In today's Gospel we hear Jesus send out 72 disciples “ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.”  Jesus employed a strategy of sending them out two-by-two to prepare people’s hearts to receive Him.

 

Going out on mission in pairs is really pretty brilliant, it allows for support, for accountability, for conversation, for so many benefits, and it made me think about married couples who are preparing their children’s hearts to receive Jesus.

 

The job of a parent is not easy, preparing children to receive Jesus, especially in this day and age. It is a constant battle against the world who wants to “sell them” on so many different products and views.  Spouses must stand strong together and support one another in order to accomplish this mission.

 

Four weeks ago, on the feast of Pentecost, I preached about the need for couples to pray over one another and to pray over their children for healing.  Receiving healing is one way that people were prepared to receive Jesus, to know of His love for them, this is exactly what these 72 disciples were doing, right?

 

Our Gospel just said, “Whatever town you enter and they welcome you… cure the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God is at hand for you.'”

 

Healing the sick prepared them for Jesus. They were doing this through prayer, we know this, because they had nothing else, Jesus told them, “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;” these pairs had nothing else except the Good News of Jesus, they prayed for these people who were cured in His Holy Name.

 

Since Pentecost and I suggested that people pray with each other and with their children, I’ve been wondering how that has been going?  My sense is: it isn’t going well. Or it probably just hasn’t been tried.  It is too awkward, it is too uncomfortable, it is too different from what we are used to doing, how we are used to praying.

I get that, I mean I know that it is true that it is different and uncomfortable.  For example, right after Pentecost I left on vacation.  During that time I was with my brother-in-law fishing and he wasn’t feeling well.  I asked him if I could pray for him, I used the sheet that I gave all of you, nothing else.  

 

I let him pray it by himself until he got to the part where he needed me, “the Prayer Leader” on the sheet, sometimes that makes it easier to not have to say conditions or symptoms in front of someone else.

 

We talked later on the drive home and he shared with me how uncomfortable it was.  We talked through some of his concerns like “are lay people able to do this?”  We listened to a podcast (“Restore the Glory” #57) together where a doctor, Dr. Tom Nelson, I believe from Illinois, was using prayer methods as part of his practice now.  

 

My brother-in-law felt a lot better about it, a lot more comfortable because he understood it better, the concept of it, the reasonings and scripture behind it, and he saw it demonstrated in the mainstream, by doctors and other priests who were skeptical at first, like me and him, but now wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

I also found out that his wife, my sister, is pregnant with baby #4. In every pregnancy she has struggled with intense nausea, so I went over to pray with her for a bit, maybe two weeks ago.  At the end of that week she reported that she hadn’t thrown up for four days, and that her husband was praying over her daily now too.  Praise be to God!

 

Keep my sister in your prayers if you don’t mind, this will be my 9th niece or nephew, I currently have four and four, four nieces, four nephews, so this will be the tie breaker.  But she has had one miscarriage and could benefit from more prayer, that the baby is healthy and she is healthy.

 

So another huge benefit of going out two-by-two is the ability to practice prayer with someone.  This is huge, how do we get good at something without practice?  My brother-in-law is a football coach, he gets this notion of practice.  So who better to practice with than with your spouse, the person that knows you the best?  A person that you won’t be embarrassed in front of either?

And if you are sitting there thinking, I don’t have a spouse, what about me?  Well, do you have a friend? A family member you are close to?  I don’t have a spouse either you know, but God puts people in our lives that we can pray and practice with. Community. 

 

Doing this healing prayer, practicing it, making it second nature, common place, has much larger implications. Coincidentally, I have actually been thinking about, praying about this Gospel story for the last few weeks because of this line that I already quoted to you, “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals.”

 

You know that we are all called to mission, right? Each and every one of us.  Jesus calls us in the same way to prepare people’s hearts to receive Him, this hasn’t changed, we are to go with nothing except our knowledge and love of Him.  

 

But it is amazing to me how much effort we put into the mission field, especially around helping the poor, without the focus on prayer.  Our thought with the poor is, “just give them money, just give them food, give them whatever they need to ease their burden” and we do that because it is easy, because it is less uncomfortable, but that is not what Jesus did or taught.

 

In fact, Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them” (Mark 14:6; also Matthew 26:11) - but what is the good He did for them, He healed them?  And so did His disciples.

 

We hear in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 3, a man crippled from birth who begged for alms every day, he asked Peter and John for money one day, and in verse 6, “Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk.”” 

 

And this man was healed and he “went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God.” This is way better than receiving money or food, and this was Jesus' method.

 

I’m not saying we shouldn't give poor people food and money, but if we are not giving them prayer, if we are not giving them Jesus as well, then we are missing the point!  Pope Paul VI said in Evangelii Nuntiandi, “There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the Kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.” 

 

It is NOT enough to just do good things and hope people assume you’re doing it for the sake of Christ! We must pray and we must speak in His name and power! Maybe we are drawn to the easier, more comfortable thing, because, well, probably because we haven't taken the time to practice. 

 

The practice starts at home, the domestic church, and then it filters out to the larger church, a church that prays together and for each other, like I discussed on Pentecost, and then the rest of the world, especially the poor in Spirit.

 

Do you see why this is huge? Are you starting to see why this is so important?  Praying for healing is at the core of the Gospel, it is at the core of the message of Jesus, the mission of the disciples, and therefore, our mission as well.

 

I’ve printed more prayer sheets in case you weren't here on Pentecost or in case you lost yours or just want more.  I will keep printing them if necessary.  They are in the back on the taller table behind section three, and more by the Adoration Room door.

 

This world needs Jesus more than anything else.  We come here to receive Him, to be strengthened by Him in the Word and Sacrament to go out and proclaim His Kingdom to those who aren’t here. 

 

But we do need to practice, and that happens at home, that starts with some rote prayers and some discomfort, but it turns into a comfortableness and a familiarity that allows us to say to a stranger who appears to be hurting, “can I pray for you in the name of Jesus Christ?” 

 

And when people receive healing or they receive peace from prayer, it will be like that first reading said, “When you see this, your heart shall rejoice and your bodies flourish like the grass; the LORD's power shall be known to his servants.” 

Amen! May it be so.