The few days before they go, final preparations are made.  The Swatmobile is gassed up, the back up warning and air conditioning are checked out.  Instructions are given for what to pack: closed toe shoes, hammers, sun screen, long sleeved shirts and pants, bug spray, coolers.   And what not to – no cash, no beer logos, no sandals.  And these are just a few of the suggestions in the three pages of instructions sent out.

And then, this morning.  The predawn gathering for prayer, and the prayers of our community which have been with them and will surround them as they go.   

As you can see, John really works hard ahead of time to set these trips up for success.  What will he send them with?  Where will he send them?  When will he send them?  No offense intended, but compared to John Weicher -- Jesus would make a lousy pastor with responsibility for youth.

Look at what Mark’s gospel tells us of Jesus’ ‘preparations’ for this mission trip.  To prepare his disciples for their first foray out on their own, he sends them with what?

No well packed suitcases here, though, like our hosts at ASP, Jesus does impose some wardrobe restrictions.  Here it is not so much about no beer logos on your too short tank top, but just one cloak.  No extra for snuggling into on a cold night.  And instead of encouraging solid work boots and forbidding flip flops, Jesus does it just the other way around, instructing them to wear sandals – to really feel the grit of the road and the towns they will visit.

To prepare his disciples, he sends them with… no well stocked coolers full of lunches or even bottled water, but instead, take nothing, no food, no water, no provisions at all. And no cash.  Well, that’s the same in our ASP list of instructions, but at least John Weicher allowed traveler’s checks.   The only travelers’ “check” Jesus permits his mission trippers is their staff with which they might “check” the progress of any wild beast toward their exposed toes.

So, what does he send them with?  “He gave them authority over unclean spirits.”  He may send them empty handed, but he does not send them without resources.  He sends them with his own authority – the authority to cast out demons, to preach and heal – not because they are skilled in these things on their own, or because they are people who have demonstrated great faith in him.  To the contrary, as Mark has described them to this point in the gospel, their faith is pretty half-hearted, not fully developed, chocked full of confusion and doubt.  But send them he does -- with his own authority.

And he sends them where?  He made no reservations nor did he check out campsites or community centers. Instead, Jesus instructs them to stay and remain in the first place that will take them in, even if there are bed bugs, moldy challah, sour wine and a much nicer offer down the street.

And he sends them when?  Why send them now?  I could understand if he had done so three weeks ago, as we mark the lectionary time.  Three weeks ago, he was drawing crowds so large, he had to preach his sermon from a boat.  Or why not two weeks ago?  Two weeks ago, he demonstrated that, like the Lord God the creator, he had power to order peace and stillness from the stormy chaos of the sea.  Or why not last week, when he brought healing to one daughter isolated from the life of the community – and life to another already dead?  But no, he sends them this week.  Right after the rejection, disappointment and disbelief which greeted him as his homecoming, the lowest point in his ministry thus far.  Right on the heels of this, he sends them out.  Perhaps he sends them then, so they won’t be disappointed or discouraged if they meet rejection themselves.

Or as Mark says, “He began to send them out.”  You see, like those first disciples, Jesus is still sending us out.

He sends us when?  Sometimes, he sends us on the heels of our disappointment.  He sends us when we have implored him three times to remove the thorn in our side.  He sends us in our weakness, because his power is made perfect in our weakness. 

Sometimes, he sends us when we cannot even articulate well what we believe, with words that feel inadequate to the task.  We are a congregation who really takes to heart this injunction of St. Francis:  “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words.” We are so full of deeds of love and care and outreach; and there is a hard-working generosity in this place.  I suspect the place we are uncomfortable, as so many of our brothers and sisters in mainstream Protestantism are, -- the place we sometimes have trouble is putting our words where our deeds are.  Jesus sends his disciples out in an interdependence of deed and word – they preach the good news, and do deeds which bring healing and wholeness.   Walk the walk, and talk the talk.

It is encouraging to me that the disciples were sent out by Jesus with an inarticulate and perhaps half-formed faith.  One of our recent confirmands spoke of taking the “spiritual gifts” inventory – she scored a 9 out of 10 in evangelism and a 5 in faith.  Perhaps that is a good model for us to overcome our reluctance to speak of and out of our Christian convictions and our experiences of and with God.  Like our confirmand, we should not be afraid to say something like, “Let me share the good news with you of the God I am working hard to understand and to share what I hope to believe with even greater conviction one day.”  To lean on the God whose power is made perfect in our weakness.

And what does Jesus send us with? He sends us with one another.  Like those first disciples who went two by two, they went out from the church, and they went out as the church.  I love how that is reflected in our polity, that as the Lord’s table is extended into the homes of members who cannot be with us, it must always be taken by two – even if one is a minister of word and sacrament.  We go from the church, and we go together as the church.

And so often, we meet the church when we arrive.  We might go expecting to be the ones serving, but we find, as I expect our ASPers will find, that we are suddenly being served.  We go bearing blessings, and we find we are suddenly receiving them.  We find our Western individualism, and our independent spirit really have no place in our walk and talk as disciples.  We must instead be radically dependent on our faith in God, in Jesus – and radically interdependent on those we are sent to serve.  In Mark’s gospel, the disciples go needing food, shelter, water.  But they bring gifts too – words of life and deeds of healing and wholeness.  Interdependence.  Communion!

Thanks be to God for this encouragement to discipleship, to the walk and the talk which our Lord sends us out to do.  Thanks be to God that we are not sent alone, but with and to one another.  Thanks be to God that we are not sent because of our clevererness or strength or the exemplary quality of our lives – but we are sent with the power of God given to us by Jesus. 

That is why Jesus dares to send us, why we dare to go together, and why remarkable healing and wholeness still come through the ministry of inadequate disciples like you and like me.