A PRAYER TO START
Prayer often is our way to get-in-on a life of faith; a life truly lived in participation in what God is doing each and every day. Today, pray this prayer from John Ballie with the expectation that today will be a day where faith comes to life…
Lord of my life, whose commands I am eager to keep, whose fellowship I am eager to enjoy, and to whose service I am eager to be loyal, I kneel before you as you send me out to serve you.
Thank you, Father, for this new day. For its gladness and brightness; for its many hours waiting to be filled with joyful and helpful labor; for its open doors of possibility; for its hope of new beginnings. Stir up in my heart the desire to make the very most of today’s opportunities. Do not let me break any of yesterday’s promises, or leave unrepaired any of yesterday’s wrongs. Do not let me see anyone in distress and pass by on the other side. Give me the strength to confront any mountain of duty or bad habit. Where an action of mine can make this world a better place, where a word of mine can cheer a sad heart or strengthen a weak will, where a prayer of mine can serve Christ’s kingdom, there let me act and speak and pray.
This day, O Father—
Give me courtesy;
Give me both gentleness of demeanor and decisiveness of character;
Give me patience;
Give me love;
Give me self-control and faithfulness in my relationships;
Give me sincerity in my speech;
Give me diligence in the work you have given me to do.
O Father, who when the time was right raised up our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to enlighten our hearts with the knowledge of your love, grant me the grace to be worthy of his name. Amen.
GETTING THOUGHTFUL
I don’t know about you, but when I set out to do something new I like to be prepared. Whether the thing I set out for be as ordinary as fixing something around the house or accomplishing an unfamiliar task at work, or as extraordinary as taking on an new job, setting the course for a career or planning for marriage or parenthood; I feel it necessary to consider all the steps, to attain all the necessary resources (though inevitably I will make a half dozen trips to Home Depot during any home project!), and be as equipped as possible for what is to come. I suppose that the preparation gives me confidence, which always make it easier to persist to completion.
Maybe you are not as preparation oriented as myself, but regardless I would wager that the desire to be fully equipped before launching out has at least penetrated the way you think about participating in life with Jesus. It is okay to admit it. Following Jesus into a life that is ministry is something new for all of us, regardless of when our hearts and minds where awaked by the Spirit. We are, after all, new creations, so setting out to participate in God’s unfolding salvation story will feel like a commission we are ill equipped to carry out. And so we hesitate.
I have heard and said it myself too many times to count that a lack of preparedness or equipping as reasoning for my timid or self/family-absorbed faith. So common is our confession that an entire industry exists within the church sub-world marketing to equip and prepare us for any and every sort of endeavor of faith through podcasts, booklets, programs, conferences and on-line courses.
Please don’t misunderstand. I am not condemning equipping. In fact it is a vital component to being built up into the fullness of Christ, to being a healthy faith family. At least that is what Paul argues for in Ephesians 4:11-16. While we certainly should mature our skills in living our faith, the incorrect assumption that they mature in any other way than use—i.e. via information—misses what both Paul and, firstly, Jesus model.
When Jesus tells twelve disciples in Matthew 10 (and 72 in Luke 10), to go be the answer to the prayer that concludes chapter 9 (37-38) by telling their neighbors about that the kingdom of God is indeed here and by doing what Jesus had been doing to restore the brokenness and overcome the darkness; surely they would have desired to be prepared too. Don’t you think? Some even tried to argue for the necessity of preparation (8:18-22), but Jesus says to the twelve,
“Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.” (10:9-10, The Message)
Jesus seems to be arguing that they are to simply go, and that in their going they will find they have all they need already. Why do these men who, many at least, had families to care for and jobs to maintain, seem not to argue but to walk willingly into an unfamiliar and what Jesus admits will not be an easy endeavor? They had confidence in something other than being fully equipped. They had confidence in the authority of Jesus (the same authority we discussed in Week 9 | Learning), an authority that Jesus generously gives them,
“And Jesus called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and affliction.” (10:1, ESV)
Jesus says not only do not wait to have everything you need to go, he even says to not worry about what to say, for that too would be provided,
“do not be anxious about what to speak or what to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (10:19-20, ESV)
The disciples have observed Jesus, his teaching, his ministry, his everyday life; and now they are invited to participate in that same teaching, ministry and everyday life through the authority Jesus possess and shares. It is the same invitation extended to you and I eighteen chapters later before Christ ascends and the Spirit descends,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me [Jesus]. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (28:18-20, ESV)
Our confidence comes not in the preparation or equipping, but rather in the authority of Christ we have confidence to live a new life, a different life of participatory faith; today. The question is, will we?
REFLECTION
Read Matthew 10:1-42, through slowly. Put yourself in the place of the disciples who had observed Jesus’ teaching on the mount (chapters 5-7) and seen his power at work (chapters 8-9) and are now hearing Jesus give you the thing he possess and invite you to share in his endeavor (with the promises and the warnings). How must they have felt? What concerns could have kept them from obedience? What drove them to overcome their timidity and simply go?
Then consider your own story. What drew you to Jesus as one worthy to follow and hear the same invitation given to you? What have you observed Jesus saying and doing (in scripture, in experience, through others who are imitating Christ) that you invited to do the same? How do you feel hearing Jesus invitation today? What concerns are keeping you from obedient participation? What will drive you to overcome your timidity and simply go?
Use the questions above to help you prayerfully reflect individually and/or discuss as a DNA group
ECHO
This poem titled, “If” by Rudyard Kipling reverberates with similar father-like exhortations of Jesus in Matthew 10 to the disciples, and thus you and I. Here Kipling’s parental encouragement to mature through living what is true, alongside Jesus’ invitation to do the same as ones called “a child of God”. May these words echo in your mind, your heart, and your courageous actions this week.
.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!