Mission is for Everyone

On Sunday during our worship service, our congregation filled out a survey for the mission theme. The survey asked each of us if we have experience or interest in a broad range of fields, from housing to health care. At the heart of this survey is a core conviction: that Christian mission is for everyone.

Churches have a tendency to compartmentalize mission. It’s assumed that mission is for the missionaries - those who sacrifice a “normal” career to pursue some higher calling. Or if it’s not for the career missionaries, it’s at least for those who can articulately share their faith with their co-workers or are willing to take a certain number of hours out of their week to volunteer at a non-profit organization or with church mission groups.

These are fundamental parts of the Church’s mission - career missionaries, sharing our faith, and committing our time to service. But on their own they offer a truncated view of Christ’s mission. Jesus didn’t come merely to tell people about himself, call a few experts who would do the work for everyone else, and encourage us to do service projects periodically.

God’s mission in Christ is cosmic. It must be cosmic, because the whole earth - that is, not just people, but every quarter of the world - is suffering under sin and brokenness. In Romans, Paul writes, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves” (Rom 8:20-23, NRSV). The bondage of the world is not hard to see when we encounter disease epidemics, droughts, famines, economic inequality, racial injustice, corrupt politics, and widespread violence.

The mission that Christ invites us into is not an escape route from this broken world, but rather an invitation to be healed, and to heal the broken world. Paul writes in Colossians that through Christ, “God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col 1:20). Thank God that sin and brokenness are not the only things that are cosmic. God’s gift of salvation in Christ is also cosmic. And as the Church, we are called to witness to this salvation by seeking the restoration and renewal of all things.

This means that we engage in Christian mission not only in our support of missionaries or our volunteering, but in every aspect of our lives. It means that each of us can use our skills, experiences, and interests for the mission of God. If people lack housing, it’s not only homeless shelters who can help; anyone who can swing a hammer or who knows how to provide affordable housing can heal that area of our society. If people are struggling financially, it’s an opportunity for anyone who can teach economic literacy or job skills training to use their gifts for God’s mission.

When the Scriptures say that Christ made peace through the blood of his cross, it’s a bigger peace than mere inner peace or an absence of conflict between two parties. It’s the Old Testament concept of Shalom that the people of Israel longed for in their journey with God. It’s a cosmic peace makes all things right. One way it’s been described is a state where “nothing is missing, nothing is broken.”

What would it look like if, in Durham, nothing was missing and nothing was broken? And in what ways can we use our experiences and skills to bring fullness and healing to our city? As we continue to listen to our neighbors and to our city, may Christ show each of us the full extent to which we can participate in the making of shalom. 

Three Lessons from Dr. King

This Monday is America’s annual celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As we remember Dr. King, what can we learn from him about what it means to be a good neighbor? MLK frequently referred to the parable of the Good Samaritan and challenged America with the very question, “Who is My Neighbor?” In his final speech in Memphis, popularly known as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” he references the Good Samaritan, and I believe there are three main things we can learn from King’s exposition of this parable.

1. The Good Samaritan saves us from self-preservation. This message was present in many of King’s uses of the Good Samaritan. When he spoke in Memphis, the focus of his speech was the Memphis Sanitation Strike, when some 1300 black sanitation workers walked off the job in protest of discrimination and dangerous working conditions. Much of the unrest was due to the death of two sanitation workers who, after being criticized by Memphis citizens for “picnicking,” or eating lunch outside their truck, sat in the compactor (since there was little room in the bed of the truck), and were crushed when the machine malfunctioned. King said the following in reference to the difficult question about whether to help the sanitation workers:


And so the first question that the priest asked -- the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him? That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" The question is, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.


King showed how our tendency toward self-preservation is often motivated by fear. We ask the wrong question because we fear what others will think of us when we associate with certain people or certain causes. We fear being interrupted and having our weekly tasks or long-term goals thrown off. But King reminds us that when we put the welfare of others before ourselves, we can have faith that God will take care of us and our loved ones. Jesus can help us turn our “What will happen to me?” into “What will happen to them?”


2. The Good Samaritan saves us from misplaced preoccupations.
In King’s speech in Memphis, he recounts his trip that he took with his wife to Jerusalem. He had an opportunity to drive down the Jericho Road which Jesus references in the parable, and this is what he says about it:


It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles -- or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass."



Anyone who drives down a dangerous road knows that it takes a lot of concentration. You need to calculate the turns, dodge the potholes, be aware of oncoming traffic, and if there’s a steep downhill you need to make sure you don’t pick up too much speed. And you better hope the weather is good. With all of these details keeping you preoccupied, it’s hard to think about things that don’t directly benefit your immediate goal: getting to the end of the road.

But perhaps our goal is not the end of the road. What if our goal is the middle of the road? What if our goal is looking for people who are struggling on the journey and being with them as they travel the road? King helped us to see how this parable sets our eyes in a different direction. As Christians we live by a different reality where our primary goal is to love God and love others. This goal makes us slow down on the hectic Jericho Road that we call life. In fact it often makes us go very slowly. And as we see in the parable, sometimes it causes us to completely stop. Only when we go slowly and stop along the way are we able to see our true purpose. 

3. The Good Samaritan saves us from our own causes.
King was criticized for visiting Memphis when he did. Many thought that advocating for the sanitation workers was not a strategic decision in his civil rights campaign. There were other cities and other causes that had more significance and would generate more support. In general, King was criticized when he took up causes that seemed to divert from the main civil rights agenda. His decisions to oppose the Vietnam War and take up the Poor People’s Campaign did not, by any means, generate unanimous support from other civil rights leaders.

As King stated in his speech in Memphis, the question is not so much “What will happen to me if I do?” as it is “What will happen to them if I do not?” In Memphis, he saw that the injustice done to sanitation workers needed to be addressed. Yes, like some of his other decisions, it might have taken him away from the large-scale civil rights movement. But King knew the danger of allowing a movement, program, or initiative to abstract itself from the people who are suffering, the people for whom it is intended.

Initiatives and programs can be a gift - they can create a common vision to rally around. But we pray that as soon as our programming becomes an idol that removes us from loving God and loving others, it will take a backseat. In our church it might be easy to think that good programming means good work is being done. But the program is only the framework. It’s the vehicle that we’re driving in down the Jericho road.

Ironically, in King’s Memphis speech, which was the night before his assassination, he emphasized his readiness to die for the cause. What gave him such confidence? He said, “I just want to do God’s will...He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land.” It’s a picture of hope that gave MLK his confidence. He was able to believe in something that his faith in Christ gave him the vision to see. As we continue our journey of learning what it means to take part in Christ’s mission - what it means to know and love our neighbor - we pray that our vision will be transformed. We pray that we will see with eyes that have seen the Promised Land.

*All excerpts of King’s speech are taken from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm.

An Invitation and a Challenge

It’s official. We have declared a mission theme for 2012. But what exactly is a “mission theme”? How can a slogan help us live faithfully as disciples of Jesus Christ? To see this, let us look at the passage that our theme comes from, Luke 10:25-37:

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:25-37, NRSV)

This passage gives us an invitation and a challenge. First, an invitation. It’s an invitation to love - to live by the deep, real relationships for which we were made. Love has been at the heart of what it means to be the people of God ever since God called out the people of Israel. In the passage from Luke, when the expert in the law asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus doesn’t say anything groundbreaking. He fittingly asks the lawyer what the law says. And the lawyer quotes two of the most central passages of the Hebrew Scriptures, Deuteronomy 6:4 and Leviticus 19:8, which, in short, are commands for us to love God with all of ourselves, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

The invitation stands. Being part of the people of God means entering into a loving relationship with God and with others. We can live in these relationships because Jesus healed them. He reconciled us to God and reconciled us to each other by making peace through the blood of his cross. In light of this passage, we hope that our mission theme will show us what it means to love God and love our neighbor.

But this passage also gives us a challenge. In an effort to justify himself, the lawyer asks Jesus “And who is my neighbor?” This opens him up to a challenge. By asking the question he shows that it’s not enough to merely know that we should love our neighbor. We also need to know who our neighbor is. The lawyer, perhaps unintentionally, gives Jesus an opportunity to expand his understanding of “neighbor.” He lets Jesus shift his paradigm. And so Jesus tells him the story of the Good Samaritan, a story of an unexpected neighbor and an unexpected way of acting “neighborly.”

As the story shows us, it’s easy to miss our neighbors, which makes it hard to love our neighbors. Whether we’re trying to justify ourselves or simply carrying on with daily tasks, we need to be challenged by the very question, “Who is My Neighbor?” This is why we take time to listen, learn, and live together with those around us. We hope our theme will help us do this. So as we enter this new year, let us accept the invitation to be in a community of love with God and with others. And let us be challenged to see our neighbors in unexpected places and serve our neighbors in unexpected ways.