What Does Mission Mean?

The parable from Matthew’s Gospel today (25:14-30) is generally read as either an eschatological warning (“Be prepared for the end times!”) or ethical instruction (“Use your talents”). William Herzog (Parables as Subversive Speech 1994) asks us to read it from the perspective of the poor.

In this reading, the hero of the story is the third servant—the one who stands up to the domineering master who expected them to exploit their friends and neighbours for monetary gain. The parable becomes a story of the prophet who stands up to power and is punished for it; of a servant who shows to the truth to power and is destroyed for it.

This reading of the story carries a different sort of warning—a warning about expecting to be rewarded for following the way of Christ. Doing God’s will means standing against the corrupting influences of powerful people and the lure of money or prestige; and copping the results of that audacity.

So what does that mean for how we understand mission?

It doesn’t paint a picture of the grand success of wealth, popularity and status. Instead, the result of speaking the truth to power is destruction.

God’s mission in our world is not about the people of God being wealthy or popular or adulated. God’s mission in the world is about the reconciliation of Creation—all Creation. And that means the powerful need to be called to account; and the powerless given their status as the beloved children of God.

Through God’s graciousness, we are enfolded into God’s work in our world—it’s not our work, it’s God’s—but it’s not God’s if it’s not God’s—if it does not demonstrate the values of God’s realm—justice, peace, reconciliation.

How then do we assess our role in the mission of God? It’s got nothing to do with how many we are, how much we own, how popular we are, how much money we raise… It’s all about how we act in and for God’s world… and for that, we can never have any expectation of reward!

The Humility of Mission

As I was reflecting on the gathering of the Armidale Congregation on Sunday to consider continuing directions for our congregation, I came across this passage from one of the formative documents of the Uniting Church:

It cannot be emphasised too strongly that the Church exists to fulfil a mission. Just as God sent the Son and the Holy Spirit, so also the Church is sent into the world (John 17:8). The Church, when she is the Church, crosses the boundaries of history—the boundaries of culture, race, nation—to reveal the healing and uniting power of God’s self-giving (Matt. 28:18-20; Col. 3:11). The Church fulfils her call to be ‘a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, and a people claimed by God for his own’, when she is a missionary Church proclaiming ‘the triumphs of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light’ (1 Peter 2:9-10). Otherwise she falls back into sin by grasping as her own what she is called to receive as a gift to be used in the service of others. Christ exercised his Lordship through the way of humble condescension. He who could have called out legions of angels to defend his cause chose to stake his faith in the hidden power of the Father’s Kingdom, and revealed the ultimate victory of that hidden power in his death on the cross (Matt. 26:52-54). In his miracles he gave signs of the power of the Kingdom of God and, by implication, of his lordship over every aspect of the world; and yet he resolutely refused to use his power to establish an open mastery. He chose to reveal his lordship through becoming a servant, and identifying himself with [humanity] in … lostness, … sinfulness, … disobedience. It is in his servant that he discloses his omnipotence and glory. His greatest glory is seen in his stooping, his lordship in the love that serves. So also the Church must carry out her mission by assuming this servant form and as Christ wore the garb, spoke the language and lived within the social patterns of first-century Israel, so the Church must take on relevant forms in the particular circumstances of every age. (The Church: Its Nature, Order and Functioning, 2nd Report of the Joint Commission on Church Union, 1963).

This passage is firstly a call to humility in service. It reminds us that relevance is found in humble service and that victory is not found in competition, but in submission to the will of God and the way of Christ. It is often easy to think that we can find the right program, the correct strategy, the foolproof approach to filling our church, but our call is not to fill the church but to live for God’s realm. As we carefully consider our continuing life, let us firstly humble ourselves before God.