WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.900 --> 00:00:04.900 Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and from our Lord and 2 00:00:04.900 --> 00:00:06.400 Savior Jesus Christ. 3 00:00:06.700 --> 00:00:07.200 Amen. 4 00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:14.300 I have a tendency to overthink things. 5 00:00:15.700 --> 00:00:21.900 Years ago, I adopted a dog but before I adopted the dog, I had to read 6 00:00:21.900 --> 00:00:26.300 books about owning a dog and I got all sorts of books. 7 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:31.700 "Puppy Come Home", "Dogs for Dummies", the "Dog Encyclopedia", "How Dogs 8 00:00:31.700 --> 00:00:32.100 Thinks." 9 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:33.000 I think I counted them 10 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:39.000 one time I must have had 21 books on taking care of dogs. And that's 11 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:43.300 not to mention the websites that I was looking at Paws and Petfinder 12 00:00:43.300 --> 00:00:45.300 an APA and Humane Society. And with 13 00:00:45.500 --> 00:00:49.500 all of the reading about keeping dogs and all of the websites and 14 00:00:49.500 --> 00:00:53.300 visiting the animal shelters and talking to dog owners. 15 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:57.500 I never had time to actually adopt a dog. Right 16 00:00:57.500 --> 00:00:59.000 I was, I was worried 17 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.500 I wanted to make sure that I had covered every possibility. 18 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:06.400 I knew what I was getting into and I was fit for the task. 19 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:11.600 I have a tendency to overthink things 20 00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:17.900 Which is why I am puzzled 21 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:26.200 and I will admit a little bit frightened, but ultimately thankful for 22 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:26.900 our Gospel 23 00:01:26.900 --> 00:01:28.300 reading this morning, 24 00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:38.800 Because in our Gospel reading, Jesus graciously stops our overthinking 25 00:01:39.700 --> 00:01:42.900 and immerses us in His mission. 26 00:01:44.700 --> 00:01:50.100 Jesus, graciously stops our overthinking. 27 00:01:51.100 --> 00:01:57.000 In our Gospel lesson, Jesus sends out, 72 disciples to engage in 28 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:57.600 Mission. 29 00:01:58.700 --> 00:02:03.700 Now, if Jesus had asked me and I will acknowledge that wisely, he 30 00:02:03.700 --> 00:02:08.500 didn't, but if Jesus had asked me, I would have told him he had not 31 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:10.500 thought through this enough. 32 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:17.700 I mean, after all, he admits that they are understaffed. The Harvest 33 00:02:17.700 --> 00:02:18.800 is plentiful 34 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:27.200 He says, but the workers are few, they are understaffed. When you have 35 00:02:27.300 --> 00:02:28.400 no 36 00:02:28.600 --> 00:02:33.800 enrollment of Seminary students, you don't go starting 37 00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:39.800 new Mission plants. You don't invest in some, wonderful, new cross 38 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:41.100 cultural Mission plants 39 00:02:41.100 --> 00:02:45.700 when you can't even cultivate enough students to staff, the churches, 40 00:02:45.700 --> 00:02:51.200 you already have. Your understaffed, it would make sense to work on 41 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:55.400 enrollment, but Jesus sends them out. 42 00:02:56.900 --> 00:02:59.800 And not only are they understaffed they're 43 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:07.700 ill-equipped. They're not able to take along money or a purse our sandals. 44 00:03:07.700 --> 00:03:12.100 They're going to rely on the hospitality of the people with whom 45 00:03:12.100 --> 00:03:13.800 they're sharing the gospel. 46 00:03:14.100 --> 00:03:14.400 Yeah 47 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:16.900 could you feed and give me some clothing and money? 48 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:17.300 Oh no 49 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:19.400 I'd like to tell you about Jesus. 50 00:03:20.600 --> 00:03:23.800 I mean we need to build up a donor base right? 51 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:28.400 We need to cultivate enough donor so that we can have enough funds so 52 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:33.600 that we can thoroughly equip our students before we send them out. 53 00:03:34.700 --> 00:03:40.600 So they're understaffed and ill-equipped and actually unprepared. 54 00:03:42.100 --> 00:03:48.500 Jesus says, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 55 00:03:50.100 --> 00:03:53.500 What do wolves do to Lambs? 56 00:03:54.800 --> 00:04:02.100 Is this a good shepherd sending Lambs in the midst of wolves? 57 00:04:03.700 --> 00:04:06.800 I mean I would I would say what we need is we need to do some 58 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:11.100 demographic profile of the geographic area into which we're sending 59 00:04:11.100 --> 00:04:11.500 you, right? 60 00:04:11.500 --> 00:04:15.700 Let's let's do some asset mapping and figure out what the assets and 61 00:04:15.700 --> 00:04:18.800 the needs are in the community and then figure out what we can do so 62 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:22.500 that we can be prepared or at least have a witness workshop on 63 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:25.700 testimony in the time of trial. Or better 64 00:04:25.700 --> 00:04:29.600 yet have a systematic course. Have a systematic course on church and 65 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:33.100 world where we don't learn about moralistic therapeutic deism. But we learn 66 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:37.700 about being a theologian of the cross in a polytheistic culture 67 00:04:37.900 --> 00:04:42.900 that's what we need. Understaffed, ill-equipped unprepared, and 68 00:04:42.900 --> 00:04:43.900 uninformed 69 00:04:43.900 --> 00:04:46.900 they are to preach the kingdom of God. 70 00:04:47.700 --> 00:04:51.000 What do they know about the kingdom of God? 71 00:04:52.300 --> 00:04:58.200 Jesus has predicted his passion, his death and resurrection and they 72 00:04:58.200 --> 00:05:00.700 don't even get that. 73 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:03.400 Do you send people out 74 00:05:03.400 --> 00:05:06.300 who don't even know they're gospel? 75 00:05:08.700 --> 00:05:18.500 But Jesus graciously stops our overthinking and sends out disciples 76 00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:26.600 who are understaffed, ill-equipped, unprepared and uninformed. 77 00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:27.200 Why? 78 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:34.800 Because the kingdom of God does not rest on your abilities. It does 79 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:38.100 not rest on your knowledge does not rest on your skills. 80 00:05:38.100 --> 00:05:38.300 The 81 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:47.000 kingdom of God belongs to Christ and God has sent him out to do the work 82 00:05:47.100 --> 00:05:48.500 of His kingdom. 83 00:05:49.100 --> 00:05:58.400 And Jesus Christ is very prepared to take care of any mess that you 84 00:05:58.400 --> 00:05:59.000 make. 85 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:04.800 You would know that if you've been reading the Gospel of Luke because, 86 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:08.300 right before this Jesus has been taking care of messes. 87 00:06:09.700 --> 00:06:13.200 Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration in the chapter before, he's 88 00:06:13.200 --> 00:06:16.500 up there with the disciples, Peter James and John, he gives them 89 00:06:16.500 --> 00:06:20.900 a glimpse, a glimpse of his Heavenly glory. And then they leave that 90 00:06:20.900 --> 00:06:22.800 mountain and come down to the plain 91 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:24.200 and what do they find? 92 00:06:24.200 --> 00:06:25.600 They find a mess. 93 00:06:25.900 --> 00:06:30.800 A mess that was created by the inability of his disciples. 94 00:06:31.500 --> 00:06:34.000 A father had brought his child to the disciples. 95 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:35.700 His child was possessed with a demon. 96 00:06:35.700 --> 00:06:39.100 The demon would throw his child on the ground, cause it to foam at the 97 00:06:39.100 --> 00:06:39.400 mouth. 98 00:06:39.700 --> 00:06:43.900 He brought his child to the disciples to cast out the demon and they 99 00:06:43.900 --> 00:06:45.700 were not able to. 100 00:06:46.300 --> 00:06:50.600 And so there has arisen in argument and distress over a child's life. 101 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:54.700 That is in danger and Jesus enters into that mess. 102 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:55.800 And what does he do? 103 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.100 Well it in so many words. 104 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:04.000 He just says leave them alone, I'll take care of this. 105 00:07:05.200 --> 00:07:09.700 And he takes that child, he cast the demon out of him and he gives the 106 00:07:09.700 --> 00:07:12.600 child to his father and they go on. 107 00:07:13.800 --> 00:07:15.300 They're headed toward Jerusalem. 108 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:21.100 And as they're walking along, they find a man, a man who is casting 109 00:07:21.100 --> 00:07:28.000 out demons in Jesus name, but this man is not following them. 110 00:07:28.900 --> 00:07:32.300 And so, John comes to Jesus and John says, we got a mess here, right? 111 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:35.000 We got a man who's casting out demons in your name. 112 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.000 Now, remember, the disciples were not able to cast out demons in Jesus 113 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:39.300 name. 114 00:07:39.400 --> 00:07:43.000 That's why there was a mess and now you got somebody who is able to do 115 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:43.200 it 116 00:07:43.200 --> 00:07:43.300 but he is 117 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:44.200 not one of us. 118 00:07:44.200 --> 00:07:47.400 What are we supposed to do? And Jesus in so many words 119 00:07:47.400 --> 00:07:48.800 says leave him alone. 120 00:07:50.100 --> 00:07:51.100 I've got this. 121 00:07:53.300 --> 00:07:58.000 And then they they passed by a Samaritan Village, Jesus sends the 122 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:02.300 disciples there to create a place for them to stay for the night. 123 00:08:02.300 --> 00:08:06.000 But when the Samaritans find out that they're headed toward Jerusalem, 124 00:08:06.700 --> 00:08:11.500 they closed the doors and having experienced such prejudice, the 125 00:08:11.500 --> 00:08:14.900 disciples, come to Jesus, and James and John who had been on the 126 00:08:14.900 --> 00:08:17.400 mountain and seen the glory James and John. 127 00:08:17.500 --> 00:08:21.300 They said to Jesus, Lord, do you want us to call down, fire from 128 00:08:21.300 --> 00:08:21.700 heaven 129 00:08:21.700 --> 00:08:22.900 to consume them? 130 00:08:24.100 --> 00:08:27.200 Jesus says leave them alone. 131 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:29.200 I've got this. 132 00:08:30.700 --> 00:08:36.799 Jesus has entered into messed up situation after messed up situation, 133 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:42.600 until he comes to the most messed-up situation of all. 134 00:08:44.100 --> 00:08:46.100 When he comes to Jerusalem 135 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:52.700 and God's people reject their Messiah. 136 00:08:54.800 --> 00:08:58.500 They nail him to a cross and hang him out to die. 137 00:08:58.500 --> 00:08:59.900 And as they've thrown Him 138 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:03.900 to the ground and the stretching out his arms and they're nailing his 139 00:09:03.900 --> 00:09:05.400 hands to the Cross. 140 00:09:05.400 --> 00:09:06.900 What does Jesus do? 141 00:09:07.100 --> 00:09:08.900 He prays to his father 142 00:09:08.900 --> 00:09:12.200 and says, Father forgive them. 143 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:14.800 Leave them alone 144 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:24.200 I've got this. Jesus takes our mess and he takes our inability, and he 145 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:29.900 takes our sins and punishment of God and He dies under all of 146 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:37.600 that that He might rise and rule over it. So that you can be confident 147 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:42.300 when He sends you out, understaffed, ill-equipped, unprepared and 148 00:09:42.300 --> 00:09:49.000 uninformed in Mission because Jesus can take care of any mess that you 149 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:49.800 create. 150 00:09:51.100 --> 00:09:57.200 It's His mission after all, not yours, not mine, not ours 151 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:01.600 it's His. And Luke is very specific about that. 152 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:09.400 He begins the account by saying Jesus sent them out ahead of him. 153 00:10:10.300 --> 00:10:14.400 Do you see that ahead of him, meaning that wherever you go 154 00:10:15.100 --> 00:10:20.200 Jesus is going to come. Whatever mess you create 155 00:10:20.700 --> 00:10:24.200 Jesus is going to enter into it. And in case you didn't get it the 156 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:25.100 next sentence 157 00:10:25.100 --> 00:10:32.100 Luke says, He sent them to the cities and places where He was about to 158 00:10:32.100 --> 00:10:32.700 go. 159 00:10:33.700 --> 00:10:41.100 Jesus will follow you wherever you go and whatever you do in His 160 00:10:41.100 --> 00:10:41.800 kingdom. 161 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.700 He is going to come and bring pleasure eternal. 162 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:52.000 Life is complex 163 00:10:53.400 --> 00:10:57.200 and Mission in this world is a mess. 164 00:10:59.200 --> 00:11:02.500 But we do it in confidence in our Lord. 165 00:11:03.800 --> 00:11:08.500 He's just asking you to drop a few seeds to knock on a door, to start 166 00:11:08.500 --> 00:11:15.300 a conversation because he will come, he will come and this Earth 167 00:11:15.300 --> 00:11:21.500 will be filled with His glory and all nations will gather before His 168 00:11:21.500 --> 00:11:26.000 throne, and all voices will sing praise to our Lord Almighty. 169 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:30.800 And so, we engage in Mission with a humble confidence. 170 00:11:30.800 --> 00:11:33.100 Humble, because we are understaffed, 171 00:11:33.100 --> 00:11:33.400 we are 172 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:36.500 ill-equipped, we are unprepared 173 00:11:38.400 --> 00:11:45.400 and uninformed. Humble, but confident because Jesus is our Lord. 174 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:52.400 I remember a Seminary Student who once showed me that humble 175 00:11:52.400 --> 00:11:55.300 confidence in a, in a delightful way. 176 00:11:55.300 --> 00:11:59.800 And it was actually so funny that after class, I asked him, I said it 177 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:00.600 is it okay 178 00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:03.600 if I tell people the story? I said I won't share your name. 179 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:05.300 Just can I tell people this story? 180 00:12:05.300 --> 00:12:08.000 He said if you can make something out of this mess, you go right 181 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:08.600 ahead. 182 00:12:09.400 --> 00:12:13.400 It was a homiletics one and class hadn't started 183 00:12:13.400 --> 00:12:17.300 I was there early and I was just talking with the students and so I 184 00:12:17.300 --> 00:12:22.700 said so how was the weekend? And before anybody could say anything 185 00:12:23.300 --> 00:12:26.900 there is, this one student huddled in a ball right in front who yelled 186 00:12:26.900 --> 00:12:28.100 out awful. 187 00:12:29.800 --> 00:12:35.400 We're all kind of like okay and then he continued, he said it's the 188 00:12:35.400 --> 00:12:40.200 first time I led liturgy at my fieldwork congregation. 189 00:12:41.100 --> 00:12:46.200 Well now we all want to know what happened to make your first time 190 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:47.000 leading liturgy 191 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:48.000 so awful. 192 00:12:48.300 --> 00:12:50.900 So I said to myself well but could you share? 193 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:54.900 And he said well I yeah sure he said I rehearsed. 194 00:12:54.900 --> 00:12:57.600 He said all Saturday I spent rehearsing I had the hymnal 195 00:12:57.600 --> 00:12:59.400 I was standing up I'm doing this I. 196 00:12:59.500 --> 00:13:02.800 He says, I rehearsed everything because I wanted to be confident. 197 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:06.200 I wanted to be confident in what I was doing, he said, but but I 198 00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:08.900 hadn't expected the people. 199 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:14.800 He said, I walk out and he says, I look out and there were so many 200 00:13:14.800 --> 00:13:20.100 people and he said, and I turned around, and I face The Altar and the 201 00:13:20.100 --> 00:13:21.400 bells are chiming. 202 00:13:21.400 --> 00:13:24.400 And I'm thinking, I don't want to turn back around. 203 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:29.400 So I said, well, what did you do? 204 00:13:29.400 --> 00:13:34.400 He said, well, I gave myself a little pep talk, like, okay? 205 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.900 Well unfortunately, that when the bell chiming stopped the sound, 206 00:13:40.100 --> 00:13:41.500 the sound engineer turned on his mic. 207 00:13:42.300 --> 00:13:44.900 So he didn't just give himself a pep talk. 208 00:13:45.700 --> 00:13:49.400 He gave everybody who was gathered there, a pep talk. 209 00:13:50.200 --> 00:13:51.900 So here's what's happening. 210 00:13:51.900 --> 00:13:55.600 You're sitting there in church, the bells are ringing, the seminarian 211 00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:59.700 standing in front, ready to start the service and their silence and 212 00:13:59.700 --> 00:14:02.700 all the sudden you hear. Okay 213 00:14:02.700 --> 00:14:06.300 God, you got this, let's go. 214 00:14:09.400 --> 00:14:11.800 I loved it. 215 00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:13.600 I loved it. 216 00:14:14.800 --> 00:14:16.900 It captures his humility. 217 00:14:17.400 --> 00:14:21.100 Okay, God, you got this and his confidence. 218 00:14:21.300 --> 00:14:22.500 Let's go. 219 00:14:23.100 --> 00:14:23.400 Now 220 00:14:23.400 --> 00:14:27.300 I know, I know that they would never allow me to put this in our 221 00:14:27.300 --> 00:14:27.900 Hymnal. 222 00:14:28.900 --> 00:14:33.400 I know that I know that Kevin I do know, they would not allow this, but 223 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:38.200 but I would love to put it in your heart. 224 00:14:39.500 --> 00:14:44.000 Because after the service is over, when you walk out that doors, you 225 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.800 face people that you may not have expected. 226 00:14:49.900 --> 00:14:51.900 And life for them is a mess. 227 00:14:53.300 --> 00:14:57.800 And there's a lot of anger right now against the Christian church. 228 00:14:58.300 --> 00:14:59.800 And how do you do mission 229 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.700 in a context of anger and we want we want come back for more learning. 230 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:13.900 But Jesus, he graciously stops are overthinking and he immerses you 231 00:15:13.900 --> 00:15:15.000 in his mission. 232 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:20.500 Because he, because he can take care of any mess you make. 233 00:15:21.100 --> 00:15:26.100 So when you get to that door and it opens just say that prayer. 234 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:28.000 Okay 235 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.200 God, you got this 236 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:31.800 let's go. 237 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:33.500 Amen.