Sermon
Christ Church, St.
Michaels Parish
Sunday, May 17, 2015
John 17:6-19
Last week I traveled to Atlanta,
Georgia to present at two separate conferences. The first conference was
sponsored by the Global Episcopal Mission Network, also known as GEMN. GEMN’s
mission statement proclaims, “GEMN is
dedicated to the principle that every Episcopalian (and, indeed, every
Christian) is a missionary. We are committed to providing global mission
conferences, global mission training, and global mission resources to all those
who would like to participate in discerning where God is leading us
in mission, as individuals and as a church.”
The second conference was
organized by Gray Dove, Inc., an organization that I represent. Grey Dove’s
mission statement proclaims, “Grey Dove,
Inc. is an organization whose mission is to build healthcare capacity and
sustainability in rural communities throughout Haiti. Through direct care,
technical assistance, and the training and enhancement of available resources
we encourage local leaders to become effective agents of change in their own
community.”
You might say, Grey Dove is in
the business of operationalizing the theology inherent in the mission of GEMN. Proclaiming
and witnessing to the Kingdom of God in ways that bring justice, well-being and
the Light of Christ into communities living in darkness.
At the close of the GEMN
conference and prior to the beginning of the Grey Dove conference there was an
incredibly moving noonday Eucharist service. The celebrant and preacher at this
service was Bishop Stacy Sauls, Chief Operating Officer of the Episcopal
Church.
To say that Bishop Stacy’s sermon
was stunningly eloquent is certainly not to do it justice. In simple words and
stories he emphasized over and over again – “Mission
is not what we do – it is who we are.”
Mission is not what we do – it is
who we are.
Following the Bishop’s sermon
there was a Hand-Anointing Litany and Blessing of the Oil. Together we prayed,
“Loving
God, we hear your call as you invite us again to share in your ministry. Our
zeal in the past has not set the world on fire and our attachment to
convenience shields us from the urgency of needs in our global community. And
yet you call us to the work of reconciliation and justice, of equity and
renewal…it is God’s purpose that we serve as a community when we share our
gifts in ministry…We ask you to renew and restore us in our call to serve. We
ask that you give to us faith and the confidence to bear it; hope and the
openness to be continually expectant; and love, the only true beginning.”
Mission is not what we do – it is
who we are.
So, you may be asking
yourself…what exactly is mission? What does Holy Scripture say about mission?
The Rt. Rev. Ian Douglas, Bishop of Connecticut and one of the four candidates
in the upcoming election for a new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church,
says about mission:
“…it
must be pointed out that the word mission, per se, is not found in the
Bible…The reason we do not find the word mission, as such, in the Bible is…that
the whole Bible, Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament, is a revelation of
God’s mission in the world…God’s mission, not our mission…ultimately, it is
God’s mission that our Lord Jesus Christ came to bear witness to, it is God’s
mission that the Church proclaims in the world today, and it is God’s mission
that we share by virtue of our baptisms.”
Douglas speaks at length about
God’s mission and God’s missional efforts to rebuild the bonds of love which are
continually severed through human sin, or falling away from God. God’s mission
was always, and still is, a mission to reconnect humanity and to heal the
divisions that separate us. The central mission of God is to restore to unity
that which has become broken; to reconcile a divided world.
Throughout history God has chosen
particular people as the entry point into the world: Abraham and Sarah; Moses;
the prophets, perhaps especially Elisha and Isaiah; and finally, of course,
Jesus Christ.
Abraham and Sarah, Moses and the
prophets were called by God to direct people to him – to be the vehicles, the mechanism
through which all the nations could be joined to the almighty Creator and to
each other. Israel’s role in God’s
mission was to serve as the central force that would pull all humanity back
into relationship with God.
In the incarnation of Jesus
Christ, God entered the world anew and took the responsibility for God’s mission
directly upon himself. In Jesus, God created a new way through which the world
could be joined to the Creator.
As the human form of the creator
God, Jesus’ mission is one and the same with that of the Creator. His mission
is God’s mission. Jesus demonstrates in word and deed that the Reign of God,
made real in the sending of God’s son, must continue to expand, to move out to
the ends of the earth. Jesus sends out his disciples, empowered by the Holy
Spirit, to be the bearers of his mission, of God’s mission, in the world.
The ultimate act of Jesus’
participation in God’s mission is his sacrifice upon the cross and his victory
over death. The joining of Jesus’ pain and suffering with our pain and
suffering upon the cross is where we are passionately connected with God, with
one another, and with all creation.
In Jesus’ death and resurrection
we are given the means by which we become one with each other and with God…the
divisions between God and humanity are overcome, and the promise of
reconciliation is made real.
In his book Transforming Mission,
David J. Bosch elegantly summarized these concepts when he wrote, ““Mission is, quite simply, the
participation of Christians in the liberating mission of Jesus, wagering on a
future that verifiable experience seems to believe. It is the good news of
God’s love, incarnated in the witness of a community, for the sake of the
world. This is the deepest source of mission…there is mission because God loves
people.”
Mission
is not what we do…it is who we are.
Jesus
High Priestly Prayer draws to its conclusion in today’s gospel reading from
John. As Jesus prepares to offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins and the
sins of the world, he intercedes on behalf of his disciples.
Jesus
prays, “I am asking on their behalf…Holy
Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be
one, as we are one…I am not asking that you take them out of the world, but I
ask you to protect them from the evil one…Sanctify them in the truth; your word
is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the
world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they may also be
sanctified in truth.”
Jesus
prays that we may go forth into the world with a unity of heart and purpose. He
asks God to sanctify us – to make us spiritually whole – holy. Jesus lays the
groundwork for his disciples – Jesus lays the groundwork for us – for all God’s
children to carry forth his incarnational ministry of bringing the world into
relationship with God.
Mission
is not what we do…it is who we are.
In a sermon preached at the
Trinity Institute in 2006, the Rt.
Rev. Michael Curry, Bishop of North Carolina, and also a candidate in the
upcoming election for Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, proclaimed,
“…the reconfiguration of the
nature of life by God was what Jesus was talking about--that anyone in Christ
is a new creation, and that "he [God] has given us the ministry of his
reconciliation."
"This mission of
reconciliation is about God's reconfiguration of the landscape of our realities.
From the nightmare that it often is into the dream that God has intended for
the foundation of the world."
"The ministry of
reconciliation is about participating in God's work of reconfiguration. The
work of reconfiguration is calling the creation back to itself, to its origin,
to its momma, to its roots, to God, to each other and when that happens, life
can flourish."
"Reconciliation is about the
very life of the world," said Curry. "As the world and the creation lives
into the loving purposes of its creator [and] as we live in the communion and
love in relationship with God and with each other, we will discover that that
is the context for life that not even death can destroy."
Curry ended by saying, "this
mission, this work is the difference between civilization or mutually assured
self-destruction."
Mission is not what we do…it is
who we are.
Participants in last week’s two
Atlanta conferences, 80 people in all, heard these and similar messages over a somewhat
exhausting three-day period. A three-day period during which we all struggled
with how best to be, not do, but be missioners in this complex and troubled
world.
We participated in wonderful
conversations, rich worship that frequently brought tears to our eyes, and we
all grew a little in our spiritual formation as Disciples of Christ, knowing
that there was a lot more work, a lot more growing to do.
As I sat in stunned silence after
Bishop Stacy’s sermon at the closing noon-day Eucharist, I wondered how in the
world I had ever gotten into the space in life that I currently occupy. The
blessing and the privilege of being among so many spiritually whole – and holy
– fellow missioners literally took my breath away, as did Bishop Stacy’s
closing remark, “As you go out into the
world, take care. It is not your world, it belongs to God. He has charged you
with its care.” AMEN
