The Call to Care: Mission, Far and Near
A Sermon by Brent J.
Eelman
March 26, 2006
Abington
Presbyterian Church
Isaiah 42:5-9
5 Thus says
God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am the
Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,|
7 to open
the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the
Lord, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to idols.
9 See, the
former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
I tell you of them.*
The questions that started this series of sermons are about the church's identity. "Why were we created? What is our reason for being? Are we fulfilling our purpose? Is there anything about the church that is unique?" What would it mean to this community if we ceased to exist? At the heart of this quest for identity is mission. Corporate America has recently discovered what the church has known for two thousand years: the importance of a mission statement. Every organization, group and task force spends time developing a mission statement. Even individuals are writing their personal mission statements. Abington Presbyterian Church has a mission statement: "To be Christ in our time." What does that mean? How does that affect what we do; how we think; and our life together? Today I want to, first, look at how we respond to the challenge to be Christ in our Time. Second, I want to look at the challenges that are before us.
I
The
mission statement: "To be Christ in our time" grew out of a
crisis. The leadership of the church had the moral courage to view
the crisis as an opportunity and thus responded to that crisis with a
vision for this congregation's future. The Plan for Ministry
which was developed from that vision anchored Abington
Presbyterian Church's future in mission: not merely handing out funds
like a "religious United Way", but through hands on
mission. During the last five years we have made enormous strides in
fulfilling this plan. We have seen the youth of our congregation
take a leadership role in mission trips, be it to the homeless in
downtown Philadelphia or to Pittsburgh, Maine or Chicago. We have
witnessed our Presbyterian women fulfill this special call through
offerings like the “Least Coin”. Just prior to my
arriving here, a group of individuals in this congregation felt
called to lead the members in funding and building a habitat home in
Germantown. They did it! (That effort was one of the very special
things that attracted me to APC). We have also witnessed the
response to special offerings from the Christmas Joy Gift to One
Great Hour of Sharing. Last year we responded to the tsunami in the
Indian Ocean and to Hurricane Katrina with contributions over 25
thousand dollars. This fall we had a representative of the General
Assembly speak to our congregation about mission relief, and in six
weeks, Doug Baker, from the Corymeela community in Northern Ireland,
will preach in our pulpit. The letters and responses that Chad and
Georgene Pilling read to you a few minutes ago are in response to
renewed mission activity.
But
these efforts are not merely “doing good things”. They
are a response to Christ’s command to minister to the “least
of these.” When you help them; when you reach out to them;
Christ said, you are helping me. When we touch the lives of others
with love and compassion, we touch the lives of others, as Christ did
and that it what it means to be Christ in our time.
I know that there was some concern about this mission statement. That it might be arrogant to refer to ourselves as a modern day “Christ”. But that is not the thrust of it all. It is a yoke that we take on an additional responsibility. It is part of our calling. When Jesus gave the great commission, he told his followers that they were to continue his work. When Paul wrote to the church he told them: you are “the body of Christ.” The implication behind this assertion is “start acting like it!”
II
We
have responded well to the call to mission, but we have an important
challenge that I want to articulate. The challenge comes from the
prophet Isaiah as well as from Jesus and the Apostle Paul. In the
text today, the prophet Isaiah declared to the Hebrew people that God
had set them apart to be “a light to the nations.” Jesus
echoed that sentiment when he exhorted his followers to “let
their light shine before others.” We have a special task to
witness to what God intends for all of humanity, through our common
life. The folk hymn goes: “They will know we are Christians by
our love.” How we treat one another is at the heart of our
mission. Let me put this in plain speech: We are called to “exhibit
the Kingdom of heaven to the world.” (from the PCUSA “Great
Ends of the Church.”) How can we expect or even dream that
wars will cease and that people will reconcile, if we can’t?
How can we have any expectation of ending the cycle of violence in
the Middle East and other places, if we in the church continue our
little feuds and petty disagreements? I have often said that one
of my favorite cartoons is from Peanuts: Charlie Brown exclaims: “I
love humanity….. I just can’t stand people.” The
temptation for those of us in the church is to talk about mission and
ministry in the abstract; to talk about how we need to love our
neighbors in Tanzania or other places, without embodying it in our
own homes, our own communities, and our own congregations. The
challenge that we have is to be a “light to the world”: a
light that shines from this property on the hill.
Ghandi
once told a missionary, “If you would come in the spirit of
your master, you would be irresistible.” We have been
resistible. Can we exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world?
I love hearing those letters from others whose lives we have affected, but I also hope and pray that we can affect the lives of others in the community and the world, not merely by what we give, but by who we are and how we treat each other. This is the challenge of being Christ in our time: for others and to the glory of God. Amen.
*The
New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers)
1989.
Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania, www.apcusa.org