July 8, 2007  

Rev. Dr. Jon Smoot   

 

Last week: Pastor Winnette preached on the passage just before this one with the three wanna-be disciples of Jesus – each had their own compelling reasons to delay joining with Jesus. Scott’s point: Let’s raise the bar – let’s not measure our devotion to God by our membership in a church, but by our committed discipleship. Today we continue that trajectory – We are journeying with Jesus toward God’s promised shalom and there is no point in wistfully looking back, or even willy-nilly jumping into some future of our own devising. Today, and everyday, we are called to just travel – travel wisely, travel lightly, but travel – with sealed orders that we break open along the way.

 

Frankly, I was sorely tempted this week to give this passage a clear miss – figured you and I could use a break from the relentless, hard-ball volleys from Jesus. The other lectionary passage for today was a nice, friendly passage from Galatians about the importance of being nice to each other – something every church, including ours, carries as a self-description.  True or not, it’s what every church says. Ever read a church self-description that starts out, “we are a cranky, self-absorbed, homogenous lot and we like it just that way?”

 

But no, we need to wrestle with Jesus because we are in his cross-hairs, which is where we always should be. This story speaks to a core of BHPC’s identity and so, our identity. Years and years ago, BHPC was known as a “Music Church,” and justifiably so. Over the last two decades that has changed, and we have become more known as a “Mission Church.” We are one of the top missions-giving churches in the Presbytery, but that is not something to crow about; it’s more a reflection on our moribund sister and brother churches in the Presbytery. Session does have the commitment to increase our mission percentage of the annual budget, and we have tons of mission activity and committees and study groups – all good stuff. But I need to ask – Just what is mission? – What is our mission? – as one of our elders asked me not too long ago.

 

Being known as a Mission Church is all well and good – but it’s essentially off-target and off-message. Being a mission church implies that the brick and mortar and stained glass, the church building is somehow the locus, the command central for mission funding and learning. That implies that mission is what a few committed and spirited people do around here, while the rest of us watch, and write the checks. Folks, we require, because God requires, a radically new understanding of mission. We require, because God requires, a revolution, a complete reorientation, a paradigm-shift, whatever metaphor you choose.

 

Here’s the deal: like it or not, believe it or not – by virtue of your baptism in the Christian faith, you are the missionary, the emissary, and the ambassador for God in your everyday life. And that brings the paradigm shift: The church is you, not the building, not the budget, not the BHX. It is impossible to go to church, since you are the church. So it’s high time we stop going to church and start being the church. That’s a very different matter from what usually consumes our time and energy around here.

 

Church Historian and writer Martin Marty, in the Christian Century noted what he sincerely hoped was a typographical error in an advertisement for a general secretary for a church organization: “The successful applicant will be a committee Christian with strong church connections and the ability to work with colleagues…” Committee Christian…hmmm…

 

On the other hand, take a look at our mission statement on the bulletin masthead: “A joyful community of disciples…proclaiming the living Christ in our everyday lives.” Now that is mission – all of us missionaries of God’s good news. So, let’s look more closely at Jesus’ instructions to the 70 – in these we find ageless, timeless marching orders for our going out with God.

 

We read that Jesus commissioned 70 “others” to head on out the door – not the 12 disciples. This points to a difference in function: the 12 represent the preaching and teaching ministry of the church – the clergy, if you will. The 70 represent the real mission: the mission of the laity in the world. One writer says: “The chasing out of the devils that tear humankind apart is a work that cannot be done by the clergy; even if they spoke out as they should. That work cannot be done by those 12, but by the 70. You are the 70 – and that means you should be on your mission.”

 

Moreover, Jesus says, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…” Harvest implies ripening, urgency, window of opportunity – what Jesus is getting at is the world’s crying need for the good news of God embodied in and entrusted to you. What has God especially empowered you to do and to be in the world? Are you keeping faith with the opportunity that God has given you to be fully alive before God and so fully effective in God’s world? What are the particular talents and gifts with which you were born, and which have been born in you through your experience in the world? Your ongoing story and ongoing history has already been invaded by the power of God’s gracious reign. What will you do with that? You see, the kingdom of God is not in the next age, but in the next room, the next conversation, the next action – God’s reign is making exploratory forays into your apparently ordinary daily life.

 

My neighbor across the street, Dan, is a Special Forces veteran who served two highly dangerous tours in Vietnam. He is heart-sick over the war in Iraq. What does he do with that? It is his personal mission to go to Walter Reed at 3 am – when the military brings home, out of media reach, the most grievously wounded soldiers. Dan said that sometimes they are no more than torsos, arms and legs blown clean off. He is there to salute them and thank them, whether they are conscious, or not. In every sense, that’s traveling wisely – melding your particular story with God’s story, and no one can tell it, but you.

 

 Travel lightly. Carry no baggage or luggage – keep your identity and your mission simple and clear. You are a Christian first, and every other role, second. You are a Christian before you are a physician, researcher, lawyer, lobbyist, parent, musician, student, retiree. You are a Christian before any other role you play in life. The roles you pursue in life are vehicles for your witness. Every day, your life is a proclamation of the living Christ when you enter a home, a business, a hospital, a school, and say and enact, “Peace to this house” and “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”

 

You are the word of grace: the word of forgiveness where there was only guilt. The word of courage where was only despair. The word of challenge, where was only cynicism. The word of healing, where there was only crippling addiction or emotional stupor. The word of profound hope, where there was only emptiness.

 

Travel wisely, travel lightly, but travel.

 

Jesus goes on: “Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide. Do not move about from house to house.” There is no shopping around for the best room and board: Work the cards – the missionary situation that God has dealt you. The host, not the guest, sets the context for your witness. Others are to be the host, we are the guests. We eat what is set before us. We disciples do not dictate the menu, nor impose our cultural background or baggage or tastes on others. Bethesda is rapidly changing, as is the entire D.C. Metro area. Let’s find out what these hosts are serving up, what deepest yearnings gnaw at their insides, and joyfully join them with our good news of God’s grace.

 

Wherever you enter a home, a school, a business, in charity and in faith, the very peace of God is there and God will unseal your orders and give you your witness. We do go out as lambs in the midst of wolves – but we do not go out alone or unequipped. When rejected, never take it personally or as a failure – there is no such thing with this mission. The only failure is to never travel, never get on the road.

 

Travel wisely, travel lightly – but travel. We have incredibly gracious and powerful seeds to sow along the way – God’s seeds of hope and compassion and healing and challenge. Sow the seeds in your everyday life that God has given you - what happens after that is not your business. No judgmentalism, no scalp-taking, no notches on your walking stick for good things done or demons cast out, no crowing about mission giving percentages – just rejoice, that is reward enough.

 

Rejoice. Sure this is serious stuff – God is commissioning us to get out on the front lines for God’s sake. But think again: You are ambassadors in the diplomatic service of a power more majestic, more inclusive, more beautiful, more just, than any earthly kingdom or power. And you are doing the joyous work your Creator has in mind for you and for God’s world. There is the joy in the journey. Thanks be to God.