The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

In my second parish – so early 1990s – I was able to play competition squash. Because of the work, I couldn’t commit whole evenings somewhere in the region but I could play a ‘fill-in’ role at the local club two nights per week. This meant that I would be called up to play at short notice on the understanding that I would be the fourth ‘drop’ in a four person team and I would arrive by 9:15pm for the last game of the night. Some nights I had church meetings and everyone at church knew I had squash coming up because I would arrive in my squash gear and that the meeting would end at 9:00pm. It was strange for the congregation, at first, but they soon got used to it and I did hear that people got home from church meetings much earlier when I played squash!

I recalled this situation recently in an article I read about the ‘mission of God’. The phrase ‘mission of God’ is often used and thought about as what we do for God as individuals (so missionaries and the like) and as congregations and churches (so lots of church activities). This idea can create burdens for individuals about sharing the faith (especially with family) and for congregations (that they have to have all sorts of programmes and activities and congregational members busy busy busy in all of them). Now I’m not about the say that we aren’t to share the Faith personally or that congregations shouldn’t have activities and events but I am about to say that with a Lutheran understanding of worship and vocation we are better placed to understand the ‘mission of God’ and our place in it.

You see the ‘mission of God’ is God’s! It is his activity in the world for the world as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit actively draws people to Jesus, giving them life with him. Each of us lives in three sets of relationships – with God (the church), with family, and with our community (the civic realm) and God brings his blessings to bear through the Church (and the means of grace) and through all people serving in their role in family and country for the blessings of others. Thus the ‘mission of God’ for the people of God is faithful living with God in our congregation, in our family, and in the world. This isn’t easy! Lutherans understand living is in these three ‘realms’ as receiving and being active. In the church the people of God come to rest and receive what they need for another week in the world. In family and the state, the people of God go out and live – serve in their roles and pray for those around them – and when asked, explain and even defend the Faith but always with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).

It can be easy to think of the ‘mission of God’ as church stuff when it really is world stuff – the people of God living as disciples of Jesus in the world where God works through them to serve the world. Some people are called to specific church work but the vast majority of God’s people are called to live where God has placed them in family, occupation, country, and congregation. The congregation, church, and worship become places and times for rest and receiving what God wants to give in the fellowship of sisters and brothers in Christ who are all together seeking the ‘mission of God’ in this world. Maybe together a congregation devises a programme to help with education or care of the community but everyone recognises that the member’s primary call from God is to serve family and state.

Of course there is a time and place for church meetings and there is a time and place for squash – and understanding the mission of God helped me do both – after all, for the people of God, the mission of God can happen in both!

GS