20220703 Mission and submission
20220703 Mission and submission¶
Welcome¶
Good morning, my name is Clifton Bartholomew, and I am a local preacher here at UMC.
It is always so good to share with you all. Welcome again to any visitors and to all our online guests as well.
I always like to say before I preach that I am a teacher by training and so I am very used to being interrupted. If anyone is brave enough to raise their hand and ask a question or give an input, it is warmly welcomed.
Introduction¶
Jab 1 - The power of human achievement¶
The power of human achievement - school being built next to our school. Watching during break. I was in wonderment. Built in stages over time.
Amazing that each builder: - Contributes a small amount. - Doesn't know the whole plan. - Together they make something great.
Jab 2 - What animals are capable of¶
It is similar in the animal kingdom. - Termite mound. - Beaver dam - Bee hive.
Each contributes a small amount. Doesn't know the whole plan. Yet together they make something great. Larger than themselves.
Jab 3 - We are builders of the kingdom¶
There is a line in todays reading that really inspires me. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few. I see life as being a co-harvester with God. A collaborator. A co-labourer. As being like one of those ants, one of those builders. Being useful. Finding purpose. Living intentionally. Living meaningfully. To change the world. To get involved… I wanted to be Mandela when I was a teenager. Our world is not okay. Our community is not okay. There is injustice. Poverty. Division. Here in Ballito. Our world is not okay. The world needs us. The world needs people who are alive.
But.. Often I have felt like what can I do? How can I change the world if I can’t make it through the term emotionally? How can I change the world if I don't have money left at the end of the month? If I can’t even navigate the mess within myself, what good can I do outside? I wonder if anyone here is in a similar place? Or knows someone who is in a similar place?
I love the picture of being builders in a large project. We don't know the whole plan, we each contribute a small part and together we make something larger than ourselves.
Right Hook - its not up to me¶
One thing that I have learnt in trying to be a kingdom builder is that submission is key to mission. It takes trust and faith that what I do matters that I can’t do it all. But I can do something. The saving of the world is not up to me, it is up to God. All I need to do is participate. All I need to do is submit.
So today I want to talk about the power of submission. A seemingly paradoxical statement.
Explanation¶
Teaching Point 1 - submission gives us mission¶
It is the cure to purposelessness
We see in the reading today that it is Jesus who gives the disciples a mission to go out. They have said Lord use us and he does. I wish we could walk up to Jesus and say “Lord, use me.” But we don't have that luxury. How should I know what God wants me to do?
There is that cliche that says: Follow your heart. So overused. The thing is, if we are quiet enough, we can sense the desires that God has placed in our hearts.
Carl Jung - where do dreams come from? Mystery.
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Thoughts, dreams, desires. We don't always make them. They come from somewhere. They are not always our own. We have to allow them to come though. If we are watching TV for 4 hours a day we are not giving ourselves time. It takes effort to listen to the desires of our hearts.
The word mission is inside the word submission. Literally. It is like this in our lives as well.
It is the craziest thing. Spending time asking, “God what do you want me to do this day? God what do you want me to do this week or year?” Its not magic and it takes some discernment. But the birth place of our mission is in listening. A lot. Over months and years.
It is like a builder spending time with an architect asking what should I do next.
When we submit to God, God will give us our mission.
Teaching Point 2 - Submission gives us authority¶
It is the cure to inadequacy
For a long time I felt nervous to be who I am in the world. I felt that I wasn’t good enough. Or that I was going to be found out as a fraud somehow. I spoke to that feeling of inadequacy earlier. What can I do? What can I give if I can’t even help myself.
When we submit to God’s will in our lives, we slowly realise over months and years that it is not my mission that I am doing anymore, it is for God. It really feels like an honour. Sometimes I get tearful when I think about it deeply in quite time. How can God love me and choose me? But he does. Each of us.
I think of Moses, a stuttering old man who didn't believe he had anything to offer. But on God’s mission he had heft, courage, he took risks and the result is that he set Israel free.
In our passage we see that the disciples go on their mission and when they return they are almost surprised at their success. “Lord in your name, even demons submit to us!”. This is definitely a surprised statement. Jesus’ reply: “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions”.
Submitting to God’s mission means we walk in God’s name. It gives us courage, willingness, perseverance, strength, power and authority. It is sometimes hard to use that authority and it takes time to learn to use it wisely.
When we submit to the mission God gives us, Satan will fall like lightning from heaven.
Teaching Point 3 - Submission gives us freedom¶
It is the cure to imprisonment
Mark spoke about freedom last week. Becoming a slave to God in order to find freedom. This feels like such a paradoxical statement. To put slave and freedom in the same sentence. How can we be free by submitting?
In the classroom students are at the mercy of their teachers. Teachers are in charge of what task to give students next in order for learning to happen. It is an awfully privileged position to be in. But the thing I am further along in the journey than they are, I can see the larger picture of how software works together and I know where the student is in that larger map, I know the direction they are heading and what they are capable of and so I know what task to give them next. It is normally always a difficult one that I know is just at their edge. Yet, time and again they achieve it and surpass it. They are so often surprised at how much they can do and what they can do.
As the architect of the whole kingdom, God knows the entire context of creation, God knows where we are, the direction we are headed and what we are capable of, God know the exact next task that we should do as a builder. You will find immense joy and purpose and wonder and surprise at how much you can do when you submit to God. There is so much freedom in that!
Application¶
I love the idea of builders in an incredibly large project. We don't understand the whole plan, we often don’t feel like we are contributing much but together with God we make something great. Submission gives us our mission, it gives us authority and it gives us freedom. But don’t get me wrong. I stand here and say this like it is easy. I don't get this right all the time. But I do also get it right sometimes.
Let us end with some reflects on mission and submission from the text.
Verse 1: “After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.” - In the reading the task of the disciples task is to go to other towns to heal and set free. - An important thing to note about your mission is that it might be somewhere else. - Maybe God has been tugging at your heart to enter into something. Are you submitting to the call?
Verse 1: He sent them out in pairs. - Don’t do this alone. Do you have someone to do this with? - Maybe God is inviting you to be vulnerable and ask a friend to join you.
Verse 3: “Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” - Sometimes we can feel small in our mission. Being blindsided by bigger and more powerful people. - Maybe today God is saying to you, take courage, persist, I am with you, you are bigger than you think. That God wants you to find authority in submission.
Verse 4: “Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road”. - The only requirement to participate in building the kingdom of God is a willing heart. Preparation is good, but there is a time to start. The work of the kingdom needs less than you think. - Maybe today God is saying to you, start, begin, go. Stop waiting.
Verse 7: “Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages.” - Your mission must sustain you. - Maybe God is saying stop feeling guilty for receiving or that you need to find a better way to do it sustainably.
Verse 7: “Do not move around from house to house. - Stay on task. Try one thing until the end. - Maybe God is telling you to stick this out. To keep on trying. Do not give up just yet.
Verse 10 and 11: “But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you.’” - Sometimes your efforts will fall flat on with the people you are working with. Keep moving on. - Maybe God is telling you that it is time to pack it in. Dust of your feet and move on.
Verse 17-19 “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. - Remember that the more you participate in the kingdom, the more authority you will operate with. - Maybe God is telling you today to see yourself as a strong son/daughter. To lift up your chin and take on the task. He is with you.
Verse 20: “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” - Remember that the goal is not the size of the task that you achieve. It is that you participate. Do not rejoice in the size. Rejoice that you are working with God. - Maybe God is telling you today that your contribution matters. You have changed the future. You matter.
Verse 17: They return to Jesus. - This is the most important lesson. - Submission. - We can only do this because of the strength, peace, love and joy that comes from the eternal fountain. - Maybe God is telling you to humble yourself. To submit. To listen. To start up your quiet time again.
One Liner¶
Mission lies in submission