There is a story from the 9th century about a group of Irish monks found floating in a boat off the shore of England. They are brought to the king, King Alfred, a pretty devout Christian, and asked to explain who they are and where they are going. The monks respond with a powerful statement of faith and trust in God: “We stole away because we wanted for the love of God to be on pilgrimage, we cared not where.”
And so these monks snuck away from their monastery, got in a boat, threw away the oars, and allowed the currents to guide them wherever they led. They wanted to follow God’s call on their lives, and they realized that they couldn’t necessarily do it cloistered amongst a group of Christians; they had to get out into the world. But they didn’t want to allow their own reasoning and reasons to get in the way of where they were going so they left their destination up to God, and trusted that he would send them to a place where they were needed.
These monks were sent out by God to make a difference in the world, and they truly relied totally and completely on him to not only show them the way, but to meet their needs upon the way. These monks lived with a ruthless trust in their heavenly Father: trusting that he would guide them, trusting that he would meet their needs, trusting that he would use them.
This doesn’t seem to be a ministry model that is pushed terribly much in today’s world. In today’s world we do surveys to see where our gifts are, we research communities to see where their needs are. Church plants go through a long and complicated process to make sure that the community the church is being planted in has the means to support the church. Church planters go through a rigorous assessment process as they determine whether they are truly called to do what God is calling them to do. And the earthly resources are hoarded and counted so that we know that we can succeed at the work we are doing.
And somehow, in the midst of this process, the Holy Spirit is ignored, the movement of God is pushed aside, ruthless trust in God is scoffed at.
I. Equipped to Share
Last week we looked at what it means to be God’s ambassadors. We looked at the fact that the people of God (in the Old Testament, the Israelites, in the New Testament and beyond, the church) are called to pursue Christ and to pursue Christ’s priorities. We looked at the fact that we are called to spread Jesus’ love and truth to the world around us, and when we refrain from doing this we are lost and without purpose. We heard the call to return to the purpose that God has placed in our lives, to share the good news with those around us. Here, in today’s scripture, we see Jesus call and equip his twelve disciples to go out and share the good news with the world around them. We see that he calls them to share the good news and we see that he then seems to send them off on their own.
This could be a scary thing for the disciples. It isn’t exactly what they signed up for. After all, they had signed on board to being Jesus’ followers. They had agreed to follow and listen to Jesus, to learn from him. And now, instead of being the followers they hoped to be, they were having the rug pulled out from under them as they were sent off on their own to preach the good news. Jesus sent them away with instructions and he sent them away with the knowledge that they could do what he was asking of them. He told them that their message was specifically for the people of Israel, the lost sheep. He focuses their mission. Jesus knew that his mission and their future mission would include the gentiles and the Samaritans, but he knew that it couldn’t all be done at once, so even though Jesus wanted to see the message of the Kingdom of God get to the whole world, he limited where he was sending the disciples. He told the disciples what their message was to be: “The kingdom of heaven is near.” And then he gave them what they needed to share that message, he told them that they would be able to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy and drive out demons.
II. Freely Give
How would they be able to do this? Because they had received these blessings from God and were told to share them with others. “Freely you have received, freely give,” Jesus says. Know that everything you do is not in your own power but is a gift from God. Know that I have blessed you greatly and now it is time for you to share that blessing with those around you. It isn’t right to hold onto the blessings of God without sharing them. It isn’t right to use the blessings of God just for yourself. Throughout the Bible, whenever anyone is blessed by God, there is the expectation that they will use the blessings to make a difference for others. Freely you have received, freely give.
And then, like the monks in the story I started with this morning, the disciples weren’t to take what they needed with them. They weren’t to plan ahead. They weren’t to even bring extra clothing. Rather they were to head out on the mission that God had given them and rely on God to meet their needs fully as they traveled from town to town. Scary. In today’s world this might mean going on a mission trip before you have raised enough money to do so. Or it might mean that a church should spend more energy and time and money (all of which are precious) to reach out to their community and meet the needs around them instead of focusing on themselves. As individuals it might mean that when you feel that God is calling you in a certain direction, moving you to a certain action, you not allow yourself to second-guess it, but rather begin to head in that direction and allow God to work.
The concept of going around in a boat with no oars is a scary one. Relying on God to point your rudder is much less comfortable than having your own hand on the rudder, guiding you where you need to go. And yet when Jesus calls us to follow him, to go where he sends us, he wants us to allow him to be in control. He promises to provide for us and he reminds us that we shouldn’t rely on ourselves and our own strengths.
III. A Few Workers
But I also want to look a bit at the scripture right before where Jesus sends his disciples out. You see, I believe that in sending his disciples off at this point, Jesus was preparing them for what they would deal with after his death and resurrection. But I also believe that he sent them off because he looked at the world around him and truly saw a world that needed help and he knew that twelve people spreading the good news of the Kingdom of God was better than just one person.
Jesus used a great farming metaphor. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” He looked around and saw that work needed to be done, and he saw that it was more than he could do on his own. It’s like that small window of opportunity that you have to plant, or to harvest. If you don’t get the corn in the ground by a certain time, then even though you are using the same seed, even though you have the same soil, you will lose bushels because you were late getting it in. There is a timing involved in farming, a timing that is important, a timing that sometimes makes it a bit stressful to be a farmer. And Jesus was looking around at the people around him, people in need, people who needed to hear the good news of the kingdom, people who needed to be healed from a world that caused them pain. And Jesus saw their need, he saw that they were ready to hear that good news if only he had enough workers to share it. The time was short and the message needed to get out there. And so he took the disciples, who didn’t feel like they were ready, and he sent them out to share that good news.
I believe that the same is true for us today. God is taking us because once again the people around us are in need, they are needing to hear about the good news of the kingdom of God, they are needing to be healed from a world that causes them pain. And he is ready to send us out to preach the good news, to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is near. And he wants us to stop relying on ourselves, and worrying about how we’re going to do it. Rather, he wants us to rely on his power, on his guidance, and allow him to work through us. Jesus sent out his disciples because he knew he couldn’t do it alone. He knew there was too much work for just one person to accomplish it all. The same is true today. We cannot rely on the pastor to do it all, we cannot say that the church board is going to do all the work at the church and all we have to do is come. No God is calling all of us to move forward in our faith, to reach out to the world around us, to share the good news of the kingdom of heaven. We might feel overwhelmed; we might feel that we aren’t capable of doing it all. But the disciples felt the same thing, and they relied on God to give them the tools they needed. God will do the same for us if we just go where he is calling us to go. Amen.
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