Church On Mission: Care
About this series:
The opening lines or pages of a book are often designed to set the context for all that follows. For example:
‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair’ (A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens).
‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen’ (1984, George Orwell).
The same is true of the Bible. The opening pages set the stage for all that follows; it’s long, unfolding story can invariably be traced back to these scenes. In particular, we see God eternally existing and then choosing to create all there is out of nothing. He commissions mankind - the pinnacle of his creation, made in his image - to, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule…” (Genesis 1:28). Then sin enters the world and there follows a spiralling downward away from harmony with God and with people. And yet there is the gospel promise of Genesis 3:15.
And then, following a restating (to Noah) of the commission to, “be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it” and the establishing of a covenant (Genesis 9:1-11), we’re introduced to Abram (from Genesis 11:26), called by God to become the one through whom he will accomplish the mission given to mankind and through whom God’s intended blessing of mankind will come about.
This series is designed to explore a few points in the biblical journey that flows from these opening scenes in the Bible, the story of how God’s blessing will fill the earth. It’s clearly only a very few of the many stages on that journey that we could talk about, but they will serve to show how God’s people have always been on mission and how the church today is still on mission today.
Importantly, it is God’s mission. Christopher Wright has said, ‘God doesn’t have a mission for his church, he has a church for his mission.’ God’s intent has always been to fill the earth with his blessing and his people have always been his means for bringing that to pass. It’s important that we have an understanding of the biblical storyline and that we see our involvement as being in God’s mission rather than imagining that we are asking God to bless our mission.
This eight-part series will begin with three practical steps we can all engage with in order to become people on mission - Prayer, Care and Share. These three words represent vital practical elements of a missional lifestyle and they contain a logical progression too. Please keep these three words in mind as we work through the series, especially as ways to apply what’s being said - for example:
What does it look like to be sent? Prayer, care & share.
How can we still be on mission against all the odds? Prayer, care & share.
About this talk:
Not only is God loving, he is love. Everything he does is consistent with his love because, unlike us, it is a perfect, permanent part of his character. And at the heart of God’s movement towards mankind throughout the Bible is his love. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8); “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). In fact, God loves the whole world (John 3:16).
But not only is he love, he fills his people with his love so they are enabled to love like he does. The love we’ve received from him becomes:
A pattern for loving others: “Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2).
A motivating force for loving others: “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died” (2 Corinthians 5:14).
A power within us to love others: “The fruit of the Spirit is love…” (Galatians 5:22).
So the Spirit of God within his people moves us, in love, towards other people, including those who are not followers of Jesus. If loving God is directly connected to loving people, we can rightly ask ourselves to what extent our love for God is in reality moving us towards people in love. Not in obligation, not as a project, not only because we’re told to; but because of love.
In Matthew 5, Jesus famously talks about his people as salt and as light. As salt they are a preservative, a flavouring, a cleanser. As light, they illuminate what would otherwise be darkness. In both cases, their ‘faithful presence within’ (Tim Keller) is distinctive, life-giving and loving.
In particular “let[ting] your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” has the sense of not only being observable from a distance (“Those Christians seem to do a lot of good over there”), but of being up-close-and-personal. Letting that “light shine before others” such that we make a personal difference wherever we go - in workplaces, schools, neighbourhoods, families, communities. Letting people around us experience our “good deeds” such that they feel our care and have their lives brightened / blessed from having us in their lives. ‘An experience of love opens a person’s heart to a message of love’ (Steve Sjogren).
The challenge for all of us is to get close enough to people that they’re left to wonder what it is that motivates such grace, love, care, with the prayer that it may lead them ultimately to “glorify your Father in heaven.” What would it look like to intentionally become invested in the lives of those we work with, live near and meet? What small steps could we take - taking an interest in people more than we have done, offering to help where we might previously have left someone to solve something on their own, giving time to the one everyone else avoids, being hospitable to those we have so far kept at a distance. The changes might each be relatively small, but the compounded effect could be hugely significant.
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