Mk 6: 7-13
He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If 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.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Sermon Thoughts
Jesus sends out his disciples to continue and expand his ministry and to be God's agents at work in the world. And Jesus sends them out traveling light - as the children found out: no food, no money, no change of clothes. The disciples are sent out depending on God to provide all that they would need. The followers of Jesus go out not by their own power or authority, but by the authority and power Jesus has placed in them. They are not "invited," to undertake this endeavor, they are more like “commissioned”. (Dianne Bergant).
They are sent out as one in authority sends out delegates or envoys. It is not their authority, it is not their message. They are being sent in and with Jesus' power. They are sent out to attack demons and to heal. The disciples "are sent out to call for change." (Provoking the Gospel of Mark).
Think of our call, as followers of Jesus, following in the footsteps of those first disciples...
We are sent with Jesus' power and authority: We are sent to heal, We are sent to attack the demons that plague our society and the world that God loves. We are sent to share the good news.
Jesus knows that the journey and the work will be hard, but he sends his "agents" out with very little:
sandals to comfort their feet,
a stick, maybe for safety, maybe for support.
No food, no money, no change of clothes.
But they are sent partnered up with another one. They have each other. And, of course, they have the Good News, they know in whose authority and power they speak and act. I am fascinated and humbled by this simplicity – and by the confidence that the disciples must have felt. To have the heart to leave like that! With seemingly almost nothing.
Materially there is no security blanket. It's all in the spiritual. Materially, there is almost nothing.
Spiritually, there is what is important: the companionship with a fellow disciple and the confidence in the relationship with Jesus, the confidence to be sent with power.
This, I think, must be the key that gets the disciples going, the key that helps them to leave.
Leaving – one of the more difficult tasks in life. Leaving home, leaving town or country even, is not easy, literally speaking. And leaving is difficult so much more so, metaphorically speaking.
Let's listen to the “Angel of Leaving” by Anselm Gruen. Reading of Anselm Gruen, Angels of Grace, Pg. 21-23
