We do have the right stuff because Jesus himself gives us what we need to do what he asks of us.

Long before there were space shuttles, years before man walked on the moon, the United States was involved in a frenzied race with the Soviet Union to send a man into space. As that race heated up, a group of hotshot military test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base in California were competing to be chosen as America's first astronauts. These pilots were known for their willingness to risk their lives, pushing the limits of new advanced aircraft. It took somebody special to do that work. Someone with the perfect combination of flying skills, mental and physical toughness, determination, and reckless courage. They coined a term for that: Those pilots were said to have the "right stuff." That meant that they were equipped for and ready to take on the toughest task and the greatest challenge.

Shortly before his ascension, Jesus gave his church an eternally important assignment. He defined that task when he said to his first disciples (and to his church of all time), "Go. Go into all the world. Go and make disciples of all nations." Confronted with that task, we might well ask ourselves, "Are we up for that work? Do we have the 'right stuff' to carry out the work that God has given us to do?"

Those first disciples were still confused and doubted—in spite of all they had seen and heard in their three years with Jesus. Their understanding was unclear, their faith wavering, their commitment all but certain. They didn't exactly demonstrate that they had the right stuff for what Jesus was asking them to do.

But that didn't stop Jesus from giving them that task. He told those weak and wavering disciples, "Go and make disciples of all nations." How could he entrust such a task to such unqualified people? The answer is simple. As surely as Jesus gave that task, he himself gave them all they needed—the right stuff—to carry it out.

How did he do that? First, he gave them a clear mission. From that day on their task and the task of his church was to share the good news of what Jesus had done with those nearby and with those far away. Their mission was missions; their task was to use the means he had given them both to bring people into God's church through Spirit-worked faith and to nourish that faith with his Word and sacraments.

He also gave them a powerful message—a message that did not depend on their own cleverness or creativity or wisdom, but a message that was nothing else than the words and promises of God himself. It was a sure and dependable message of sin and grace, law and gospel, a call to repentance and an invitation to faith in Christ.