Most of you know how much I love to watch sports. So, you probably think my favorite television program is some sort of sports-related show. You’re wrong.
My favorite TV show is a British science-fiction program called Doctor Who. It’s been running for a long time. Locally, we can get it on BBC America. I won’t go into a lot of detail about the show, but essentially, the main character, called The Doctor, is an adventurer. He has a machine that can take him to any place in the universe at any time in the past or future. He goes to all kinds of strange places, fights various weird monsters, and generally ends up saving the world. As a viewer, of course, you get to join the Doctor on his adventures.
Watching some else’s adventure on TV can be a lot of fun. It’s a little different, though, when you’re actually living an adventure yourself. Adventures can be exciting, but they can also be scary. When you’re in an adventure, you never know what’s around the next corner. It could be something terrible, or it could be something wonderful. There’s no way to know in advance. The only way to find out is to actually go around the corner and see. It takes courage to go on an adventure.
As we come to the last message in our sermon series “what is the church”, I want to remind you about something we talked about back in the first message of the series. We talked about a choice this church needs to make about its future.
We talked about how, in recent years, this church has seen its attendance decline. That’s just a fact. The choice involves how we’re going to look at that fact. We can choose to look at this decline as inevitable. We can choose to say that the church is slowly dying and there’s nothing we can do about it. Or, we can say that our past does not rule our future. We can say that just because the church has been declining in recent years does not mean it has to continue to do so. We can say that there are all kinds of people in this area who are not going to church anywhere. Those people need what this church has to offer, they just don’t know it yet. Therefore, we need to find ways to reach out to those people with God’s love and with God’s word. We need to find ways to make those people disciples of Jesus Christ, just as Jesus told us to.
I have yet to have anyone in this church tell me they want to make that first choice. No one has come up to me and said we want to just accept that this church is going to decline and eventually die. Instead, everyone who’s talked to me about this has said they believe in the future of this church. Everyone who’s talked to me about this has said they believe this church can grow.
That’s good. In fact, it’s better than good, it’s vital. As important as it is, though, that’s only the first step. See, it’s one thing to say we believe in the future of this church. It’s one thing to say we believe this church can grow. The thing is that it’s not going to happen by itself. It’s only going to happen if we do the things necessary to make it happen. That means we have to change some of the things we’re doing. That brings me to the last thing we’re going to talk about in regard to what the church does. The church goes out and takes risks to bring people to Christ. In other words, we need to have a spirit of adventure. The people of God are adventurers for Jesus.
When you look at the history of the Christian church, you can see that this is what we’re called to do. Jesus was on an adventure every day of his ministry. He constantly took risks. He broke the Sabbath laws, he argued with the religious leaders of his time, he became the focal point of a movement that threatened the government. The apostles were adventurers and risk-takers, too. Some of them risked their lives, and some of them literally gave their lives, to spread the gospel.
Now, as I said last week, I know there are a lot of people here who do a lot of work for this church. I’m not trying to imply otherwise. I know a lot of you are very dedicated to this church, and I appreciate that.
Even so, though, when’s the last time any of us, myself included, really took a risk to spread the gospel? It seems to me that’s a question we need to answer when we look at the future of this church. What adventures are we willing to go on to spread the gospel? Do we have the courage to take risks to make disciples of Jesus Christ?
Those are not easy questions. They’re not easy for me, and I’m sure they’re not easy for some of you. A lot of us are not, by nature, either adventurers or risk-takers. I’m not. Not only is an adventure scary, not only does it take courage, it’s also hard work. When I watch Doctor Who, or when we watch any sort of adventure show, you never see the hero just kind of lounging around, relaxing and taking it easy. If he ever does, it lasts about a minute and a half, just long enough for him to catch his breath before something happens to start up the adventure again.
In our reading from Luke, Jesus sent the seventy people out on an adventure. He sent them out with no weapons, with no money, without even any luggage. He sent no one out in advance to tell people they were coming. He told them they would not always receive a warm welcome. In fact, he told them they were like lambs being sent out into the midst of wolves. They had nothing to work with, nothing but a message of truth and love.
We’re not told how those seventy people felt when they left, but I don’t think it takes too much imagination to figure it out. These people were taking a pretty big risk. I think they were probably pretty scared. I sure would be. I’d be scared to death. I’d be looking for any excuse to get out of doing that, to stay home, or to stay with Jesus, or to stay anywhere where it would be safe.
We’re all tempted, at times, to play it safe. Playing it safe is almost always the easiest thing to do. The easiest thing, though, is not necessarily the best thing. There’s an old saying that a boat is safe when it’s tied to the dock, but that’s not what a boat is for. A boat only fulfills it’s purpose when it’s out there, putting itself at risk.
As Christians, we only fulfill our purpose when we’re out there, putting ourselves at risk. Jesus did not come to this world to play it safe. Jesus did not come to this world to tell his followers to play it safe, either. Jesus sent his followers out on an adventure. The adventure started two thousand years ago, and it’s not over yet.
Adventures are hard work. Adventures are risky. The easier thing is always to do nothing. The easier thing is to just stay where we are, to just do what we’ve done, to just be who we’ve been. That’s the easy thing, but it’s usually not the best thing. It’s especially not the best thing if you don’t like the direction in which you’re headed. Decline is not inevitable, but it is if we do nothing about it. If we continue to do the things we’ve done, we’ll continue to go in the same direction we’re going. The direction will only change if we change. The direction will only change if we do the hard work, take the risks and go on an adventure for Jesus.
Adventures are not easy. Adventures have tremendous rewards, though. Doctor Who saves the world in pretty much every episode. Jesus, in his adventure, and in his way, saved the world, too. The people Jesus sent out played a part in that. When the seventy went out on their adventure and took their risks, they returned with joy. Even the demons submitted to them. Jesus said he watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.
Jesus is sending us out now. Jesus is sending us out without weapons, without money, without anything. When we go, we don’t know what kind of a reception we’re going to get. We may not always get a warm welcome. Jesus is sending us on an adventure. Jesus is sending us out to the people of this community and this area with nothing but a message of truth and love.
Note one thing, though. We are not sent out alone. Jesus did not send the seventy out alone. He sent them in pairs, so they’d have each other to rely on. We, too, can rely on each other as we go out on adventures for Jesus.
That’s not all. Look at our reading from Joshua. God was sending Joshua out on an adventure. He was going to do what Moses could not do, lead the people into the promised land. He had big shoes to fill. He was scared. Three times in those verses, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. This was not just idle talk. God gave Joshua a reason to be strong and courageous. God said, “I will be with you. I will never fail you or forsake you...the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
If this church is serious about its future, if we really mean it when we say we believe this church can grow, we need to get out there on our adventure for Jesus. Our ship needs to leave the dock. We need to go out there and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to go out there and bring God’s word and God’s love to the people of this area to all the people who need it, whether they know it or not.
I’ve said before that I can see a day when there are a hundred, a hundred twenty-five, a hundred fifty people worshipping regularly in this church. I firmly believe that can happen. In fact, I believe it will happen. It will only happen, though, if we’re willing to go out and do what’s necessary to make it happen. It will only happen if we’re willing to take risks. It will only happen if we’re willing to go on an adventure for Jesus Christ.
Adventures are exciting, but they’re not easy. They take courage. We can have that courage, knowing that we are not alone. We have each other, and we have the Lord our God. God will never fail us nor forsake us. We can be bold and courageous, we can go on our adventure for Jesus, knowing that when we do, God will always be there.
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