Mission Possible
Sermon
Something's Coming ... Something Great
Sermons For Advent, Christmas And Epiphany
Almost all of us have seen the popular television program, "Mission Impossible." For many years the MI Task Force took on what seemed like an incredible assignment, and in less than an hour, they did the impossible! How wonderful it would be if carrying out the mission of Jesus Christ in this world were as easy.
The challenge to us in this season of Epiphany is the ongoing proclamation that the "light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5)." But in more ways than one, this is often the darkest time of the year. The familiar Christmas carols have been sung and now fade into pleasant memory. The family once gathered is now dispersed. The Christmas candle is now extinguished, and the earth once more spins in the shadows of bombs blasting, depression, drugs, broken resolutions and broken relationships. Even in Bethlehem where the star shone so brightly, there are cries for justice and the sounds of gunfire and death.
Perhaps, then, this is a good time for us to listen again to the Servant Song of Isaiah that describes the mission of God's Messiah. The prophet sees God's chosen one as a light given to the nations who will bring forth justice to the earth. Clearly, it was this vision of Isaiah that shaped our Lord's ministry on this earth, and that same vision can shape our lives as we continue that same ministry in Christ's name. What, then, are the essential elements according to Isaiah of Mission Possible?
1. Ministry Of Justice
One vital element in Christ's mission on this earth is a ministry of justice. The prophet speaks again and again of "bringing forth justice," and "establishing justice on this earth." But what is justice? Like the words mercy and peace, justice is a key word in the scripture that is often misunderstood. I often think of the student who preached a first sermon in the seminary chapel. The instructor after a long pause said, "Your sermon today reminds me of the mercy and peace of God. Like God's mercy it seemed to endure forever, and like God's peace, it passed all human understanding!"
The dictionary defines justice as "the standards by which the benefits and penalties of living in society are distributed." But the followers of Jesus Christ have always wanted to go much further than that. Paul Tillich in his book, Love, Power and Justice, says that for a Christian, justice must be defined in terms of God's grace and forgiveness. Christianity has always tried to reduce the fundamental inequalities in the world; it has never accepted the premise that some human beings are more equal than other human beings. For a Christian, justice is violated whenever people are treated as if they were things. Throughout Jesus' ministry, we see our Lord challenging both individuals and the society whenever someone was being treated as less than a child of God.
There are always two vital aspects to a church's ministry: the pastoral and the prophetic. By pastoral, I mean the ministries our church conducts that include worship, the sacraments, counseling and teaching, visitation arid prayer. The prophetic ministry on the other hand, consists of challenging the individual and society to reckon with both the judgment and mercy of God. This is the church's ministry that addresses us in the crucible of daily life, bridging suburbs and slums, affluence and poverty, war and peace, comfort and challenge.
For many congregations, the pastoral ministry gets the lion's share of the time and energy of both laity and clergy. Such ministries are also much safer. The prophetic ministry on the other hand, is often lonely and dangerous. But as Isaiah reminds us, and Jesus' life confirms, the prophetic ministry is central, not marginal, in the biblical tradition. The prophets saw sickness, identified it, and pointed beyond it to the divine cure. They were not people eager to be antagonistic or contentious, or people who found delight in delivering salvos against the existing order. But the prophets were people of God who were filled with courage and zeal and who were willing to risk whatever it cost to condemn injustice in any form.
Listen to the blunt words of the prophet Amos: "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies ... but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream." That imagery has always reminded me of the turbulent Colorado River tumbling and rushing its way through the Grand Canyon. So justice is meant to be a mighty stream, no mere trickle! It relates directly to God's basic concern for life, for the health and wholeness of every human being. Now this is no philosophical abstraction we debate. This is nothing less than the love of Christ in action. Justice deals with the hurt and wrong against individuals and groups, not simply in the past, but here and now.
I believe that God is calling the church in our time to recover this all important prophetic aspect to our ministry. God desires sons and daughters who will become co-workers with Christ in the bringing forth of justice. For a long time in this country, we have seen a mood of inwardness and self concern. Some of this is healthy, but a lot of it is neurotic. We can so easily become distracted with our own growth that we never see or feel the hurt, pain and evil our busyness permits to go unchecked in society. We can so easily get wrapped up in our tight little world of work, home, school and leisure that we do not even see the times and places all around us when human beings are being treated as if they were things.
I am reminded of the mother taking her little boy for a walk. They came to a nudist camp surrounded by a high board fence. When the child peeped through a small hole in the fence, the mother asked, "What do you see?" The boy responded, "A lot of people." "Are they men or women?" inquired the mother. "I don't know," said the boy, "nobody's got any clothes on!" Most of us have more information than we care to act upon. We plead ignorance or heavy schedules, but the truth is our indifference is what allows injustice to continue on this earth.
But Isaiah reminds us that the church has a mandate from God to meddle in life. Justice is God's business and every follower of the Living Christ is called to this dangerous and often costly ministry. For some Christians, the ministry of justice has meant the loss of friendships. For others it has meant imprisonment and even death. During World War II, the small town of Le Chambon in Southern France gave the world a remarkable example of Christian justice at work. Quietly, in full view of the Vichy government, and a nearby division of Nazi storm troopers, the villagers organized to save thousands of Jewish children and adults from certain death in the gas chambers. But these brave Christians protested when anyone praised them: "How can you call us 'good'? We are simply doing what had to be done. Who else could help those poor people? We happened to be there and we knew that this is what God wanted us to do."
Sister Miriam Therese Winter has written a song that calls us all to recapture the ministry of justice. It is titled, Take The Time.
Take the time to sing a song
for all those people who don't belong:
the women wasted by defeat,
the men condemned to walk the street,
the down and out we'll never meet.
Take the time to hear the plea
of every desperate refugee:
the millions who have had to flee
their lands, their loves, their liberty,
who turn in hope to you and me.
Take the time to take a stand
for peace and justice in every land.
Where power causes deep unrest,
come, take the part of the oppressed,
and then, says God, you will be blessed.1
2. The Ministry Of Light
Isaiah speaks of another element in God's mission possible for this world, and that is the ministry of light. Isaiah says that the Servant will be "a light to the nations to open the eyes that are blind." Jesus spoke of himself as the Light of the World, and then in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord said that "you are the light of the world." Light is essential to life, isn't it? If you have ever tried to pick your way through the woods at night without a flashlight, then you know the value of light. Businesses often leave lights on at night because the FBI says that 75 percent of all crimes are done in the dark. It was Goethe as he was dying who cried out, "Light! More light!" The world has often echoed that same cry, and that is why God sent Jesus Christ to lead us out of darkness into the marvelous light of God.
If you think about it, light is a very helpful image when it comes to understanding our place in Christ's mission. Light is often a way of expressing what it means to come to a new understanding of something. We suddenly exclaim, "At last I see the light." Sometimes we parents would prefer it if our children remained in the dark a little longer. I think of that poor mother who was suddenly confronted with the inevitable question, "Where do babies come from?" She paused, wishing that her husband were home to answer their little son. In a moment of inspiration she said, "Well, the Bible says we are all made from dust ... dust thou art unto dust returneth."
The little boy seemed satisfied until he went up to his room and looked under his bed. "Mommy, come quick," he shouted. "There are lots of babies under my bed and I can't tell if they are coming or going!"
Not all new understanding in the form of light is easy to grasp, but in the coming of Jesus Christ, the world was given a whole new understanding of the love and mercy of God. It was as if a bright light was suddenly turned on in the world. Not only was the dust and dirt in our lives exposed, but in Christ, the world discovered how far God was willing to go to reconcile us and redeem us. Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina sits on property that was once a large southern plantation. The land was given to the Catholic Church, and the abbey and college were built upon it. In a far back corner of the property, the monks found a huge granite stone, upon which men, women and children stood little more than a century ago to be sold as slaves. The monks took the stone and hollowed a little bowl in the top. Then they carried it into the abbey's chapel where to this day, it serves as a baptismal font. The engraving on it reads: "Upon this rock, men were once sold into slavery. Now upon this rock, through the waters of baptism, people become free children of God." That's a wonderful symbol of the new light that Jesus Christ has brought into our world in terms of a whole new understanding of God.
We are privileged to be light-bearers for Jesus Christ, but as we take our places beside the Living Lord in bringing light to our darkened world, let us never forget that "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never overcome it."
The challenge to us in this season of Epiphany is the ongoing proclamation that the "light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5)." But in more ways than one, this is often the darkest time of the year. The familiar Christmas carols have been sung and now fade into pleasant memory. The family once gathered is now dispersed. The Christmas candle is now extinguished, and the earth once more spins in the shadows of bombs blasting, depression, drugs, broken resolutions and broken relationships. Even in Bethlehem where the star shone so brightly, there are cries for justice and the sounds of gunfire and death.
Perhaps, then, this is a good time for us to listen again to the Servant Song of Isaiah that describes the mission of God's Messiah. The prophet sees God's chosen one as a light given to the nations who will bring forth justice to the earth. Clearly, it was this vision of Isaiah that shaped our Lord's ministry on this earth, and that same vision can shape our lives as we continue that same ministry in Christ's name. What, then, are the essential elements according to Isaiah of Mission Possible?
1. Ministry Of Justice
One vital element in Christ's mission on this earth is a ministry of justice. The prophet speaks again and again of "bringing forth justice," and "establishing justice on this earth." But what is justice? Like the words mercy and peace, justice is a key word in the scripture that is often misunderstood. I often think of the student who preached a first sermon in the seminary chapel. The instructor after a long pause said, "Your sermon today reminds me of the mercy and peace of God. Like God's mercy it seemed to endure forever, and like God's peace, it passed all human understanding!"
The dictionary defines justice as "the standards by which the benefits and penalties of living in society are distributed." But the followers of Jesus Christ have always wanted to go much further than that. Paul Tillich in his book, Love, Power and Justice, says that for a Christian, justice must be defined in terms of God's grace and forgiveness. Christianity has always tried to reduce the fundamental inequalities in the world; it has never accepted the premise that some human beings are more equal than other human beings. For a Christian, justice is violated whenever people are treated as if they were things. Throughout Jesus' ministry, we see our Lord challenging both individuals and the society whenever someone was being treated as less than a child of God.
There are always two vital aspects to a church's ministry: the pastoral and the prophetic. By pastoral, I mean the ministries our church conducts that include worship, the sacraments, counseling and teaching, visitation arid prayer. The prophetic ministry on the other hand, consists of challenging the individual and society to reckon with both the judgment and mercy of God. This is the church's ministry that addresses us in the crucible of daily life, bridging suburbs and slums, affluence and poverty, war and peace, comfort and challenge.
For many congregations, the pastoral ministry gets the lion's share of the time and energy of both laity and clergy. Such ministries are also much safer. The prophetic ministry on the other hand, is often lonely and dangerous. But as Isaiah reminds us, and Jesus' life confirms, the prophetic ministry is central, not marginal, in the biblical tradition. The prophets saw sickness, identified it, and pointed beyond it to the divine cure. They were not people eager to be antagonistic or contentious, or people who found delight in delivering salvos against the existing order. But the prophets were people of God who were filled with courage and zeal and who were willing to risk whatever it cost to condemn injustice in any form.
Listen to the blunt words of the prophet Amos: "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies ... but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream." That imagery has always reminded me of the turbulent Colorado River tumbling and rushing its way through the Grand Canyon. So justice is meant to be a mighty stream, no mere trickle! It relates directly to God's basic concern for life, for the health and wholeness of every human being. Now this is no philosophical abstraction we debate. This is nothing less than the love of Christ in action. Justice deals with the hurt and wrong against individuals and groups, not simply in the past, but here and now.
I believe that God is calling the church in our time to recover this all important prophetic aspect to our ministry. God desires sons and daughters who will become co-workers with Christ in the bringing forth of justice. For a long time in this country, we have seen a mood of inwardness and self concern. Some of this is healthy, but a lot of it is neurotic. We can so easily become distracted with our own growth that we never see or feel the hurt, pain and evil our busyness permits to go unchecked in society. We can so easily get wrapped up in our tight little world of work, home, school and leisure that we do not even see the times and places all around us when human beings are being treated as if they were things.
I am reminded of the mother taking her little boy for a walk. They came to a nudist camp surrounded by a high board fence. When the child peeped through a small hole in the fence, the mother asked, "What do you see?" The boy responded, "A lot of people." "Are they men or women?" inquired the mother. "I don't know," said the boy, "nobody's got any clothes on!" Most of us have more information than we care to act upon. We plead ignorance or heavy schedules, but the truth is our indifference is what allows injustice to continue on this earth.
But Isaiah reminds us that the church has a mandate from God to meddle in life. Justice is God's business and every follower of the Living Christ is called to this dangerous and often costly ministry. For some Christians, the ministry of justice has meant the loss of friendships. For others it has meant imprisonment and even death. During World War II, the small town of Le Chambon in Southern France gave the world a remarkable example of Christian justice at work. Quietly, in full view of the Vichy government, and a nearby division of Nazi storm troopers, the villagers organized to save thousands of Jewish children and adults from certain death in the gas chambers. But these brave Christians protested when anyone praised them: "How can you call us 'good'? We are simply doing what had to be done. Who else could help those poor people? We happened to be there and we knew that this is what God wanted us to do."
Sister Miriam Therese Winter has written a song that calls us all to recapture the ministry of justice. It is titled, Take The Time.
Take the time to sing a song
for all those people who don't belong:
the women wasted by defeat,
the men condemned to walk the street,
the down and out we'll never meet.
Take the time to hear the plea
of every desperate refugee:
the millions who have had to flee
their lands, their loves, their liberty,
who turn in hope to you and me.
Take the time to take a stand
for peace and justice in every land.
Where power causes deep unrest,
come, take the part of the oppressed,
and then, says God, you will be blessed.1
2. The Ministry Of Light
Isaiah speaks of another element in God's mission possible for this world, and that is the ministry of light. Isaiah says that the Servant will be "a light to the nations to open the eyes that are blind." Jesus spoke of himself as the Light of the World, and then in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord said that "you are the light of the world." Light is essential to life, isn't it? If you have ever tried to pick your way through the woods at night without a flashlight, then you know the value of light. Businesses often leave lights on at night because the FBI says that 75 percent of all crimes are done in the dark. It was Goethe as he was dying who cried out, "Light! More light!" The world has often echoed that same cry, and that is why God sent Jesus Christ to lead us out of darkness into the marvelous light of God.
If you think about it, light is a very helpful image when it comes to understanding our place in Christ's mission. Light is often a way of expressing what it means to come to a new understanding of something. We suddenly exclaim, "At last I see the light." Sometimes we parents would prefer it if our children remained in the dark a little longer. I think of that poor mother who was suddenly confronted with the inevitable question, "Where do babies come from?" She paused, wishing that her husband were home to answer their little son. In a moment of inspiration she said, "Well, the Bible says we are all made from dust ... dust thou art unto dust returneth."
The little boy seemed satisfied until he went up to his room and looked under his bed. "Mommy, come quick," he shouted. "There are lots of babies under my bed and I can't tell if they are coming or going!"
Not all new understanding in the form of light is easy to grasp, but in the coming of Jesus Christ, the world was given a whole new understanding of the love and mercy of God. It was as if a bright light was suddenly turned on in the world. Not only was the dust and dirt in our lives exposed, but in Christ, the world discovered how far God was willing to go to reconcile us and redeem us. Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina sits on property that was once a large southern plantation. The land was given to the Catholic Church, and the abbey and college were built upon it. In a far back corner of the property, the monks found a huge granite stone, upon which men, women and children stood little more than a century ago to be sold as slaves. The monks took the stone and hollowed a little bowl in the top. Then they carried it into the abbey's chapel where to this day, it serves as a baptismal font. The engraving on it reads: "Upon this rock, men were once sold into slavery. Now upon this rock, through the waters of baptism, people become free children of God." That's a wonderful symbol of the new light that Jesus Christ has brought into our world in terms of a whole new understanding of God.
We are privileged to be light-bearers for Jesus Christ, but as we take our places beside the Living Lord in bringing light to our darkened world, let us never forget that "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never overcome it."
