“Go on your way.”
In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus saying, “Go on your way.” He is preparing a large group to get going, but with some definite instructions about the manner with which they are to go. Instead of a securing-sense offered by having maps, Jesus tells his followers that following Him now means trusting the unknown and indefinite so that God’s care for them will be known. We will hear this missioning to mystery and we might wonder about the efficiency of sending these people out without adequate preparation.
They do return at the end of today’s reading and apparently have had great success. Jesus welcomes them, but advises them that the real cause for joy is not success, but their names being written in heaven. Their efficiency is a result of God’s intimacy.
Where is the “unknown” that Jesus calls to be? For Jesus, the “unknown” is wherever one can be mapless, but not hapless. In other words, insecurity is the end of the journey and the beginning of God’s being our security and our awareness of God’s offer of intimacy.
Jesus sends us with the promise that if we trust in God’s promise of intimacy and care, we might not question or quit as we make our journey to proclaim that God is ever intimate. God is the towards the “unknown” to which we move through the “here” and even where the “here” is seems rather insecure at times. Isaiah speaks of this intimacy when he says “When you see this, your heart shall rejoice and your bodies flourish like the grass; the lord’s power shall be known to his servants.” That all sounded very good, but we still want to get there now!
