Merciful God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding: pour into our hearts such love toward you that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

WHAT is left unsaid in the Gospel reading is as significant as what is said. We know that Jesus appointed 70 people to go in pairs to the places that he intended to visit on the familiar pilgrim-route from Galilee to Jerusalem - a journey he had made many times since his childhood.

 his time, however, having set his face to go to Jerusalem, he made careful plans, and sent people ahead of him, like John the Baptist, to prepare the way.

What we do not know is who these people were. In Luke 6, after a night in prayer, Jesus chose the Twelve from his larger group of disciples. It seems that the choice was not obvious, and he considered others when praying. Jesus was surrounded by a larger group of male and female disciples and, after the ascension, Peter referred to people who had accompanied the Twelve all the time that the Lord was with them.

These faithful people had allowed their lives to be disrupted by the Kingdom of God's coming among them. Despite any disappointment they might have felt about not having been chosen as part of Jesus's inner circle, especially when they saw actions of some of those who had been chosen, they had stuck with Jesus.

Now it was their opportunity, as he chose some of them for a special task. Their number suggests a symbolic link to the 70 elders of Israel (Exodus 24.1). We should not forget that there were still more who were not so chosen. Most staunch discipleship is not lived in the limelight, but is embodied by the multitude of people who never hit the headlines, but are always there, ready to respond when a new call comes.

As come it did to these 70. They were sent with the same basic instructions as the Twelve had previously been sent: to go from place to place, healing the sick, casting out demons (although not a specific instruction, they later reported that they had done this), and proclaiming the Kingdom of God. They were to expand the reach of Jesus's ministry substantially.

This meant staying where they were welcomed, and moving on when they were rejected. Shaking the dust off their feet was not a literal action, but a saying like our "Wash your hands of it." In addition to any implied judgement, by shaking themselves free, they left unencumbered by the baggage of bad memories gnawing away at their hearts. It was primarily about how they went forward, not whom they left behind.

Where they were welcomed, they were to eat what was offered, however meagre, plentiful, or unappetising, and to respond to the needs that they met. They were not to move to another house where the hospitality looked better, but to stay where they had been first welcomed. Underlying this is a sense of receiving and being content with what is enough, even if not ideal - a concept of which our consumer society has lost sight.

Jesus sent his disciples without purse, bag, or sandals; so they were completely vulnerable to the hospitality of others. If it was not forthcoming, they had no resources to fall back on, and it could be risky to move on, especially at dusk. Paul, who knew too well from his travels about exposure to the dangers of inhospitality, reminded his former hosts in Galatia that those who were taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher, a theme that he also wrote about to the Romans (Romans 15.27).

This mutual sharing of what people have - the good news of the Kingdom of God's coming near, the material resources necessary for daily life - sounds a wonderful concept, but it depends on faithfulness by all concerned. According to Jesus, the initial risk is to be taken by those whom he sends, who are to go with openness to others who have not yet heard their message. Barbara Kingsolver's brilliant novel The Poisonwood Bible exposes how difficult this can be.

Rather than a story to be glossed over as one that we have already heard in a slightly different form in the previous chapter, the commitment of these unnamed disciples is something to celebrate. The outcome for all, Jesus included, was joy.