October 21, 2007 Sermon

Mission
Luke 4:14-21, I Corinthians 3:1-9

We begin with Luke 4. Here at the start of his ministry, Jesus visits the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. Somebody hands him the scroll of Isaiah, the prophet. Jesus chooses which verses to read from the sixty chapters in that book. His choice means something. “The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me,” he begins. Centuries before, Isaiah had written these words, claiming that the Holy Spirit of God had anointed him, chosen him, infused him with the powers necessary to do his God-given job. We learn, first, that God gives us our mission—and the power to do it.

But to do what? Jesus continues from Isaiah. His mission will be to bring good news to the poor, freedom for captives, sight for the blind. We know from reading ahead that for the rest of his short life he will do these things in two ways. He will minister to the physical needs of people. He will feed their bellies. He will heal blindness. But he will also deliver the goods spiritually. He will satisfy the ache people feel for intimacy with God. He will free them from the burden of their sins. He will make the Bible come true before their very eyes, in every possible way.

From this we learn that our own mission in the name of Jesus must address every human need. As Christ’s followers, his disciples, we must go out into the world, serving as apostles in His name. We must heal the spiritual and physical wounds of all people. Jesus made these words from Isaiah a theme statement for his entire ministry, a declaration of purpose. How can we attempt anything less? Mission means serving as Jesus served. Mission means trying to heal everybody, in every way.

We turn to I Corinthians 3. We jump into a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to a church he had helped start years earlier, then left in the hands of Apollos, his protégé. But arguments started. Paul writes in part to settle those arguments. Then he dives into deeper waters. “I fed you with milk, not solid food,” he tells the Corinthians. Their division into factions, following Paul or Apollos, proved they had not matured spiritually. Paul knows that they cannot become effective missionaries until they grow up.

“What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants,” the spiritual grownup Paul states. Paul refuses to glorify himself. He knows he is just a worker in God’s field. A worker. In God’s field. Paul sees his mission as serving God, by serving people, in God’s creation. How can we see ourselves differently? As Paul points out, we all have a common purpose. That purpose was Jesus’ purpose: to heal the physical and spiritual needs of all people, everywhere.

Once a church decides to grow its mission, a moot argument often rears its head. A board of elders, a mission committee, or just one very determined member will fire up a critical mass of fellow believers. “Jesus calls us to mission!” they will say, adding, “Let’s get busy.” But next comes the argument: whether to do mission in the local community or far, far away, where people live in poverty and oppression beyond the imagination of any American who has never traveled to see it with his or her own eyes.

One of the first things we did to rejuvenate a dying youth ministry at another church was plan a mission trip to Appalachia. We contacted a Presbyterian pastor serving a congregation in deepest Kentucky. He sent us a slide show of the closed coalmines, children with missing teeth, men filling out forms at the unemployment office, his congregation of twenty or so smiling and waving, mountainsides scarred by strip mines. We gathered the families of our youth in the fellowship hall, showed them the slides and gave them the details of our proposed trip. The first question came from a father: “Why should we spend all the money to drive out there and work when there’s so much poverty here in our own city?

It was a great challenge. Why, indeed, go away to serve people when horrible needs exist just outside our own doors? The answer is that Jesus calls us to address both. I believe the Spirit of the Lord came over that meeting after that father posed his question. We agreed that our group would go on the mission trip to Appalachia and it would plan mission “trips” to our own city. That father took the lead in finding us local projects. And the next year, when we traveled to Pennsylvania for our second mission trip, he served as a driver/chaperone.

The Northern Lakes Community Church has six ministry goals. I have preached through them these past few weeks. We have arrived at the last, but certainly not the least: serving human need near and far. We can summarize this ministry in one word: mission. But now we know, from Luke and I Corinthians, more of what stands behind that one word. We know that Jesus made the mission of healing the physical and spiritual needs of all people the centerpiece of his purpose on earth. And we know that God has called us, the church, to labor in the field, which is God’s creation—all of God’s creation.

Serve human needs, near and far. This church has sent youth on mission trips to New York City , Appalachia, and the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The youth have worked short-term for Habitat for Humanity all around Grand Traverse and Benzie Counties. They have worked at our members’ houses, too. Praise God for our missionary youth and their leaders! But what about the rest of us? We have become one of two churches that keep alive a food pantry in Interlochen. Our Deacons feed the poor at Thanksgiving and visit with our homebound members. We provide worship services for the retired population—many of whom have become nearly shut-in—at the Village at Bay Ridge. We feed our college students and young adults. We send thousands of dollars annually to support the varied, world-wide ministries of the Presbyterian Church (USA). We do all this and much more.

But we can never do enough. God sent his Son Jesus to show us the Way, the Way of sacrifice, of unconditional love. Though we can never give as much as He gave, we can serve in His Way. Children in this neighborhood wait to come to Vacation Bible School in our new building. People in central Asia who have never heard the name of Jesus wait. Widows whose houses were blown over by a hurricane wait. Lord knows Traverse City and the whole region wait for godly, humble, Christian servants to supply the physical and spiritual needs of all sorts of people without promoting the churches or the pastors that sent them.

We have the job of healing the spiritual and physical wounds of all people. Let us continue to work together on this impossible, yet necessary and God-given, job. Dare I say it? We’re on a mission from God. Hit it.