This text is used for the Lectionary Year C on July 3, 2016.

There are few better metaphors for the spiritual life than “journey”; the concepts of movement, growth, purpose, and destination resonate with and illuminate our experiences. The same metaphor is equally apt for congregational life, especially as we consider the church’s presence, identity, and mission in our current cultural landscape. Luke’s long and intriguing motif of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem can be instructive. For the pastor looking to sustain a congregation’s self-understanding and growth during the more relaxed months of summer, Luke provides plenty of material for reflection. In the crush of preparing weekly sermons, many of us get in the habit of reading only the assigned Scripture, or perhaps also the passages immediately before and after it. Given the importance of the journey motif in Luke, the preacher would be well served by reading this entire section (Luke 9:51-19:28). This overview can give a helpful framework for preaching from now through October, and might help the pastor even structure the sermons over this sweep of time as a kind of journey with Jesus.

This passage from Luke 10, which follows immediately from the previous week’s lection, takes place very soon after the journey has begun. Jesus had been rejected by a village of inhospitable Samaritans (Luke 9:53) and then pursued by some enthusiastic would-be followers (Luke 9:57-62). Having previously sent a pair of messengers ahead of him to prepare a village to receive him (and before that, having appointed and sent out the Twelve to heal, to exorcise demons, and to proclaim the kingdom of God), Jesus now commissions a much larger group. There is a sense here already, this early in the journey, of the growth of his mission.

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