Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ,
In the first
half of this morning’s gospel we hear again Mark’s account of the time the people
in Jesus’ home town rejected him. Jesus
kept on going, however. He didn’t let
opposition stand in his way. The second
half of the reading gives us a sample of his determination and his unquenchable
spirit. Instead of brooding on the
unfairness of life and looking for a safe retreat, he sent his apostles out on
their first missionary journey. He gave
them the strength and courage to act as leaders in an environment that might
not welcome them. He did a lot for his
helpers, and does a lot for his people today, and that’s our subject this
morning – what Jesus does to equip believers for life in the world into which
he’s placed us.
When I was
in the American army many years ago, I learned that the military always has two
things in mind – first, their mission and then the welfare of the people who
carry it out. If a battalion of
soldiers, say, has orders to capture a certain city, they must do it, no matter
what. Their objective is foremost. Casualties are often an acceptable price to
pay. Concern for the fighting people
comes second. They need to be clothed,
housed, and fed. Injuries need to be
tended to. Morale has to be kept up – all
for the sake of the mission.
Jesus is
different. He is just as concerned about
the needs of the people who work with him as he is with the building up of his
kingdom. The two go together, as we see
in today’s reading.
Nearly
everyone wants to be useful, to be needed, to take an active part in life. The way our world is set up, it sometimes
seems that only a lucky few get to use their abilities to the full – movie
stars, top politicians, heads of large organizations, and so on, while the rest
of us live on the sidelines, so it seems, either watching or carrying the
burdens.
Jesus set up
his kingdom on a different basis. He
uses the lowly and the humble of heart.
Some of the apostles were fishermen, ordinary people in the world’s
eyes. Matthew was a tax collector, a man
on the margins of society in those days.
The apostles lived close to the earth; they knew about simple things and
had no contact with the powerful or the great.
They probably expected to live obscure lives, dulled by routine. Then Jesus came and lifted them up. He called them to important tasks that
brought significance to their lives. He gave
them power to cast out demons and to heal.
He instructed them to spread good news about the possibility of a new
lease on life through repentance and faith.
God had come to earth in human flesh with forgiveness and redemption
from sin and salvation. How committed
and eager for life the apostles must have been as they set out on their first
independent errand for the Lord.
We’re not
apostles, of course, with a unique assignment from Jesus and most of us aren’t at the beginning of our walks with the Lord,
but our Savior still calls us and satisfies our yen for significance and freedom from anxiety. He gives us earthly tasks such
as homemaking, raising children, going to school, and earning our livings. Plus, he empowers us to spread the good news
by showing our neighbors through words and actions God’s love for them. We forgive trespasses; we help others carry
their burdens; we tell them about the church.
Jesus gives us something significant and worthwhile to do by making us
his ambassadors who work for the building up of the kingdom. His Spirit working on us makes us open,
affirming, confident people, grateful to him and eager for the life he
gives. If you stop and think about it,
thanks to Jesus, everything we do is on the side of life.
Now, when he
sent the apostles out, Jesus gave them simple instructions about what to take
with them. The message they conveyed was
so important they didn’t have time to think about luxuries. They traveled light. Earthly goods often weigh us down, especially
after we accumulate a few decades of stuff.
Somebody once said that things are in the saddle and ride mankind. Jesus gives his people a new focus, so he
told his disciples to leave their possessions at home.
It wasn’t
that he planned to turn them into puritans or make their lives
uncomfortable. He wanted to deepen in
them a quality every believer needs – trust and dependence on him. He wanted to convince them that the Heavenly
Father would provide them with food and hospitality. He would take care of
their needs while they were in his service.
He wanted them to have a feeling of security. They might meet
opposition. They might be rejected or mocked.
They might occasionally wonder – with their very human minds – where
they’d sleep at night or where their food would come from. Jesus instilled in them the trust that he
always takes care of his people. He will
never run out or change his mind. He
provided for the Israelites as they wandered through the desert for forty
years; he looked out for his apostles; he takes care of his kingdom people
today, as you and I can testify.
We humans often resist turning to God. We like to rely on ourselves and sometimes
our neighbors. Human means bring partial
success, of course, but they never carry us as far as we need to go. Jesus rescues us from the anxiety and
frustration of natural, earthly life, so he trains us – sometimes by means of
hardship and adversity – to depend on him.
He gives us new minds so that we know him and come to lean on him more
and more.
He builds up
our faith so that we trust that everything we do we do for him. Our worship, prayers, reading the Bible,
chatting about the Gospel – all these serve the kingdom. We also serve as we clean the house or wash
the car, carry out our tasks at work or school, and take care of church
property, as your pastor has told me the folks at Risen Christ do very
well.
Christian
living is about more than doing things, however. Jesus is concerned with what takes place
inside us – what we think, what we want, our feelings. He gives us his own standards to live by and
then empowers us to follow them – faith first and then love, which we express
with gentleness, kindness, forbearance, patience, self-control. He transforms us bit by bit – sometimes
without our being aware of what he’s doing for us – into his image so that we
become like him.
The apostles
were later disappointed with some parts of their first missionary journey. Jesus counseled them gently. He invites us, too, to be loving and patient
with ourselves. If we take up a project
and good results don’t come as quickly as we’d hoped, we may blame
ourselves. Self-criticism is good, of
course, but it’s not our Lord’s intention that we tie ourselves up in knots of
reproach. Nothing we humans do will ever
be perfect. We bring our concerns to him, for he is the judge, not we, and his
ways are loving. He doesn’t want us to
be proud, but neither do we sink into despair.
We accept his assurance that labor for him is never in vain and we keep
on going.
Another way
of saying what Christ did for the apostles is that he gave them life in full
abundance. He freed them from fear and
dependency. He gave them a portion of
his freedom as a gift, so that they’d be free to serve him. He blessed them with new life.
A Christian
thinker who lived near the start of the church said that the greatest work of
God is a living human being, who possesses eternal life in Christ, which God
shapes and molds. Scripture tells us
that he worked on Peter and Paul and Thomas, the apostle who doubted, to make
them fully alive.
He makes us
alive, too. We pass through turmoil and
trials, both as individual believers and the church as a whole. We’re tempted and we sin. Sometimes we’re sorrowful. All the while, the Lord shapes us to endure,
to persist, and to prevail. He trains us
in faith and love, so that we are capable servants who live by his grace.
The apostles
must have picked up profound insights into themselves and human nature and our
common spiritual needs during their missionary journeys. Jesus helped them overcome their
uncertainties and trust that they would be safe and useful in his care. Some of the folks to whom they brought the
gospel must have seen God at work in them and wondered how to acquire faith in
Christ themselves. We can imagine people
wondering – how can we find a better way than the everlasting frustration of
daily living? The apostles brought them
the answer – look to Jesus. He will
provide for you. He will give your lives
meaning and keep you safe for eternity.
The same is
true for you and me. If we’re weak, the
savior forgives and restores. The light
of his grace shines through the chinks in his armor as he transforms our minds
and souls. Our neighbors may notice Jesus’ actions in our lives. They see that the Heavenly Father loves his
children and gives us work to carry out, that we are confident, loving, and
strong, alive in the hope of ever lasting blessedness. The people we come in contact with may never
say anything about what they notice in us, but some will wonder how they can
live in faith, joyful, persistent, and strong in stressful times. We are equipped to show them the way. Jesus, who does not withhold himself from
anyone who seeks him, will fulfill their desire to know him.
To keep us
humble, the Holy Spirit may never show us the results of our work for the
kingdom. Nevertheless, the Heavenly
Father wants us to carry in our hearts the assurance that we are following in
the footsteps of our Lord and his apostles.
He encourages us to be certain that he will use our faith and that in
his loving way he will keep us fruitful servants of the kingdom. In his name we
give thanks. AMEN.
The peace of God that
passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ
Jesus. AMEN.
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