How does an artist's expression become unique?
How is the pursuit of Chritian life an art? Are we artists expressing our own masterpiece before God for the benefit of others?
How does your art of life express and blend with the other colors in the box in this age of multiculturalism?
Just as the four evangelists of the Gospels colored their different views of God's story for us, how are you drawing yours?
Today we look at the story from the gospel of Luke about sending the 70 to tell others of the nearness of the kingdom.
How do we see this in light of our present day experience and Chrisitan history?
How are the passages below colored by the disciples times?
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
10:1 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.
10:2 He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
10:3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.
10:4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.
10:5 Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!'
10:6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.
10:7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house.
10:8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you;
10:9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'
What do these first 9 verses say about hospitality in the time of Jesus?
10:10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say,
10:11 '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.'
10:16 "Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
Jesus has sent his agents and they have been refused. What did that mean for the town's inhabitants of this day?
10:17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!"
10:18 He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.
10:19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.
10:20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
Returning to the Chrisitan life as an artistic work, we should each personally express the life of God through us to others. In rendering your masterpiece how would you color the last four verses on your canvas?
Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line
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