I am a list maker. I make lists of what to pack when going on a vacation. I keep lists at home about things to buy or to do to my house. I keep lists of birthday’s and anniversaries, so hopefully I won’t forget important occasions. I keep lists at the office about work projects. I love to complete tasks and check them off my list.

I first remember making lists when I was in college. For the first time in my life, I was totally in charge of my schedule and responsible for getting up each morning, arriving at class on time with assignments finished or papers written, getting to my work study job each afternoon and completing the lists of tasks professors left for me. I had responsibilities in my church, sorority, and other campus organizations. I carried my calendar everywhere I went with my list of "to do" items paper clipped to the outside of it. I will admit that in the beginning, I was a little compulsive about my calendar and lists.

I went to a small liberal arts college of about 1000 students. There were 12 of us who went through our four years together as Christian Education majors. After four years we knew each other pretty well. On the last day of class in our Senior year we had agreed, just for fun, to come to class having switched identities with one of the other twelve. We each secretly drew a name of someone in the class and agreed to come in some way representing this other person. Even the professor participated. Well, Denise Bedard drew my name and she showed up wearing paraphernalia from my various campus organizations and carrying a large poster size calendar with lists of "things to do" written on it. It really was funny and indeed a true picture of me.

With age and a little loosening up caused simply by living life, I‘m not quite so compulsive about being organized in every aspect of my life, but I do still live by a calendar and I do keep a lot of lists.

I think if I had been among those early disciples Jesus was preparing to send out into the world, my first question would have been, "Where’s the packing list?! What do you mean no bread, no bag, no money? What do I take if not the usual items I need on a journey?"

It would have been normal for the disciples to expect to take some food and money for a journey. But, it seems to me, Jesus is letting them know that on a deeper level, this trip will be different than anything they have experienced in their life and the usual packing items … the usual lists of religious laws and rules, may not be adequate. He has chosen them and he will give them what they need to be his disciples in the world. These disciples have been with Jesus, listening to his teaching, watching him minister to others, and experiencing his power and presence in their own lives. All their previous "lists" … their knowledge, experience, and understanding of what is religious has been blown out of the water by this teacher and healer.

The disciples were used to the teaching of the Scribes. Now, Scribes were serious list makers! They had the responsibility of interpreting the Torah, the law, and making rules and regulations for every possible situation in life. Obviously, this was a task that was endless. It began as religion; it sometimes ended as legalism. The scribes, like the Pharisees, were opposed to Jesus because he cut across their ancient traditions and sometimes exposed their unwarranted claims to prestige and power. With just a word or touch, he had authority … and it had taken years of law, tradition, and procedure for them to develop their authority.

Then, in addition to this new kind of teaching, the disciples witness Jesus calling an unclean spirit to come out of a man in the synagogue. The Jews believed strongly in demons. They were believed to be malicious beings somewhere between God and humanity who were out to bring harm. At that time, there were many exorcists who claimed to be able to cast out demons. But there was a difference with Jesus. The ordinary Jewish and pagan exorcist used elaborate incantations and spells and magical rites. Jesus, with one word of clear, simple, brief authority exorcised the demon from a man. The power was not in the spell, the formula, the incantation, the elaborate rite; the power was in Jesus, and they were astonished. No one had ever seen anything like this before

So, Jesus’ behavior was very different than what they had experienced before and it made a deep impression on the disciples. The whole method and atmosphere of Jesus’ teaching was like a new revelation. When Jesus spoke, he spoke as if he needed no authority beyond himself. He spoke with utter independence. He cited no authorities and quoted no experts. He spoke with the finality of the voice of God. To the people, it was like a breeze from heaven to hear someone speak like that. The fresh teaching that addressed people’s needs and the positive certainty of Jesus was the very different than the legalistic, very careful quotations of the Scribes.

All of this new way of teaching and healing tells us something about Jesus. He knew the religious laws and the lists of rules and regulations, and he had respect for their goodness in intent, but his teaching and healing went beyond them to share God’s unconditional love and be in ministry with people in need. He did not require an audience to exert his power; he was just as prepared to heal in the little circle of a cottage as in the great crowd of a synagogue. He was never too tired to help; the need of others took precedence over his own desire for rest. A miracle to Jesus was not a means of increasing his prestige; to help was not a burdensome duty; he helped instinctively because he was supremely interested in all who needed his help.

The disciples witness and experience THIS Jesus. They are called to follow him … to hear his teaching, to witness his healing, and maybe most importantly, to experience his word and touch in their own life. Then they can be sent out into the world in his authority to reach others. Jesus has loved them, listened to them, and been a role model for their own discipleship. They have been with him watching and learning. They have been with him as he experienced rejection in his own home town. They have been with him in the synagogue, in the grain fields, at the seaside, and on the mountain.

Now he has called them and given them instruction for their ministry in his name. So, what’s on the packing list?! Jesus tells them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust on your feet as a testimony against them. So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them."

Jesus is helping them see that his authority and power is a new kind of ministry of God’s love in the world. The usual "packing list" of religious rules and laws aren’t enough for this journey of discipleship. They know the laws and that is good, BUT with his life as the model, Jesus has given them all they need for this journey. They have his calling, his love, his teachings, his power and authority at work in their lives, and his heart to love others in need. And they go, using the gifts God has given them for ministry and the authority Jesus has given them minister in his name.

I read a book last year called The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. Maybe some of you read it too. It’s a pretty intense (and tragic) novel about an evangelical Baptist man who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959.

The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo’s fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy.

The family carries with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it is tragically transformed on African soil. This was their packing list … Betty Crocker cake mixes, a dozen cans of Underwood deviled ham; one plastic hand mirror, a stainless-steel thimble; a good pair of scissors; a dozen number 2 pencils; a load of Band-Aids, Anacin, Absorbine Jr., a fever thermometer, Easter Sunday clothes, garden seeds to grow American crops, and Bibles.

And I might add a few other things they took with them … strong racial preconceptions from living in Georgia in the 1950’s, a lack of desire to know anything about the culture they were going into, a strong belief that the Africans needed saving from themselves, and a fierce agenda to convert the Africans to Christianity as they knew it from home. Nathan Price had a love of Christ, but he was so legalistic and rule oriented he couldn’t comprehend a ministry of meeting people where they are in love and respect.

As you can imagine, they weren’t prepared for what they found when they arrived in the Congo. The supplies they brought were pretty worthless. When the list of beliefs they brought became more important than meeting the needs of the African people, their tragic undoing began to unfold.

There’s nothing wrong with laws and rules and keeping schedules and lists. But I hope and pray that in my journey of discipleship, I will be reminded that Jesus has given me all I need to reach out to others. If I study his word and pray for his guidance and direction, and don’t get too caught up in my own lists of agendas and expectations, I will be led in the path of discipleship in the world.

Some of you have heard this story from my own life before. About 4–5 years ago I came up to the church on a Saturday morning to run some errands for the next day. I had a long list of things to do and a lot of supplies to buy. The next day was Promotion Sunday and the church birthday party, so I was to pick up balloons and decorations … you know the kind of errands. As I was sitting in the church van waiting for it to warm up, studying my list and strategically planning my morning, I was startled by a knock on the driver side window. I looked up from my list to see a man standing there on the other side of the window. I had been so absorbed in my list, I hadn’t even seen him drive up.

I rolled down my window to see what he wanted and in very broken English he explained to me that he was trying to get to San Antonio to see his father who was dying in the hospital and had run out of gas in Austin. Could the church help? I have to admit that my first inside reaction was to be annoyed. This was not on my list. Then, fortunately, my better sense of what ministry is about kicked into gear and I knew it was much more important that I get out of that van and help this man in need. Here was an opportunity to be in ministry right in front of my face, and I was annoyed because I couldn’t stay focused on my list … my agenda for ministry that day.

I got out of the van and went back into the church office. In a very short period of time, I had helped the man with some gas credit and we were both on our way. Ten minutes, some gas credit, and a drink of water was all that was required.

I attended a Memorial Service earlier this year for a friend. Near the end of the service, one of the speakers said something like this: "If you want to remember Tom and honor his life, make a difference in your little corner of the world." It was true that Tom had lived his life doing just that … making a significant difference in his own little corner of the world. Maybe the way to take authority in Jesus name is to be a disciple in our many little corners believing that Jesus has given us all we need to reach out to others.

Maybe your discipleship is to be a school mentor, or to serve on the AIDS Care team, or to teach Sunday school or to pray for others. Maybe your discipleship right now is to be the best parent or grandparent you can be. Maybe your call to discipleship is right around the corner … maybe it’s as far away as Honduras.

The work of Jesus is to continue and for that purpose the church is called and sent. For that work, Jesus grants the word and the power that characterized his own ministry to be our authority on our own path of discipleship. Amen.