospel and emphasize the difficulty of saying what Jesus was about in his life, death, and resurrection unless we set forth just such confounding statements. If only v. 2 or v. 5 can be true, which is it? Are the faithful to help each other, or is everybody to mind his or her own business? Is the church a communitarian body which, like the church depicted in the Book of Acts, holds all things in common? Or is the church a laissez-faire body that expects each member to hang onto his or her own bootstraps? It will do no good to ignore the tensions between these constructions any more than we can hear the comforting image of the nursing mother while ignoring the wrath promised against the enemies of the Lord.

The phrase that sets all of these readings into accord with one another is this: "a new creation is everything!" (Gal 6:15). The people will be gathered, the promise is sure, the kingdom of God is real and near, healing is a sign of the presence of God, and those who welcome the good news will "work for the good of all" (v. 10).