The new job.
The first day at the new job.
You have no idea what to do. They said, “On the job training.” They weren’t kidding.
They should have just said, “Figure it out as you go.”
Pretend to be competent until it becomes true. Until then keep up appearances.
Set up to fail. Sink or swim.
Ever been there?
The disciples.
In Mark’s Gospel, they are usually the example of what not to do.
Then it happens, Jesus sends them out on their own, despite it all, or perhaps because of it all. Look out world!
Imagine Jesus sending out the Keystone Cops. That’s the picture. Surely God could do better. Or perhaps something profound is happening by sending such slapstick disciples into the world.
A simple job description. Hardly a short paragraph. But it’s a doozy.
They are sent out two by two, like the animals on Noah’s ark resettling the world.
They are to travel very lightly so that they will have to depend on the hospitality of strangers. Just the opposite of the Boy Scout motto of, “Be prepared.” “Be unprepared. Be vulnerable. Be radically unprotected. Be dependent. Challenge the world to care. Dare them.”
On top of that, cast out demons and heal the sick, anoint them with oil. Bring deliverance from all that enslaves humanity, excise the demonic, bring healing. Freedom and healing. Do that.
Be polite, respectful, gentle. Visit, preach, heal, exorcise the unclean spirits that twist the world. But do so only where they are welcome, otherwise leave people alone, leave them be. When they are unwelcome don’t push things. Don’t wear out the welcome. Move on. There is nothing forceful, coercive or manipulative about this mission.
Be the message, preach the message of repentance, that we can change, that the world can and will be different, that life can and will be different, preach that hearts can and will…change. Have the imagination and faith to dare to change.
Imagine the poor disciples, who never got it right, suddenly being sent out with those instructions. Silence and slack jaws.
When they eventually return they are called apostles, those who are sent. The apostolic ministry is a ministry of being sent into the world with a mission, the mission of being and bringing the good news that is Jesus. Disciples follow. Apostles are sent.
It is not a message of competence and confidence, it is rather a message of weakness, the weakness of the cross, the vulnerability of the cross, the power of failing spectacularly and in that weakness the power of God shines through.
The apostolic mission is a mission of open-ended vulnerability in a world that is closed off, fortified and armed to the teeth. Be disarming, like God on the cross.
God is conquering the fortress of the world, the fortress of our hearts, the walls are falling. That is the message. Join God’s revolution. Join the winning side.
Because when the weakness of God is trampled by the world, when the way of peace is defeated and mocked, then God is blazing in crucified glory. That is where and when God is strong. In that case the disciples are the perfect choice. They have nothing to brag about other than their desperate need for God. That is all they have to offer, being in need.
Jesus and the apostles, they show us a vision of the world that is so contrary to how we are told to believe, to how we are told to live.
We are taught to fortify the walls of our hearts, to stockpile the weapons of indignation and resentment, to strike out in preemptive retaliation, to hoard and clutter our lives.
We can never have enough because someone might take it all away. That is the vision, the lie we are told to believe in. And it leaves behind hallowed out lives and families.
We even use God to justify that deceit.
We use scripture to show how wrong everyone else is, like a weapon to hurt and isolate, rather than the balm that heals. So we miss the power of what God is really doing.
We have been given a vision of God that is so much bigger than and so contrary to all the things that divide us. It is a vision that brings freedom and healing and this crazy stupid hope, this crazy stupid expectation that things can and will be different.
Be the message.
Be those who are sent by Jesus.
Be spectacular failures who desperately need God.