Our Great Common Mission

This is the Sunday that any wise Rector of a parish allows the Curate Assistant to preach, so I have heard. It is Trinity Sunday. Our Gospel is one I love to preach on (Matthew 28.16-20). Most inexperienced preachers will try to tackle the Doctrine of the Trinity and explain it through linguistic gymnastics and mental math or try to explain it away in a similar fashion. What is important is that we use this particular piece of theology to try and describe in human terms what is both divine and indescribable. Such thinking and such language allow for us to imagine what God might be like in his entirety, to anticipate him and celebrate the fullness, the wholeness and the unity of God in mission.

God is in mission in this world and he has created a community called the Church to come alongside him and participate in his mission. In the 1940’s, William Temple, then Archbishop of Canterbury, noted that “The Church exists for the sole purpose of bringing into its fellowship, those who do not already belong to it.” In essence, the Church seeks God out in the world, sees what God is doing and then tell the world all about it so that they will repent believe and receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and learn to serve him as King in the fellowship of his body, the Church” (Primates’ Meeting, Cyprus, 1989).

We see all through the Matthean Gospel, the theme of God: Father, Son and Spirit, active in the mission in different ways. Jesus’ baptism is a prime example. The Father announces his Son to the world and the Spirit descends upon the Son, to overflowing so that others could be blessed, healed and cured. The Godhead in all of the fullness that is possessed, leads into mission. God moves into places and spaces to draw people into himself and into his kingdom. As people, we experience and know God as one and as three. God has revealed himself as such to us. And just as importantly, we are called to follow God into those places and spaces where he already has been and is, that we might call people to repentance and faith in God and thus sign the presence of the kingdom.

I recently was in a church where there was a private meal going on in the parish hall. A gentleman of meager means appeared in the doorway hoping that he might be able to avail himself of some food. He was told that this was a private function but that he could come in and eat. He was ushered to his seat. Others got a meal together while another poured a cup of coffee. Yet another brought him as dessert while some others began to clear away the dishes and wash up. He quickly devoured his repas with gusto. When he was finished, he motioned to me and I went over to him. He asked for me to bless him, me being a priest and all. I hesitated for a moment because I had rules running through my head but then chose to do as he asked. I prayed the familiar words of the blessing of Numbers 6: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” (Num. 6.24-26)

Maybe that man was sent by God to show that Church and I who we are to each other. Maybe we entertained and angel or maybe even Christ himself. We will not know this side of heaven and this side of life what that kindness, that blessing did in that man’s life. What is important is that we sought God, saw him in another person and chose to serve him in Christ’s name. Surely the reward for such service will be in seeing Jesus in one another so that we might continue to seek, to see and to see him in action.

We can spend time considering the nature of God or we can see the nature of God in serve with God in his mission to the world. It is not logical. It is not about sound philosophy or the solution of a mathematical equation. It is about a God who is in mission to a world in need through a church in love. Will you not come and join with God in reaching out to this city and to the world? It is our great, common mission.

Jason+