Sermon: Travel Instructions
July 21st, 2019 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Travel Safety Instructions
Please pay attention to the following safety instructions: when the sermon light is illuminated, please keep your seatbelt fastened. Fasten it by securing your belt or purse strap into pew pocket in front of you and tightening it over your knees. There are 4 emergency exits. 2 located in front of you and 2 located behind you. In case of a water landing, or if Jesus invites you to get out of the boat, grab a pew cushion and wrap it around your waist. In the case of a drop in sanctuary pressure, oxygen masks will drop down from the ceiling. Pull one towards you, place it over your nose and mouth and fill your lungs with the Breath of Life. Always put on your own mask before assisting your neighbor.
Jesus’ Travel Instructions
Jesus didn’t give Peter any kind of safety instructions when he invited him to get out of the boat and walk on the water. Maybe things would have gone more smoothly if he had. But we do have a record of Jesus giving travel instructions to his disciples before sending them out on the road – two different times. The first was to just the Twelve disciples, in Luke 9. Those instructions are very similar to the ones we read in Luke 10, only briefer – just 3 verses. Jesus says to the Twelve, “Take nothing for the journey – no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
When Jesus sends out the bigger group, the 72, he adds a few more details to his travel instructions. We’re going to take a closer look at these this morning, not just for Lisa’s sake, but because we all need them. We may not be stepping out of the boat, but we did step out of bed this morning and we will be stepping out of this church shortly, and sometimes that can be just as scary. You may have read this passage before and thought it pertained to only a small, select group of Christians – the foreign missionaries, church planters, professional evangelists, those Navy Seals of the Christian life. But Jesus is actually sending out thousands, millions, all of us. We are all sent out to our various jobs, to our various relationships, to our own corners of the world where we make a difference. These are the places where we prepare the way for Jesus. Did you notice that he sends out the 72 to the places “he is about to go.” He’s coming right behind! Yet there are things his disciples can do so that people are ready for him and will recognize him when he arrives.
1. Prayer
The first instruction Jesus gives, after commissioning the team, is Plead! The NIV says, Ask! Ask the Lord; beg God; on your knees and pray. Every trip out into the world should begin with prayer. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest fields. The needs of the world are overwhelming. That’s certainly how it felt for me as Linda, Will and I listened to a presentation Wednesday evening on a movement to stop human trafficking in this community and beyond. The world is desperate for love, needing care, longing for peace. But so many people don’t know Who is it that offers true love and peace. They don’t know Who they should be looking for. Pray for Christian brothers and sisters to answer the call to prepare the way for Jesus each day. I pray that you will pay attention to the tap on your shoulders or the whisper in your ear, the Spirit’s nudges that direct you to prepare the way for Jesus to come to the places you go, to the people you meet.
2. Provision
The next instruction Jesus gives (more like a command) is Go! For many of us, anytime we have to Go somewhere, the first thought is about provisions for the journey – grabbing the water bottle, giving yourself a pat down to check for keys and cell phone. In my family, road trips always require some kind of a snack bag with a sack of almonds, a few granola bars, maybe a piece of fruit, preferably some chocolate. Jesus says, don’t take anything with you – not even sandals for your feet!
I’m not sure Jesus intended the disciples to take this literally, as it was very likely that throughout their travels with Jesus they carried some kind of a small shoulder bag or travel basket. I’ve read that it was these baskets that the disciples would have used to collect the leftovers after Jesus fed the 5000. That’s why there were 12 baskets of leftovers, because the 12 disciples each filled their lunch bag. Jesus’ point is that we are to travel light, not be weighed down by extra stuff that distracts us from the mission we are on.
Jesus’ point is also that we are not to try to be self-reliant, to pack everything but the kitchen sink in our suitcases. Rather, we are to trust God’s provision, which will come through the hospitality of others. It’s easier to have our own stuff, or to be the ones providing hospitality. It’s more comfortable. We can cook the things we like. We can be in control. But Jesus says, eat what is offered to you. For the Jewish disciples, this would have meant taking the risk that the food wasn’t kosher. Jesus says, eat it anyway, be a gracious guest.
When David and I and our kids were commissioned by International Ministries to serve in India, we had several weeks of mission training. Toward the end, the kids were sharing with the adults the things they had learned using skits. Our daughter Lisa, pretending to be one of us parents, declared, “Whatever you are given for dinner, you will eat it, and you will like it, and you will say you like it!” I think Jesus is saying, be adventurous, try new things.
If the person we are reaching out to is in the safety of their own home, or in their own comfort zone, how much more open do you think they can be to hearing what you have to say? When you’re a guest on someone else’s turf, how much more aware are you of being respectful? The message for the church certainly seems to be that we should not just wait inside our familiar building, expecting people to come to us to hear about Jesus. We need to go out, enter others’ spaces, into the places familiar to them. Maybe that will take us to into jails, into schools, into businesses and bars, into our neighbors’ homes or into neighborhoods beyond our own.
Once you get there, don’t rush, Jesus says. If you’re welcomed, stay a while. Don’t high-tail it out at the first uncomfortable conversation, or the first thing you disagree on. Stay long enough to get past the awkwardness. Stay long enough to get to know someone, to build relationships.
This feels like a contradiction to Jesus’ instructions to not even greet anyone along the way. But again, Jesus is not speaking literally! What he is saying is, don’t get distracted from your assignment or lose track of what your mission and purpose is. Don’t be like that dog chasing here and there after every squirrel that enters its line of vision. “Don’t loiter and make small talk with everyone you meet along with way,” Eugene Peterson words it in the Message. Remember that its Christ’s mission you are on, your purpose is to prepare the way for Jesus, your priority is the message God has given you to proclaim. Which brings us to Jesus’ next instruction…
3. Proclaim
Jesus provides the messages we are to proclaim – a message of “Peace” and a message that “God is near.” The message of peace was a common greeting in Jesus’ time. Jesus greeted the disciples in the upper room with the words, “Peace be with you.” The word was shalom, and meant more than just peace as an absence of fighting, or peace as the opposite of anxiety. Shalom meant wholeness, harmony, total safety for mind and body. When you greet someone with the word ‘Shalom’ you are saying ‘May you be full of wellbeing’. Jesus speaks about this peace as if it is something tangible, touchable. It goes out from you as you speak it, it rests on the other person, or it can return back to you. Have you been in places where the peacefulness is palpable? Have you met people who carry with them such a deep peace that it envelopes you? Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace, my shalom, I give you.” (Jn.14:27) Jesus gives that kind of peace to us. We are to offer it to others.
Nowadays we generally don’t greet one another with the word ‘peace’ or ‘shalom’. So what would it sound like today to proclaim this message? Perhaps, ‘God bless you’? Or perhaps it is not in words, but something that really is tangible, like a hug. Think about that for a while – how could you convey God’s presence and peace when you enter someone’s home or sit down with them on a park bench or around a table?
The other message we are to proclaim is, “The kingdom of God has come near you.” Again, that’s not something we would commonly say, so what would that sound like today? I wonder if it’s just a message that God is here, God is near. God is at work all around you, so watch for signs – like watching for hearts! Has there been healing? It’s God at work. Has there been hope and encouragement? Something provided that you need? It’s God at work.
On a mission trip that I helped lead, one of our themes was to Expect to Meet God. We were to be on alert, watching, confident that we would meet God along the way. It changed our whole perspective as we eagerly headed out each day watching, expectant. And I tell you, we were not disappointed! We met God – over and over and over. Proclaim to those you meet, “God is near! God is right here!”
4. Praise God!
Which brings me to the final instructions Jesus gives – not to stress about the results. The outcome is up to God and to those who receive the message. If you are not welcomed, if your words are not received, shake it off and move on. Your work is not about your success or your achievement, but about the faithfulness of God and the wellbeing of those you serve in places where Jesus is about to show up. If people turn their backs on you or scorn your message, continue on your way, letting go of any sense of failure or any desire for revenge. On the other hand, if people treat you like an angel from heaven or like a spiritual rock star, let the power of God flow through you to strengthen and transform their lives, then redirect the praise to God. Don’t take credit as a personal achievement.
The disciples marvel at the power and authority God gave them when they were obedient and followed Jesus’ instructions. Jesus declares a victory over the forces of evil, illness and oppression. But then Jesus reminds the disciples that what is most important is their relationship with God, regardless of their apparent success or failure, regardless of the decisions or actions of the ones they encountered. Their job was simply to be faithful to the message, obedient to the call, open to the generosity of others, and alert to the presence of God.
God is near! God is here! Prepare the way for the Lord! It begins with prayer, so let’s join our voices together to sing a prayerful song in which we offer ourselves to God as harvest hands.
Closing Song: “Here I Am, Lord”
Go out in the power of the Holy Spirit, to prepare the way for Jesus!
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