Godspeed

I am about to go on my second plane flight alone on Thursday. I am going to the second meeting of the Episcopal Youth Event 2014 Mission Planning Team, and we haven't been together since this past March.

I hate planes.

Last time I went to the EYE Planning Team meeting, I was so nervous about the flight that I latched on to the arm of the stranger next to me. Luckily, this grandfatherly figure allowed me to hold on his arm whenever I felt that I needed to!

"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. He said to them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.'" ( Luke 10:1-3, NRSV)

Jesus sends out into the midst of wolves. As much as we hate to imagine our messiah as one who throws us in the pool expecting us to swim, it's true. We are called to head right out into the wolves as lambs. Why? Because the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. God needs us to.

But be not afraid.

God sends us in pairs. We aren't sent alone. God sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.

Jesus had a lot of work on his plate. There was a lot to get done, but he couldn't do everything because it was not his time. He couldn't evangelize through the wonders of social media, or preach to a large congregation with televisions and microphones. That is our time, and first century Middle-Eastern temples were Jesus' time.

God calls us to go out into the harvest. To do work we may not be comfortable doing. To go out into the wolves as lambs. But, be not afraid, because we are sent in pairs. "I don't have someone to go with, because God didn't send anyone with me!", you might say, but I say, look around you. God might have given you a fellow lamb to hold onto when you least expect it.

Godspeed, y'all.