July 4 - Luke 10:1-11. 16-20

Before reading the sermon, first read the gospel text for today, Luke 10:1-11, 16-20.

Before coming to seminary, I was a Latin teacher. But you can relax, this sermon is definitely not about or in Latin. But I say that to explain why in my college dorm room I had hanging up this bumper sticker that someone had given me that said “Carpe Diem,” which means “seize the day.” A good friend of mine would tease me about this bumper sticker and always ask if I woke up in the morning saying, “seize the day! Rejoice!” Now really, who wakes up like that? Not me. In fact, tomorrow morning, when you wake up, and it's Monday, is “rejoice!” going to be the first thing that comes into your mind? Perhaps not.
Today you may actually be rejoicing and celebrating our nation and its identity on this fourth of July.  So happy fourth of July!  Rejoice!  Why not?
After all, all of the readings for this morning mention rejoicing, being joyful, or boasting in our savior and his cross. 
The seventy followers of Jesus who are sent out into the world surprise themselves with how joyful they return.  Were they expecting something different?  Are you? They went out on a hard mission.  When you are sent out on a hard day, a hard task, are you expecting joy? Notice that Jesus reassures them “nothing will hurt you” only after they return from their mission.  .Wouldn’t that have been good news to hear at the beginning?
"Rejoice! Nothing will hurt you!" Are these words from Jesus even comforting?  Don’t they seem a little unrealistic?  A little too sappy-sweet?  Nothing will hurt me?  We’ve all been hurt. I know I have. I know I have even hurt myself with my own sin, which even though I know I shouldn't, I leap back to every day. 
This gospel lesson, of Jesus sending out the seventy missionaries might seem a bit distanced from your own life. So let's talk about you, and me, and tomorrow. The seventy in the story are sent, they didn't choose to go, this all about God's action, sending them out. So Jesus isn't calling for a mass sign-up of Christian disciples, but has a message about what it means to be sent. So where are you sent? I'm not talking in grand terms here, but really – tomorrow morning, where are you being sent? To work? For another tired Monday morning? To look for a job? Are you being sent to take care of your family? Are you being sent to be a friend to someone who needs it? Where are you being sent? Monday morning? Tuesday morning? Each ordinary day? When you wake up tomorrow do you think about your day - “Rejoice! nothing will hurt me” or do you think about the parts of your day you know will be unpleasant? I know I do. . .
Because the world does hurt us.  Even in the biblical worlds of these texts, there are hints that there are hurts, there are enemies, there are wounds.  Jerusalem may be called to be rejoicing and seem like this perfect utopia, but what about its enemies?  What about the “rebels” referenced in the psalm?  Aren’t we the rebels sometimes?  We boast about ourselves, exactly as Paul warned against.  And we get hurt.  It happens.  We don’t bear each others’ burdens perfectly, and our own works fall short, just like Paul predicts they will.  If Jesus had told the seventy missionaries before they went out that nothing will hurt them, would they have believed him? 
When we turn on the t.v. And look to the world around us, sometimes we don't find a lot to rejoice about. . . . But there is other news also. There is good news in our gospel lesson today that has something to say to all this.
Thank God it is not up to us to wake up each morning and work to find something to rejoice about. God has already given us all we need to rejoice. We will still have hard days, where we wake up and we don't think – rejoice!, but God is still there, every day, waking us up, rejoicing for us – because our names are written in heaven. Your name is written in heaven. And though it may take me a while to learn for good all of your names, God knows you and God knows your name and when you were born, God rejoiced. And when you were baptized, God wrote your name in heaven, in permanent ink. Jesus says here in our reading for today that this is the reason we have to rejoice – Jesus says - "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." We rejoice because we do not have to rely on ourselves. God does not judge us based on what we can achieve. God loves us and we can rejoice, praise, and worship, just as we are doing today, rejoicing because our names are written in heaven. This is what Jesus says – rejoice not because of what you do today, but because your name is written in heaven.
While we may get hurt here on earth and these wounds may be deep, when Jesus says “nothing will hurt you,” he's speaking from a different perspective, from God's perspective. And nothing will ever hurt how God thinks about you.  You are God’s own, a laborer in the fields for God’s harvest, of a new creation, daily.  Nothing will ever hurt or change God’s perception of you as God’s very child, claimed in your baptism.  Jesus teaches us here that we rejoice not because of what we have done, but because of what God has done.  And God has once and for all, written your name heaven.  For that, Jesus proclaims that we should rejoice – what is there to worry about – your name is written in heaven.  Not even sin or your own shortcomings, or enemies or situations that conspire against you can take this away. It's a promise, it's the good news for today and each morning we wake up. Not even doubt can take this away because you are God's child and as we are reminded in the bible many times, God does not forget you. Rejoice.
We can proclaim this identity now, as those whose names are written in heaven, today, we already have.  When we sing our hymn of praise, we are proclaiming our names written in heaven.  When we eat and drink at communion we are participating in a holy feast.  When we rejoice in this identity and recognize ourselves as God's own, this is when Christ proclaims Satan fallen, like a flash of lightning.
Monday morning, every morning. You are sent. No matter where your day sends you, God's promises never change. God has written your name in heaven. This is why we rejoice. Amen.