Jules & Greg are two of our key Table community regulars, whose leadership and care and welcome of others has made a difference. This past summer, they went with a group from the Church of the Incarnation to Honduras as part of a training/preparation program to lead such trips in the future. Jules shared her experiences back in August, but she and Greg will brief our whole church on Sunday at noon. I hope you can plan on being there.
Mission has been an unofficial theme for the Table in this New Year, as we have attempted to move beyond our four walls and into our community. Tonight, a group of us will go and participate with the homeless census and count, starting at City Hall. During Christmas, the Table helped Reconciliation Ministry organize and distribute gifts to families in need. Most of our messages in this New Year have been focused on our call to serve others.
But it’s important to realize that mission is not just something that you go and do in a foreign country, one time a month for a special event, or whatever. It’s what you do each day.
Theologian David Bosch, in his book Transforming Mission, says it this way:
… consequently, the church is called to live the resurrection life in the here and now and to be a sign of contradiction against the forces of death and destruction.
Your job setting is a place to do mission. Your apartment complex. Your home. Your neighborhood. Your gym. Your local pub. Your supermarket. Wherever your day takes you, you will have opportunity to participate in Jesus’ ministry of incarnation in someone else – being God’s love for a stranger, friend, or enemy. Sometimes, that’s handing a thirsty person a drink of water or buying a burger for a hungry neighbor. Sometimes, it’s your presence in a time of need. It might even be words of affirmation to someone who feels beat down by life. It definitely includes using your voice to change systems that are broken in our own community.
Have you discovered your place of mission? Are you opening up to sharing God’s love with those you meet? May this New Year be a time to discover the answers to those questions and hear God’s call afresh.
