I wonder if you are aware of how different the Gospel of Luke is from the other Gospels? Luke’s Gospel is by far the longest of the four, almost twice the length of Mark’s Gospel. Many of the best-known stories are only found in Luke: the angel’s visit to Mary, the Christmas story of the shepherds and the manger, the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son. But today, we have a passage from Luke which contains three unique elements that are neither well known, nor treasured by Christians. One of them is very important, and the other two contribute to our understanding of that first one.

We meet the very important element, right at the beginning: Jesus chose 70 (or perhaps 72, depending on which manuscript you read) of his followers and commissioned them as evangelists. I am using the word evangelist in its original Greek meaning: the messenger bringing good news, and NOT in the meaning it has developed in recent centuries. What Jesus asked them to do, was to go out to the towns and villages of Galilee, with the announcement that the Kingdom of God has drawn near, and, with the authority to heal the sick. Matthew, Mark and John are silent about any such commissioning of 70 evangelists, and attribute all of the conditions of discipleship (carry no purse, no bag, no sandals) to the twelve alone.

The first thing to notice is that the 70 are sent “to every town and place where Jesus himself intended to go”. They are to function somewhat like John the Baptist: in each town they will prepare the way for Jesus. They are not doing the whole work of convincing people to change their understanding of who God is and what God is doing. They are preparing hearts, first by telling the good news of the nearness of the reign of God, and second by demonstrating that good news through healing.

Although we do not hear the word conversion from Jesus, or any of the Gospel writers, conversion is the task which the 70 evangelists are asked to begin. In the Hebrew Scriptures we find three overlapping meanings of the change which Christians have learned to call conversion. The phrases used in Hebrew are all variations on turning to God. The first meaning is when a person or a group turns away from their worship of idols, and turns to the worship of the Lord. The second kind of conversion was from a nominal or formal participation, to an active faith and obedience (Deut 30:10). We are very familiar with this kind of conversion, because until recently, most Americans were raised in some particular religion. Sometimes in adulthood, a moment of turning comes, frequently due to a crisis in one’s life, or as a result of the search for meaning.

Many of you have heard me tell of my childhood experience of Sunday School in the Congregational Church. I learned the Bible stories, but I did not learn how they were connected to my life. So as a young adult, I had an urgent need to find meaning and purpose . . . and when I found it in Christian theology, I turned, my heart was converted, and I recommitted myself to God in Christ. The third kind of conversion, is the one often caricatured by comedians, from a life of sin, to a new life following the commandments of God. Despite the caricatures, this really happens, and sometimes the life of sin that is left behind, is no more or less than the selfish life which is centered only on my needs and desires.

So the 70 evangelists are sent out to prepare the way for conversion, for the turning of hearts to the Lord. In this context, the message they are asked to announce makes much more sense: the kingdom, or the reign of God, has drawn near to you. In other words, God is not waiting in the sky for you to become righteous; and God is not limiting his presence to the Temple in Jerusalem; and God has not been edged out by the Roman empire; and God is not coming near as a Judge. The reign of God, the reality of God’s forgiveness and love, is now available to you: turn your hearts to God’s presence. No doubt those first century Galileans were somewhat skeptical of this message. For that reason, Jesus gave the 70 authority to cure the sick, as a demonstration that the Lord had indeed, drawn near to them. I would express this good news today by saying, God has come to meet you here and new, with forgiveness, and love, and strength. Wake up, recognize God’s presence, and open your hearts.

The 70 evangelists were also asked to do one more thing: to pray for more laborers to go out with this message. I suggest to you, that YOu are the answer to that prayer. I do understand that your response might be, “who, ME??” And my response to you is, yes you, all of you wo have already turned your hearts to God and promised to follow Jesus . . . all of you are the 45th or 50th generation of successors to those 70 evangelists. You are the laborers for whom they prayed. For in every place, and in every generation, there are people who desperately need to hear that God loves them, God forgives them, and God brings peace to their homes and their lives. That is the task: not to make the hearts turn by argument, not to sign people up to do anything; not even to persuade them to come to church. Our task, as baptized evangelists, is simply to plant the seeds of faith in those who are longing to hear this word, by telling the good news in our own words, and out of our own experience. Then along comes the Holy Spirit, whose task is to turn their hearts, and give them the thought of coming to church.

Our commissioning to do this work of planting the seeds of faith, is in the baptismal covenant: “will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?” page 305 in the Prayerbook. In the Episcopal Church we believe you can do this work as part of your daily life: you do not have to go on a missionary trip; you do not have to study in seminary; you do not have to speak to strangers. Each of us is called to plant the seeds of faith in people whom we know, and who know us, as friends, neighbors, and colleagues at work. Like the sower who went out to sow, we recognize that many of those seeds we plant will not take root and grow. The responsibility to grow the seeds of faith rests with the people who receive them, and the influence of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes those seeds remain dormant for years or decades, until the time is right for them to sprout.

In our Gospel reading, we heard not only about the commissioning of the 70 evangelists, but also about their return to Jesus. Luke says, they returned with joy, and what he clearly implies, is that they were surprised. These followers of Jesus, who had the advantage of learning the good news from our Lord himself, did not expect that many would listen to them, or that anyone would be healed . . . and they certainly did not expect to subdue any demons!! In other words, they were like you and me: out of their love for Jesus, they were doing what he asked them to do, but they were not confident, nor comfortable with it. In fact, they were astonished by the response they received. What this means for us, is that we don’t have to be any better than they were. If our faith is mixed with some doubts, if we don’t quite know how to tell the good news, if we aren’t sure that our friend will listen . . . none of that matters if our intention is to share the good news of God’s love.

Now we come to the other two unique elements in this passage. In response to the joy of the 70 evangelists, Jesus said, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightening”. This sentence has always puzzled me: why did he say this, in response to their joy, and, what did he mean? Having looked more closely at the whole passage, I now think I understand why he said it. Jesus knew the reign of God had drawn near, he convinced his disciples and evangelists that it had drawn near, and they announced that news in the towns and villages . . . therefore the reign of Satan came to an end; he fell from heaven like a flash of lightening. The fall of Satan is the inevitable consequence of the coming of God’s reign.

You have heard me say, on several occasions, that I do not believe such a being as Satan exists, or did once exist. So I will give you two alternate explanations of the meaning of this sentence. The first is, that Jesus recognized that Satan (perhaps like Darth Vadar) was a potent symbol of evil, and just as he used the metaphor of laborers needed for a harvest, so he used the metaphor of Satan falling from heaven like lightening, to say that the rule of God is now taking over from the rule of evil. A second, more psychological explanation, is that Satan-in-heaven represents the transcendence of evil: namely the belief people had in the power of evil and the attractiveness of evil. If you are not sure what I mean by the attractiveness of evil, think about the movies produced in our country in the last 20 years: every plot shows how certain characters desire to steal, to control, to hurt, and to destroy; evil has a glittering and exciting appeal on the surface. In effect, Jesus is saying that the appeal of Satan has been deflated like a popped balloon, by the good work of the 70 evangelists.

The third unique element in this passage occurs in the last line, where Jesus said to the 70: “do not rejoice . . . that the spirit submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven”. This is a classic case of redirecting someone’s attention away from the sensational (the fact that the demons were subject to them) and toward the serious: what is really important is that their names have been written in God’s book of life. The idea that God has a book of life is present in the Psalms, the prophets, and even the book of Exodus. The image comes from the ancient practice of recording the names of the people who lived in the cities and kingdom of Sumeria, the oldest civilization with written records. Whether or not God has such a book, these words of Jesus support our belief that God knows each of us individually by name, and invites each of us to participate in his reign, both in this life, and in the life to come. Amen