Luke 9:51-10:11

The Real Jesus - The Call to Adventure

Sermon preached January 17, 2016
Opening
If youre in the market for an adventure, you should check out the German airline
Germanwings. They have this deal, that for around $50, you can book a ticket with them.
You get to pick the dates of your flights and identify what youre interested in - the beach,
art, hiking, cities, etc. Then comes the adventure part. Because after youve chosen your
dates and identified your interests, the airline picks your destination for you. Your finger
hovers over the purchase button on their website, you pay - and then the airline emails
you your e-ticket with your destination.
You pay for your ticket - and you could end going to Barcelona or Greece for a beach
vacation, you could end up going to Florence or Istanbul for an art-lovers vacation - you
take a chance that maybe youll love where youre going, maybe you wont - but
remember, for the people who are into this - and in 2014 the airline sold 90,000 of these
tickets - the thrill is in the adventure of not knowing where youre going.1
Jesus call to adventure
Speaking of adventure, I have a thought for us as Christ-followers at Central, drawn from
our passage. One thought, thats all Ive got today. And the thought, is this: following
Jesus Christ is supposed to be an adventure. Unpredictable. Demanding. Stretching and
testing us. Thrilling. And maybe at times dangerous too.
Im getting this from our passage today but really the idea of faith as risk and adventure is
all through the New Testament. In this reading, the Lord calls together a group of his
followers - 70 of them - a reminder that it was more than the 12 disciples who followed
Jesus - and he sends them out on an adventure.
This is a hinge point in Lukes gospel. Jesus had been operating in Galilee, now he starts
the journey to Jerusalem. And he calls those 70 disciples and gives them their assignment
- theyre to be kind of an advance party, preparing the way for Jesus coming to town.
Now - were in the midst of a Presidential campaign - with candidates spending a
lot of time in states with early primaries - and when the candidate has an event,
they dont just show up - an advance party is already there - theyve made sure the
press knows about the event, that its been publicized to the community so people
show up, that theres a sound system and stage for the candidate, theyve thought
who or what will be behind the candidate because that will show up in pictures or
video of the event. The advance party does a whole lot of important work getting
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whatever place the candidate is going ready for his or her arrival.
And these disciples did a whole lot more than an ordinary advance party. Their job was
to get these towns and people ready for Jesus by doing what Jesus was going to do.
Preach and cure the sick - that is, announce and demonstrate that the Kingdom of God
was at hand. Gods reign, Gods rule.
And it wasnt going to be easy.
There was going to be rejection - Jesus warned them that some people would not
welcome them
There was going to be uncertainty - Jesus said take no purse, no bag, no
sandals... - meaning, dont prepare and pack and fill your wallet with cash so you
can cover any eventuality - trust God to provide.
He even said there would be danger - saying I am sending you out like lambs
among wolves - meaning, there will be people who will want to attack you for
being my followers.
Sounds like an adventure to me.
Yearning for this
Human beings crave adventure. There is of course part of us that wants safety and
security - you may remember Maslows hierarchy of needs - safety is the second most
basic human need after food and shelter - but most human beings need more than that.
Most human beings need some kind of adventure, testing, challenge in their lives.
Look at how we love adventure as entertainment. Best movie of the year in my humble
opinion - The Martian - story of a NASA astronaut stranded on Mars who has to survive
and try to be rescued. Most popular movie of the year - the new Star Wars - the
adventure of fighting the new iteration of the evil empire and the dark side.
But even more than stories of challenge and adventure - we want to experience it.
A few years back a family from my first church called and asked me to perform the
wedding of a young woman whod been like five when I first got there but was now
grown up and getting married. Her name was Jill, and their plans for after the wedding
were to move to Atlanta where she would work for Teach America in the inner city at one
of Atlantas worst schools. An adventure, so she could make a difference.
William Willimon tell of the time a recruiter from Teach America spoke at Duke
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University. She looked out on a crowd of Duke students. She began by saying, "I
don't really know why I am here to night. I can tell just by looking at you that you
are probably uninterested in what I have to say. This is one of the best universities
in America. You are all successful. That is why you are here, to become an even
greater success on Madison Avenue, or Wall Street, or in Law School. And here I
stand, trying to recruit some people for the most difficult job you will ever have in
your life. I'm out looking for people who want to go into a burned out classroom
in Watts and teach Biology. I'm looking for somebody to go into a little one-room
school house in West Virginia and teach kids from six years to thirteen years old
how to read. We had three teachers killed last year in their classrooms! And I can
tell, just by looking at you, that none of you want to throw away your lives on
anything like that. On the other hand, if by chance there is somebody here who
may be interested, I've got these brochures and I am going to leave them down
here and will be glad to speak to anybody who is interested. The meeting is over."
With that, all of the students jumped up, rushed into the aisles, rushed down to the
front, starting fighting over her pamphlets, just dying to apply for Teach America.
Weve got that right here - a child of this church Jessica Klink leaves in a few weeks for
Tanzania - shes going there with the Peace Corps.
Why do people do this kind of thing? Many people want to commit their lives, their
energy, their purpose in life, to something greater than themselves.
And the good news is the church of Jesus Christ offers just that. Following Jesus Christ
offers just that. The adventure of a lifetime.
Obstacles
Trouble is, youd never know this in many churches. In many churches, the version of
Christianity that is preached and taught and lived out - explicitly and implicitly, has
nothing to do with adventure and daring and risk, is rather all about safety and security.
In some churches, the real purpose of the church is to keep an uneasy peace so
conflict doesnt break out, so nothing is said or done that might get anyone upset.
In some churches, the real purpose of the church is to meet the budget so the
beautiful building, the cemetery out back, are kept in good repair.
In some churches, the real purpose of the church is to be a club for the right class
of people who can come together and do some nice things for the community but
nothing that would threaten their respectability.

In some churches the purpose is the be the biggest church in town so you get the
hottest band or biggest choir, but nothing is said from the pulpit or done by
leadership that might drive people away, because the churchs purpose is to be the
biggest.
And in a whole lot of churches, among a whole lot of Christians, there is bad
theology that teaches the purpose of being a Christian is to withdraw from the
world and its evil and maintain your own personal righteousness so you can be
evacuated out of the world and go to heaven when you die.
I dont see how you get to any of those viewpoints from the New Testament, but they are
there.
There is this sense of urgency to following Jesus, to proclaiming and enacting the
Kingdom of God. You see repeatedly how Jesus says, in the imperative - Go! The end
of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, Go into all the world...
And you see in this passage, its now - right now, not later, not when its convenient, not
when you have it all planned out. Now.
The three would-be disciples
Thats the Lords word for the three men in our reading who say they want to follow him,
just not right now.
First guy is an Idealist - this is going to be so much fun!! squeal!
But Jesus tells him to go home and think hard about this - says are you ready for
this? No financial reward in doing this, no worldly benefit, no prestige. Its hard,
challenging - are you really up for this?
Second guy is Mr. Responsibility:
Jesus sounds harsh here - let the dead bury their own dead - and more than
a little insensitive. But what hes trying to say is this: If you want to be my
type, you have to focus on life, not death. Put your energy into proclaiming
the kingdom of God, not into digging holes for dead bodies. Jesus
certainly knows that corpses need to be put in the ground, but he assumes
that there are many spiritually dead non-disciples that can do this
particular duty. If you want to be a disciple, your focus has to be on the
kingdom and nothing else.
Third guys is Mr. Procrastinator:
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Ill get to it, just not right now.

Back in 1997 I got a call from my seminary offering me the chance to go
on a two-week trip to Israel for only $500 cost to me. A wealthy donor
had given money to take recently graduated students and they had an
opening because of a cancellation so they called me. Trouble was, I had to
decide immediately. Couldnt ponder, procrastinate. Of course I said yes.
Why? Because Im cheap - $500 - what a deal!
Jesus said to this guy - you come with me now or never. Now. This is the
most important thing you will ever be part of - I come first,
Jesus doesnt sugar-coat what it means to follow him. He doesnt spin it, make it
attractive.
Imagine if we did this in new members classes - we made it hard and challenging
and demanding to be a Christ-follower at Central - ok, you can join but you have
to be ready to drop everything to serve the Lord when he calls...you have to put
serving the Lord before all the rest of your commitments - Rotary, Lions Club and your hobbies - golf, photography. You have to be prepared to live a life of
radical trust - so you have to tithe as a minimum. You have to go out into the
world and share Christs love by witnessing - personal evangelism. You have to
encounter and help sick and poor people. Those would be the requirements of
membership. How do you think that would go over?
Church would not grow wide, but it certainly would grow deep.
But I wonder, if we dont sell people short - all we ask or seem to expect for church
members is that you show up once in a while and drop a little money in the plate once in
a while - thats it - I wonder, what message are we communicating about what it means to
follow the Lord? I wonder, are we missing out on the demanding adventure of following
Jesus?
Examples
A man in my previous church, pretty cautious and deliberate man, goes into maximumsecurity prisons in South Carolina twice a year to help lead Kairos workshops. During
these workshops my friend Bud, and other leaders, met personally with these guys murderers, drug-dealers, men whove done some really bad things - share Christ with
them, teach them, develop relationships with them to help them find freedom from sin
and evil.
A friend of mine - he was one of the most successful lawyers in Nashville, by his mid5

thirties hes managing partner of a large law firm and hes published what is still the
definitive text on Tennessee law - senses God calling him to ministry so he leaves his law
practice and sells his enormous house and moves his family to NJ and goes to seminary
and is now serving a church in rural Mississippi.
I see people taking this audacious risks of faith...being willing to follow Christ on the big
adventure of helping build his kingdom - and Ive noticed a couple of things about them
and what they do
- Almost all of them say something like, I never thought Id be doing so and so
but then the Lord called and I was scared but did my best to trust and then
amazing things happened.
- And they all focus, relentlessly, on what Christ calls them to do. Christs call
becomes the organizing principle of their lives - hes first, and everything else has
to fit within that call or it is left behind.
But we should also know - this is an everyday adventure. Every day, every single day, we
can begin the day by praying, Lord, show me what you want me to do today, direct my
paths, open my eyes, use me for your purposes. Because we never do know what the day
will bring, right? But when you follow the Lord with this openness to his call to radical
adventure - he will put people in your path he wants you to help; he will put you in
situations that test you; he will use you to make a difference.
And sometimes, its just by sharing a few words.
The writer Frederick Buechner tells the story of the time he was in New York City
near Columbus Circle when a middle-aged black woman came toward him. Just
as she passed him, she said, "Jesus loves you." Buechner said he was taken off
guard by her words, and before he could thank her, she was gone in the crowds.
He wanted to see her and say, "Yes, if I believe anything worthy believing in this
whole world, I believe that. He loves me. He loves you. He loves the
whole...pack of us.
Buechner said, "For the rest of the way I was going, the streets I walked on were
paved with gold. Nothing was different. Everything was different. The city was
transfigured. I was transfigured..."2
Ive always heard that story from Buechners point of view - but this time I thought about
it from the womans - one day she senses God nudging her to share the news Jesus loves
you with some random guy walking in Columbus Circle - and she does - and it changes
him. With Jesus, you never know what might happen.

Oh, and by the way - this vision thing weve been talking about and well present and
discuss and work on this coming Saturday? Two things I hope and pray will come out of
it - one, will be that we will go on a great adventure together; and two - well find the
discipline to discern what Christ is calling us to do and focus relentlessly on that.
Closing
When Werner von Braun headed the Marshall Space Flight Center, he received letters
from all over the world and had a number of secretaries to compose standard replies.
Sometimes von Braun would scribble a few words in the margins of the 'form letters.' On
one occasion, a college student wrote asking about the future of space flight; the
secretaries wrote a cautious and formal reply, pointing out the risks, boredom and
uncertainties of this new field, suggesting that the student consider all alternatives. Von
Braun scratched through the cautious reply and scribbled, 'Come with us! We're going to
the moon!'"
Jesus says to his followers, to us - come with me, Im going to change the world.
Through you. Amen.
Endnotes
1. Scott McCartney, The Best Airline Bargains, If You Have a Taste for Adventure, in The
Wall Street Journal, September 2, 2015.
2.. Frederick Buechner, "The Kingdom of God," in Best Sermons 5, pp. 105-106. San Francisco:
Harper & Row, 1992.