A Couple of Twists

A man was walking down the street one evening and he notices that his friend is behaving rather oddly. He is crawling around on his hands and knees in circles around a light pole. He wasn't exactly sure if it was him or not, because it was so dark out, but by the time he got closer, he realized that it was indeed his friend. "What are you doing?" the man asked. "I'm looking for my keys." His friend replies."Let me give you a hand." So he gets down on his hands and knees and begins making laps around the light pole.

It is not long and a third friend happens upon the first two and asks what is going on. They explain and he offers to help and starts his orbit around the light pole in search of the keys. So here you have three guys on their hands and knees crawling around this light pole looking for a set of keys. After a time, a police officer notices this strange train going around in circles and he walks up to the guys and asks them what is going on. They explain it to him and he asks, "Well where did you lose the keys?" and the first guy says, "I lost them down the street a bit." And the police officer asks, "Well, then why are you looking for them here?" And the man says, "Because this is where the light is."

Have you ever lost something valuable or important? It has got to be one of the worse experiences. You get that sinking feeling in your gut as you realize that it is gone, and you search high and low. Every place that you can possibly think of to look, you look. You may even find yourself going back to places you have already looked three or four times in hopes that somehow it will be there when look again. And you become consumed with the hunt. It is all that you can think about. It is the only thing you want to do, until you at last find your long lost treasure.

We do a lot to try to prevent things from becoming lost. You can buy a keychain that will beep when you clap your hands, so that when you can't find them, all you have to do is listen for the beep. You can download software that will supposedly allow you to recover a file that you accidently deleted. There is an app you can download that will show you the location of lost ipods. You lose it, find your buddy, have him download the app, and then look up the location. Have you ever called your own cell phone to follow the ring? Or had to push the pager button on your cordless phone?

Losing something is not a pleasant or fun experience. And if you understand this, then you can understand why this text in our gospel lesson is so very important. These verses paint for us a picture of Jesus and give us a glimpse of how important the work of mission is to him. Thus, we can conclude that mission is also to be important for the life of the church, you and me, as well.

In this text Jesus is sending out a large group of disciples ahead of him. He is sending them to the places where he was about to go. They are to go and heal the sick and say, "The kingdom of God has come near to you." Why? Because our God is a God who is concerned with seeking and saving that which was lost.

He is a God who did not give up on the world, who does not give up on us because of sin and our own sinfulness, but instead he goes to great lengths in order restore us and bring us back to himself. Indeed, he goes through great lengths to restore and bring back to himself all people, because he loves them so very, very much.

So what we see here in the tenth chapter of Luke is Jesus sending out this group of disciples to announce that God's Kingdom has indeed come near. Now this is a very cool and important concept for us to understand as God's people; especially since we think in terms of time and timelines.

So let's take a look at this time line. Here you have the beginning. God creates the heavens and the earth. Then the fall and sin and death enter the picture. But even then at that point at that moment there is a promise of restoration and salvation. Now Go all the way to the end. What happens at the end? The Kingdom of God. Sin is defeated. Death is no more. The devil is forever gone. At the end there is a new heaven and a new earth and God's people live forever with him. There is no more sin, or sickness or suffering or injustice. All the wrongs that we see in our world are made right. It is something for us to look forward to with great anticipation. Because when God's Kingdom comes, everything will be as it should be.

Now there is a twist in this story. Everyone loves a good twist. You are watching a movie or reading a book something unexpected happens in the story and…Wow! Didn't see that one coming, that was awesome. So here is the twist in the Kingdom of God story. The Kingdom of God did not wait for time to come to an end in order for it to be a part of the lives of God's people, in order for it to be experienced by you and me. Because the Kingdom of God has broken into time. It is come into our midst, and now it is indeed near. We get to experience it right now.

It came through Jesus. If you look at Jesus as he walks the earth you find that wherever he goes creation is restored. Storms are clamed. Demons are driven out. Sicknesses are cured. The blind see. The lame walk. The deaf hear. The mute speak. Sins are forgiven. The dead are raised.

This is why when the demons see Jesus they ask him if he has come to destroy them before the appointed time. They expect it at the end of time, they are not expecting it at the moment that he is there. But in Jesus the Kingdom of God has broken into time and we get to experience it.

It is not just something we wait for, but something we get to experience right now. Not in all of its fullness mind you, but we get a foretaste of the feast that is to come. But be sure that this foretaste is the real deal. We get to experience life with our God right now. We get to live in relationship with him. We hear his word, and receive his gifts in the sacraments. He restores us, fills us with us love and grace, so much so that we are overflowing and he sends us out to announce and proclaim and to show that the Kingdom of God has come near.

This is so very important that it cannot be understated. Making this good news known in our world is something that needs to be a top priority for us, especially for us as a congregation. We do this not just in the words that we say, but in our actions as well, in the ways that we live life together. It is different than the way the world lives. After all, they will know that we are Christians not by the T-shirts that we wear, or the music that we listen to, or by the stores where we shop, but they will known we are Christians by the love that we have for one another.

Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray for the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. Any time we talk about mission and the great task of making the good news of God's love and grace and mercy in Jesus known to the world the best place to start is with prayer. And not just the kinds of prayers where we are asking God to send others, not just the professional workers, church workers or missionaries, but we do this together as a family of faith, as the body of Christ in this place. Pray for God to open our eyes to see what he has to show us, and to hear what he has to say to us. And to give us courage to follow where he is leading us.

The next set of instructions that Jesus gives is about not getting all caught up in the things that would be so easily distracting. Don't' worry about supplies or small customs, simply go and heal the sick, drive out demons and announce that the Kingdom of God has come near.

This is not to say that we don't practice good stewardship and become frivolous and wasteful with what God has entrusted to us. But it is a reminder for us to do a priority check. What is most important? A friend of my has a sign in his office that reads, "Remember, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

So these are the instructions that the group of disciples are given and they are sent out. When we get to verse 17, we see that they come back with great joy over the things that they had seen and experienced while on their mission. Even the demons are subject to them! Cool! Talk about great power and opportunity.

And once more, our Lord puts everything into perspective. He says, "I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you." Can you see them all wide eyed and excited as he is speaking. Perhaps punching each other on the shoulder and giving out high fives, maybe even posting it on their facebook account. This is some pretty major stuff here. And Jesus says, "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Ah, another twist. As we talk about mission and the work of proclaiming this good news to the world around us, we are sure to see and experience some really awesome and exciting things. It will be great. It will be awesome, there will be all kinds of things to celebrate and rejoice about. But in the midst of all that, in the midst of all the great things we will see and experience, our rejoicing comes out of not the things that we do, but out of the things that our God does for us, are names are written in heaven. Simple. Humble. Certain. Sins forgiven, life and salvation are ours, not for our sake or because of us, but for Jesus' sake. It is something that is truly worth rejoicing about.

There are some very exciting days ahead of us. For that we can really thank and praise our God. But in the midst of all of it, we rejoice not just because God works so graciously in our midst, but because he has worked so specifically in our lives. Your names are written in heaven.

May this good news be a source of joy and strength and comfort for you now, and always, especially as we go and proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come near. Amen.