Adventures in Amazing Grace: Mark 6:6-13 - Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Then [Jesus] went about among the villages teaching. ⁷He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. ⁸He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; ⁹but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. ¹⁰He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. ¹¹If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” ¹²So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. ¹³They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. (NRSV)

Kanken by Mark Grant-Jones on Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

It’s rare that I travel by air. But TSA regulations and exorbitant baggage fees force me to travel light—which is not easy for me to do.

The last time I flew, there was a couple ahead of me at the ticket counter, checking in their suitcase. But there was a problem: their suitcase was well over the 45-pound limit. Rather than pay the outrageous upgrade fee for oversize luggage, they opened their suitcase and frantically stuffed items into the woman’s purse and the man’s tote bag. But even then, that wasn’t enough. As passengers queued up behind them, they had no choice but to throw away the pricey shampoos and lotions they’d packed, because the TSA prohibits large containers of liquid going through the security checkpoint. 

That’s the problem with traveling: the more you pack, the more difficult it is to go. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sends his disciples two by two into the surrounding towns and villages. He gives them authority over unclean spirits, but permits them to pack no food, no money, no change of clothes; nothing for their journey except a staff—and the Gospel. 

This happens just after the people of Jesus’s hometown reject him and take offense at his ministry.

So why should this rag-tag bunch of fishermen and novices expect success in towns full of strangers, having no provisions or formal missionary training?

But that’s the trap I always fall into when I read or preach this passage: I think only about what the disciples lack for their journey, and how much the deck is stacked against them. 

How easy it is to forget that Jesus gave them power over unclean! He gave them good news that changes lives! Will there not be people who respond in faith? With their hearts and minds opened to the Gospel, will they not open their homes and wallets to those who proclaim it? 

Here, we find the definitive struggle for our congregation, and so many just like ours: our minds are set not on the power of Jesus’s love to transform lives, but on the things we lack and the things we’ve lost. 

We want to believe that we can effectively reach new generations of believers and bring them into relationship with Jesus, but: we’re not as big or as young as we used to be. We don’t have enough money. We don’t have air conditioning. The world has changed. People are too busy to care about church. Young people prefer to go to nondenominational churches or megachurches … Everything about our church screams “old and dying.”

We forget that Jesus didn’t build the church with rock bands, coffee shops, and state-of-the-art facilities. Jesus met people where they were, and he loved them. He showed compassion for the sick and the suffering. He befriended the outcasts and broke bread with sinners. He proclaimed the peace and justice of God’s coming kingdom. He sent his disciples two-by-two, empowered to do the very same. And I’m sure it wasn’t easy. He warned them to expect rejection. I’m sure there were moments when the mission was impossibly hard and they wanted to give up and go home. Even still, they had power over unclean Spirits, they had the love of Jesus, and they had each other. That was enough to change the world. 

How about you? Do you see yourself as blessed and beloved by God? When you survey the wondrous cross, do you believe that all of Jesus’s love is yours to claim? When you receive communion, do you believe Jesus is giving you all you’ll ever need for eternity in the body that is broken and the blood that is shed for you? Do you believe that God’s love is the greatest power at work in the world, despite all the confusion and chaos?

Yet can you imagine where you’d be in life without Jesus? Fact is, there are people out there who don’t need to imagine. They do not know him, but they need him—just as you do. Here is where our purpose as church becomes crystal clear.

It all begins in your mind. With Jesus, you have everything. Without him, you have nothing. But to adopt that frame of mind, you’ll need the Spirit’s help. After all, adopting on a new mindset is what repentance is all about! You will not be compelled to bless others if you do not realize how much you are blessed. It’s hard to trust an invisible God when all you see is trouble and pain. It’s always easier to see what you lack than what you have. It is only in faith that you accept challenge, embrace change, and confront your fear, believing that Jesus is waiting for you on the other side.  It is only in faith that you answer the call to discipleship as an adventure in amazing grace. 

If discipleship was easy, if life was easy, none of us would ever be close to Jesus—because you’d never need him. I don’t believe that God creates loss, pain, and hardship. They just happen. But God uses all of them to be gracious to you—because that is when you are most open to receiving that grace. At the same time, you can be bold to ask God to provide what you need to be his disciple: daily bread, good health, the necessities of life; a compassionate heart, a courageous spirit, gentle words, healing hands, and blessings to share.

When you step out in faith to obey the will of God, you will lack nothing. 

If you want a life that is safe and secure from challenge or change, then disregard all that I have spoken. But if you believe that Jesus is risen from the dead, that God’s reign is drawing near, and that here is hope for the future, then make up your mind to follow Jesus into adventures of amazing grace. For when you go with Jesus, to love others as you are loved, to share with others the treasure you have in him, and be carried along by his grace, you and your world will never be the same again.