7th Week of Pentecost

2 Corinthians 3:1-6
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, shown to be a letter of Christ administered by us, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather, our qualification comes from God, who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

Luke 10:1-7
After this the Lord appointed seventy (-two) others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another.

Lord God,
as we trace upon ourselves the sign of your glorious cross,
grant that we may conquer all evil passions
and find a new source of strength to fight against the evil one.
May we draw help and strength from your cross
to confront our visible and invisible enemies;
and we shall exalt your glory,
and that of your Father, and your Holy Spirit,
now and for ever. Amen.

In the Old Testament we see that at the tower of Babel there are said to be 72 languages created after the men of the earth are said to have tried to build a tower into heaven. This division is based on the number of families that are delineated from Noah. Similarly, we find that the spirit of God descends upon seventy elders with Moses plus two other men at the camp thus as in the book of Numbers we find both the numbers 70 and 72 for those who would represent Moses to the people of God. Jesus’ 70 or 72 disciples is thus a fulfillment of the 72 disciples of Moses who are representatives to the people of God. The 72 are also a reversal of the division caused by the curse of Babel. These disciples were sent out because God was calling others through them. There are few harvesters and few laborers.

When we look at the Gospel, we may think that the problem is not too few workers, but rather too small of a harvest. We think we are in a period of famine when really we are in a time of abundance with a labor shortage. We are called to be representatives of Jesus in the world,to restore unity and peace to the divided world.