Sent to share

In this episode, I reflect on a simple encounter at a farmers’ market, where I witnessed a young mother and her father sharing warmth and genuine interest with stallholders. Their everyday kindness became a living expression of Christian faith. Drawing on Jesus’ journey towards Jerusalem, I explore how we are called to share hope and love in ordinary moments. I encourage us all to be present, to support one another, and to become active messengers of the Gospel within our communities, reminding us that even small acts can reveal God’s love and peace.

00:00:00  I don’t know if you like going to farmers markets. There are good ones around and it was that one recently and I was just watching this kind of unusual pair. There was a young mum with this tiny little baby harness things and then this older man, I don’t know whether it was her father or somebody else, and they didn’t seem to be all that interested in the fresh food and vegetables that were there on offer or all the kind of homemade and handcrafted goods or all the knickknacks that are kind of there at the markets. But as they were moving around the stalls, you could see that they were engaging in conversations with the different stallholders. There was this real sense of, of warmth and, and wonder, a real sense of affection and love that you could see between them and that they were sharing. There was a real interest in what the stallholders were sharing and talking about and how they week had been and all those kinds of things. It was wonderful to see. And then I realized that what they were doing was most extraordinary, because they were Christians, and they were sharing their faith as they went about wandering through the stalls.

00:01:19  And it was so wonderful to see that this gospel can come to life in the most ordinary ways. You know, we might kind of pray for the workers in the harvest, and sometimes we use this as an invitation to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. But it’s clear that this isn’t about that kind of vocation. It’s about ordinary people just sharing hope, sharing encouragement, sharing love, sharing time and space. You know, the most precious gift that most of us long for someone that will be there when we pour out our hearts and they will simply hear us, give us that gift of seeing us as we really are. There’s such power that happens when Christians are able simply to offer the hope and the joy of the gospel in very simple ways. It’s not about arguing. It’s not about being an apologist. It’s not about being someone that has all these answers to all these profound questions. The gift of sharing our faith is as simple as sharing that joy, the wonder, sharing the life that we have experienced, the love that we have encountered, that it can be as simple as just being a witness to the gift of that love, and that life in the most simple and yet the most beautiful and profound ways, because Jesus is on his final journey now to Jerusalem.

00:03:07  We didn’t have the gospel last Sunday because we had Peter and Paul, but at the end of Luke nine, Jesus resolutely sets his face towards Jerusalem until this point. All of the ministry has been up north in the Galilee, in the Decapolis. Some along the coast. He’d gone up to Caesarea Philippi, in the very northern section of Monday, Israel and the foothills of Mount Hermon. But now he knows that the time is of his passion is now drawing near. And so, there is this urgency that is there. And as he resolutely sets his face towards Jerusalem in 951, and we will hear that reference that five more times, we hear that he’s on the way to Jerusalem. This is all about heading towards the Holy city. And in the Gospel of Luke with we’re with that journey for the next 11 chapters until the end of chapter 19, when he finally arrives in Jerusalem. So, this is the final time that he’s going to be passing through these towns. And so, he wants to maximize the opportunity for the different communities to hear and to receive the message.

00:04:28  So he’s been training up not just the 12 disciples, but this larger group of disciples, this larger group of followers as well. There’s 70 or 72 who he sends out to go into the places that are along the journey, but to go in preparation, to go and to begin this message of announcing shalom, announcing peace, to be bearers of that peace themselves so that these communities can begin to be softened, can begin to experience the wonder of what God is doing among us. As Jesus prepares to encounter their life and their love, and to share that gift and their grace with the communities along the way. And so, for us, this is our call in very simple ways, just to be present to his love. But the Lord does always send us out. Not as solo Christians, not as warriors, that we go in our own strength and according to our own purpose and plan. But he always invites us into this journey with others, that there’s always others that are meant to be part of this community, part of this mission as well, to share this life and this love with us so that we can always have that encouragement, that when we’re feeling a bit sad or a bit down, or we’re just tired, that our companion can be the one to step up and to take the burden, to be the one that can lead the way in that life.

00:05:57  And when they’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, perhaps we will be strengthened by the example that they gave us last time, and we’ll be able to step up. This two by two is an essential part of the life of the Christian never to be alone, but to always have that sense of companions who are there to continue to bear witness to his life and his love. Let’s really pray for opportunities to, in very simple ways, to announce the breaking in of the kingdom, to be a messenger of peace in a world that is so broken, to continue to announce this love and this goodness and this grace of God that is present among us, and to pray for those opportunities to be his witness, to be the people that share that love and that life within the world. And to pray that we can be this authentic sign of God’s love and God’s life here in this community. Let’s pray that the Lord will really indeed send labourers into his harvest, beginning with us.