Faith Daily | 30 September 2021

PRAYER of the DAY - PENTECOST APBA p586

O God,

you declare your almighty power

chiefly in showing mercy and pity:

mercifully grant us such a measure of your grace

that, running in the way of your commandments,

we may obtain your gracious promises,

and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

GOSPEL for the Day: Luke 10: 1-12

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” 10But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11“Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.” 12I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.

GOSPEL Reflection: Contributed by: Rev'd Jan using a reflection by Father Joseph Donders

“Luke is the only evangelist who reports the mission Jesus gives to seventy-two disciples. Bible scholars wonder what the number seventy-two referred to. There is another mission given to the twelve – and they all agree on the twelve. Those twelve indicate that Jesus’ mission extends to the twelve tribes of Israel.

There might be a hint given by the fact that Luke is a Gentile, the only non-Jewish evangelist. Another clue might be that he is writing for Gentiles.

Bringing those hints together and looking for a corresponding number in the Hebrew Scriptures, many scholars now agree that the number refers to the seventy-two grandsons of Noah, who left their grandfather’s homestead, spread out all over the world, and thus became the origin of all the peoples that live on the earth.

The twelve refer to the whole of the Judaic nation, the seventy-two to the whole of the world. The Good News is that we together form one family, one father, one brother, one Spirit.

It is the movement that was symbolised from the moment of Jesus’ birth, when the magi from the East came to bring their gifts to his cradle in Bethlehem. All of us are taken up in that swirling movement started around him, each one of us bringing in our gifts.”

FINAL PRAYER: Jim Cotter “Unfolding the Living Word”

Living Pioneer,

always ahead of us on the pilgrim journey,

drawing us to the places that focus your presence,

inspire us to take courage from our ancestors of faith,

to make sacred the places where we live now,

and to let ourselves be made holy

in the Spirit of the One who has pioneered the Living Way.

Amen.