Communion Sunday/Mission Trip Blessing July 5, 2009 "Great Expectations” Reverend Michael D. Powell Mark 6:7-13

This morning we’re blessing our Mission Team and at 5 o’clock tomorrow morning they’ll hit the road for Portland, from there they’ll fly to Guatemala where they’ll be involved in mission for 10 days. They are in for some powerful, spiritual, eye-opening, mind expanding experiences. They will see God, I can guarantee it!

As everyone knows, we’ve struggled to make sure these kids have the money they need to not only get there, but to have someplace to stay, something to eat, and money to get back home. But don’t feel too badly for them. The last I heard they were within $2000 of making it and if they run over, well, that’s why God made credit cards. It wasn’t always so easy!

In our scripture this morning Jesus sends out his disciples, "taking no bread, no bag, and no money in their belts." Obviously, Jesus is trusting in a higher power for their essentials. He has great expectations for his disciples, just as we have great expectations for our youth. Mission trips are not vacations. They’re not about going first class. They are not, in the final analysis, about us at all!

Here’s a true story. A pastor ran into a woman who had visited his church with her family. He told her he hoped they would return and she replied, "We enjoyed the service, but we're just shopping around for the church that meets our needs."

That's an honest response. Obviously, we all want a church that “meets our needs,” but we need to be careful about how we’re defining needs here. The “needs” we talk about most often are not what Jesus is talking about when he trusts that God will provide everything we need. William Willimon writes, "We live in a day when many are convinced that the church should get into marketing, that the church should take its cue from business and be more 'consumer oriented.' Pastors are enjoined to create 'user friendly' worship.” (On Not Meeting People's Needs in Church, July 6, '97)

How does a user friendly, consumer oriented approach to ministry relate to the story of Jesus sending out his disciples with only the clothes on their back, telling them to share the love of God, and God will take care of them? Is Jesus being impractical, or is there something we're not understanding?

In a book entitled, Selling Out the Church, we read: "By living in a society in which most daily choices are consumer choices, people have come to view their relationship to the church in similar ways, but once people have come to view choosing a church in ways similar to choosing among competing styles of basketball shoes, then enormous pressure is exerted upon the church to conceive of itself in those terms as well." (Philip D. Kenneson & James L. Street, Selling Out the Church, p. 68)

There’s another approach to doing ministry, to being the church. I believe that people are looking for meaning, for purpose, for a way to help make the world a better place. I believe people are looking for mission opportunities, and they’re not turned off by a little sacrifice. There’s something in us - call it a divine spark if you will, call it the Holy Spirit or the love of God – there’s something in us that actually thrives on sacrifice, feels good about living more simply that others might simply live.

If you watched that video clip after church last week you saw the conditions our kids are going to be exposed to. They’re going to have fun alright, but it’s no trip to Disneyland. They will be working and they’ll be exposed to poverty the likes of which most of them have never experienced before. And I have great expectations that it will change their lives for the better. Going on a Mission trip is an eye opening, consciousness raising, life transforming experience.

I went to Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala with Bob Buescher in the 80’s. Returning home from what was then a war torn third world country where there weren’t even manhole covers on city streets and barefoot kids were begging was traumatic. We flew in to Florida and the magnificent airport had huge advertisements for luxury items, mirrored walls and escalators that you stand on as you’re magically transported through the terminal. From the airport we drove by huge yachts anchored in the harbor beside the freeway. The contrast made me feel like I was from another planet.

Now, I said that a mission trip isn’t primarily about what our team members get out of it, but having said that, I have no doubt that they are going to receive more than they give. They’re going to be working to help others, but they’re also going to be helped. They’re expecting to help make some changes, but they’re going to be changed in fundamental, essential, spiritual ways.

What these kids and the adult team members are going to experience calls the whole notion of marketing into question. By sending these folks on a mission trip we’re focusing on spiritual formation, discipleship making and growing the Kingdom of God, forming our team members into living embodiments of Christ's love and compassion. I'm especially excited about the spiritual growth experiences that our teenagers are going to have, and I believe that opportunities like this mission trip are the cutting edge of true evangelism. Sacrificing, doing with less, helping others, these may not be what people think they’re looking for, but God knows it’s what we all need!

Willimon writes that “Most people come to church for the wrong reasons. We come seeking confirmation of our preconceptions, but God tends to take our wrong reasons and reform them, redirect our desires, give us more than we would have known how to ask for . . . our preconceptions get challenged and changed. We come seeking mere fellowship with other people - and are astounded to receive friendship with God." (On Not Meeting People's Needs in Church, July 6, '97)

As we pray for our mission team this morning, we are praying for the people of Guatemala, and we are praying for ourselves. Because we are all one. We are One Body in Christ, members one of another. We all have great expectations for the members of this mission team. God has great expectations for them as well. It is absolutely appropriate that we celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion this morning as we bless those we are sending out to represent us in Christ’s name.