INVITED  FOR MISSION

(Preached on Sunday, October 28, 2007)

But it doesn=t matter - the Master stood by me and helped me spread the Message loud and clear to those who had never heard it.  It was snatched from the jaws of the lion!                                                 -2 Timothy 2:17 (The Message)

 

Here=s a story you may have heard.  One day after a storm a man was walking along a beach littered with hundreds of starfish washed up by the storm.  He noticed a young boy walking ahead of him.  As he walked, the boy picked up a starfish and threw it into the water.  The man watched curiously for some time as the boy threw one starfish after another back into the sea.  A short while later the man caught up to the boy and asked, AWhy are you throwing those starfish back into the sea?  Can=t you see that there are hundreds of starfish?  What difference could your efforts make?  What you=re doing is useless; it just doesn=t matter.@  The boy listened, paused a moment, bent down and picked up another starfish.  Just before tossing it back into the sea he turned to the man, and, looking at the starfish, then at the man, said, AIt matters to this one!@

 

Imagine how that story would end if the man joined the boy in his efforts, then others with them, until all the starfish were back in the sea where they could live.

Sometimes we talk of mission in the church as if it could be compartmentalized into neat sections: a personal mission, local church missions, wider church mission, global mission C each with clearly definable and understandable boundaries.  But really mission is mission, pure and simple.  As Christians we are called, each of us individually and all of us together, to be about God=s work in the world.  We are invited, by God, for mission.  That is our purpose in life and in the church.  It is why we are here.  Mission defines us as Christians.  Not just in our doing, but in the very heart of who we are.  We are not Christians without mission.  We are not about mission if we don=t think beyond ourselves and look to those places where the good news of God=s love for all must be heard.

 

The apostle Paul clearly understood this truth.  This is a stirring passage we read together this morning.  Here is the older apostle, nearing the end of a hard, yet fruitful life, writing to his younger friend and co-worker in the faith, seeking to encourage him.  Paul, facing death, feels certain that his work is almost finished and all that remains for him is to complete the greatest of all tests of faith: that he be willing to give his life as a testimony.  He is able to look aback with gratitude for both the way in which God has sustained him and for the prize that awaits him Aon that great day.@  Paul does not arrive at this conviction naively or because he was spared hardship.  He acknowledges that there were times when Ano one came into court to support me.@  But he is not bitter.  His point in citing his difficulties is to affirm that Athe Lord stood by me, and lent me strength.@

 

Paul was clear that he had been invited for mission.  He understood that through his trials God had used him to bring the message of God=s love and salvation to the Gentiles, even to hostile crowds and indifferent tribunals.  Paul understood that the very purpose of his life had been to spread the good news of God=s forgiveness and loving acceptance.

 

In the United Church of Christ, we stand in a proud tradition of understanding that mission is a vital part of our life as faithful people of God.  In fact our history demonstrates that much of the time our forebears were on the cutting edge of God=s movement in the world.  Like Paul, at times, being on that cutting edge, we often seemed to stand alone.  But in our faithfulness, we were never totally alone.  God was with us, giving us the courage to stand there for God on that cutting edge.  Courage to move forward into an unknown future for God.  Courage to accept that invitation for mission.

 

Were you aware that the United Church of Christ is heir to a legacy of more than 195 years of missionary pioneering?  The roots of our Wider Church Ministries Board can be traced all the way back to the first organized foreign mission agency in North America: The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission.  It began as an agency relating to several denominations, but eventually became the overseas agency of the Congregational Churches.  This Board of Commissioners was created in response to the request of four young New England students at Andover Theological Seminary. On June 28, 1810, to the evangelical clergy of Massachusetts to send them abroad as missionaries.  This  had never been done before from this continent.  While they struck a spark inspiring the staid, New England clergy, those four young men had not come quickly to the decision to offer their lives in mission.  It was only after many years of discussion and prayer meetings together as college students, about the need to spread the good news of God=s love to the opening worlds of Asia and Africa.  One afternoon in 1806 they were engaged in such a discussion when they were forced to take cover in a haystack in the field where they had been walking by a sudden thunderstorm.  There they joined in prayer and pledged themselves as willing to go wherever God would send them in the world to share God=s love.  They felt themselves invited to mission and they responded.

 

Another of the mission agencies in our United Church of Christ had its roots in one of the watershed events in our national history.  The American Missionary Association, a division of our Local Church Ministries, is rooted in the missionary wing of the 19^th-century Abolitionist movement.

The Amistad incident of 1839 galvanized the forces that would created the AMA.  Steven Spielberg immortalized this story in his film AAmistad@, telling the story of the 53 Mendi natives from Sierra Leone, brought to America as slaves on the ship La Amistad, who rebelled and took control of the ship.  When they tried to sail back to Africa, unfamiliar with ocean navigation, they ended up running aground on Long Island, were arrested and held in prison while several trials were conducted to determine what to do with them.  The American Missionary Association was created in response to this incident, on September 3, 1846, as an independent, non-sectarian organization committed to the removal of social castes wherever they were found.  Prior to the Civil War, the AMA established churches, schools and Sunday schools dedicated to the abolition of slavery.  It promoted self-determination for minorities and a climate of cultural pluralism.  It sought to create a nation in which all racial and ethnic groups could live in harmony and mutual understanding.  It is amazing that they held to such principles as: full equality between black and whites; that black education should not be limited to occupational training nor be separated from white education.  This work, of course, did not come without struggle.  Teachers were beaten and tortured.  One teacher wrote in 1866: ATwice I have been shot at in my room.  Some of my night scholars have been shot but none were killed.  The nearest military protection is 200 miles.@

 

We are the heirs to this history.  These are our forebears.  Does their courage still beat in our hearts?  Does their faith still fill our souls?  Another little boy was asked what his father did by an older man.  The boy answered, AHe watches.@  AYou mean he is a night watchman?@ AOh no,@ the little boy exclaimed, AHe just watches.@  AWell, what does he watch?@  AI don=t know if I can tell you everything, but I can name a few things.@  AWell, tell me,@ the curious man replied.  So the little boy took a deep breath and began.  AHe watches TV, he watches Mom do the housework, he watches for the mail man, he watches the weather, he watches the computer, and I think he watches girls, too,@ he said with an impish grin on his face.  AHe watches the stock market, football games.  He watches Mom spank us, an he watches us do our homework.  He watches us leave to go to Church and PTA and shopping.  He watches Mom write letters and me play with my dog.  He watches Mom pay the bills.  But mainly, he just watches.@