Sunday, June 8, 2008 
Scripture reading: Luke 10:1-5. 17-20
10After this the Lord appointed seventy* others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!”
17 The seventy* returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ 18He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’
Sermon Title: "A PIECE OF THE PUZZLE" Sunday, June 8, 2008
PASTOR HUDSON: Well, this morning we
are sending forth our mission team from Wesley United
Methodist. They're going to be headed to the area
around Rio Bravo. I think it's appropriate for
today's theme of our worship context not only to
minister to them, but also to ourselves as we think
about what I'm choosing to call a piece of the puzzle,
that important half of the equation that involves our
being willing to step up and engage in mission and
ministry.
In this text in Luke's gospel the first
thing that I would want us to simply note is that as
God sends them forth, this original 70, there is a
general sense of big expectations. Those expectations
are on two different planes. The first is that there are large
expectations on
the part of those that are sent into the mission
field. Jesus made that extremely clear. He said first, I'm
sending you out like lambs among the
wolves. He then suggests that they and we go with the desire
to do no harm, to be only gentle in the midst of a
highly unpredictable world.
A number of years ago a mission trip that I took
to another country I was told that if you died while
you were on this mission trip and you reported it to
the authorities, your family might not see you until
you were ripe, so to speak.
So we were instructed to load the deceased onto the bus,
put a hat on him or her, and in a scene reminiscent of Weekend At
Bernie's, drive back across the border and report the death
there. They were very serious about that instruction.
That was a possibility that you had to reckon with.
Now we do not anticipate any horrific stories
coming back to us, and yet those things are always realities that
anybody that
goes on a mission trip has to consider.
Trust God is the first and primary understanding
of being called and commissioned in mission work, and
I think Jesus dramatizes it. Don't take a purse,
don't take a bag, go with your confidence in God, but
then Luke goes a step further. He says don't move
around from house to house.
"Don't move around from house to house," and a little
bit later in a related statement, ("Eat whatever is set in
front of you,") is the idea of do not try and barter for
a better deal.
Now how does that apply to us? There are times on mission
trips when
things are not just as perfect as they ought to be,
but you just suck it up and say this is what God has
given me, it's good enough, it's okay.
I remember one time we were on a mission trip and
normally we would take someone along from our church to be chef,
(usually targeting one of our best cooks,) so when you
came in at the end of the day you knew you'd have
fried chicken and smashed potatoes and gravy, all
of your favorites. We didn't do that
this time. We hired another individual, and I learned
what it was to have corn tortillas every single meal for
the entire week.
By the time I got back north of the border and I
saw the sign that said Denny's, I thought this is
truly what heaven must be like. Get me to a Denny's and
do not show me a corn tortilla. The mission team made
it a point (because I had commented about the tortillas a time or
two during the week) to make sure that I had a plateful of
tortillas for breakfast at Denny’s that morning. Jesus said
don't try to parlay a better deal. Eat what is set in
front of you. Trust God that what is provided is
exactly what is needed.
There is also high expectations when it comes to
the result. The disciples came back celebrating
because something amazing had happened. They had
discovered that even the demons were subject to them.
For you see, while Jesus commissions us with big
expectations, he provides big results, and as we come
back we discover that suddenly amazing things have
happened.
One of the most dramatic experiences that I've
had over the years was when I was on a construction
team. Bob Reynolds was with us, and Bob was a retired
career full colonel in the Air Force, a combat pilot.
He had lived life in the Air Force in a very full and
engaged way, and we knew him around the church, at
least unofficially, as Colonel because Bob was tough
and gruff. He was the go-to kind of person on our
mission trip. You couldn't ask for anybody better
because Bob was going to make sure the details
were taken care of.
What I didn't expect was that on the last day
when we gathered together to bless the house that Bob
and his team had built, as we turned the key over to
the family, I looked up and Bob was weeping. The
colonel had tears running down his face because he
experienced something.
I believe what he experienced that day was akin
to the experience of the disciples when they came back
because, you see, the house that Bob's team built that
day replaced a house that can only be described this
way: If you can imagine your family, husband and
wife, two very precious little girls and a little boy,
their prior house being a dirt floor, rusted sheet
metal, odds and ends of plywood, packing crates and an
old blanket nailed up for a door, if you can imagine
that being their home.
Then to have the opportunity to move into
something that by our standards is not that great, a
12X16 cinder block house, two doors, two windows,
sheet metal roof. It was as though we had told them
they won the lottery, as though you had given them an
immense prize. Little wonder then that Colonel Bob
wept. If he was weeping, you know everyone else was.
Big expectations, big results.
The story the disciples told was a story of
celebration that was so marvelous that they came back
enthused and excited about what God had done in their
minds. I know many of us share in common the fact
that we have experienced that over and over and over
again as people come back and say you won't believe
what happened while we were there.
We return to tell the story, not just in the
lives of those to whom will go to serve, but in our
lives as well. So the question will be what will the
story be that they bring back to know that God has
used them to accomplish some marvelous things?
They're going out as a part of this wonderful
puzzle, this wonderful image of the church, and they
are a key piece to bring us back that picture to its
clearest image. I'm going to ask you to lay your
hands on them as we pray for them. Feel free to be
praying quietly or however you feel the need because
we are truly sending them forth. Let us be in prayer.