We've been hotfooting it across the Gospel of Luke these last few weeks - and chapter-by-chapter the voice of the storyteller has become increasingly urgent. The stories we've heard are so familiar that there is a tendency to be complacent about complex details. For those of us who draw pictures in our heads while listening, the images are just as confusing! Foxes and foxholes, disciples being tossed about their wooden boat by large waves, pigs diving snout-first into the sea while gasping for air and a woman with an alabaster jar, leaving large wet tears on the feet of Jesus, and then drying them with her hair.

Paralleling these vivid pictures are the words of Jesus...crisp and direct. Sentences like sharp paper cuts that leave your skin raw. "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye but don't notice the log in your own? If anyone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other also. I, the Lord, test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their way. I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves."

These are images that make us squirm in our seats...words that slice and dice through our good deeds and make us want to hide the shadow parts of our hearts from God. These are the stories that Jesus has been using since Pentecost to prepare us for the challenge of today's Gospel from Luke:

• Let us choose 70 sitting here this morning-pair you up for ministry in mission;
• Don't bring much with you; don't get attached to where you're staying; greet those you meet with a peace-filled heart; if they don't like what you have to say, remind them that God has been near and leave.

Ruthanna Hooke reminded us last week that Jesus has already completed separating the wheat from the chaff. The people who want to bury their dead first, the ones who have good reasons for not joining up right now, are the very ones Jesus is leaving behind. He needs volunteers for ministry...the harvest is primed and the call is out for those who can be single-minded and devoted-just as our traditional post-communion prayer reminds us, "Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart." Jesus is asking us to turn our faces towards Jerusalem, with him and don't look back. The short of it is, we follow Jesus on his terms, not ours or we don't really end up following Jesus at all. Not alone, at least in pairs; not without help, we're called to a committed life in community...to be a parish who has their hearts, souls, and minds around the teamwork of Jesus, the Jesus headed towards Jerusalem, without taking tally of the cost. Passionately driven!