Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
Pentecost 7
July 23, 2006
W. Gregory Pope
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
Acts 1:1-14; 2:1-4
There have now been three Mission Impossible films to hit the big screen. In each of them, Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, is given an impossibly dangerous mission to carry out. And of course, each time he is able to fulfill the mission as only he can, often in ways impossible to believe. But hey, it’s Hollywood.
In the book of Acts a small number of Jesus’ followers were given a Mission Impossible.
They lived in the day of empire, the Roman Empire. If they said anything critical of the empire, if they lived their lives in any way that showed disloyalty to the empire or questioned one’s allegiance to the empire, they were considered unpatriotic and could find themselves tortured by the government and killed.
The impossibility of their mission was due to the fact that they had committed themselves to follow Jesus, whose ways are not the ways of empire. Rome demanded you make the confession “Caesar is Lord,” and declare that “there is no other name under heaven by which salvation comes” than Caesar. If you know the Book of Acts, you know the Christian confession is that “Jesus is Lord,” and the early church proclamation is that “there is no other name under heaven by which salvation comes” than Jesus.
In this world of empire Rome did not have to listen to anyone because it was the wealthiest and the strongest, and it would crush anyone who got in its way. Into this world of empire comes this poor and weak group of Jesus’ followers, whose values are the very opposite of empire. You do not dehumanize or kill your enemy, you love them and seek reconciliation with them because every person is created in the image of God. You do not give privilege to the wealthy; you work on behalf of the poor and you confront those in power to do the same.
Jesus clashed with empire, and so will all who follow him.
The early Christians have not been the only people to live under the terror of empire. Faithful Christians down through the centuries have had to face punishment and even death because their obedience was first to God not the state.
The Book of Acts is a remarkable story of an impossible mission made possible. It is the story of a small band of Jesus’ followers who did not give into despair in the face of a heartless empire, but grew and flourished with great courage under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit. They can serve as our teachers today.
You will soon be hearing more about a proposal for every Sunday School class this fall to study the Book of Acts. In addition to the Book of Acts we will be guided in our study by a book entitled Called to Be Church: The Book of Acts for a New Day, written by biblical scholar Robert Wall and pastor Anthony Robinson. The Sunday School teachers continue to be in conversation about this. And from time to time this fall, our worship will coincide with our Sunday School conversations. We hope you will be a part of this congregation-wide project.
The Book of Acts is crucial to our understanding of the church because it reveals what kind of community the early church was and who we are called to be.
The Book of Acts places the emphasis on the divine initiative, rather than on what we are to do. It is most importantly about the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the early church.
It shows a church that is both grounded in scripture and alive to the Spirit.
It shows the Christian faith as a life lived in community.
It shows a church that transcends so many of the false polarities and dichotomies of our own time: liberal and conservative, evangelism and social ministry, just to name a couple.
It shows a church advancing the ministry of Jesus, doing what he did, disturbing and delighting the world.
It shows the church as a community engaged in the world.
The Book of Acts addresses a number of issues and themes of interest to our time:
the role of women in the church and as ministers of the gospel
the place of possessions in the lives of disciples and the faith community
matters of sexuality
conflict and decision making in the church
leadership in the church
negotiating life and faith in a multicultural world
It also speaks to the shifts in our culture: The counter-culturalism of Acts and the gospel speak to the gradual end of American Christendom in our time. The mystery and magic found in Acts connects profoundly with the era of postmodernity.
The Book of Acts teaches us that our mission is to become disciples and make disciples (students and learners of the way of Jesus), and as disciples to go into the world as apostles, as people who are sent, as people who march to the beat of different drum from the powers of this world, to be witnesses in word and action to the way of Jesus.
There are times when it seems like Mission Impossible. And it’s so easy to give into despair and cynicism. But if a small group of disciples can carry out their mission in the face of an oppressive Roman Empire, we can speak truth to power and give witness with our lives to a new kind of world Jesus called the kingdom of God.
This mission of discipleship (learning) and apostleship (sending) is what Kent Ira Groff calls a “glocal” mission, combining the words global and local as “glocal.” Faithful congregations always think globally and locally.
The call of Christ is to make disciples of all nations, all peoples, including ourselves. We are to be an expression of God’s love for the whole world. The purpose of the church is to carry out the ministry of reconciliation in the world wherever there is brokenness.
To understand the global mission of the local church is to change the way many of us see the church. You are no longer a consumer taking the goods and services the church has to offer you. The church is a community of people engaged in mission, and you are a partner with others in that mission, giving of yourself to be used for God’s purposes.
The kingdom of God is larger than the church. And while we want to grow and to welcome more people into our family of faith here in this place, the scope of our mission must be larger than Crescent Hill Baptist Church.
As the church we point away from ourselves and toward the kingdom of God. We let ourselves be used for the kingdom in the world. For too long the church has centered its mission on the church itself. But the prosperity of the church is not the goal or purpose of the gospel. God’s end goal is not just to bless the church. God’s aim, through the church, is to bless the world. We exist for God’s purpose that goes beyond ourselves. It’s not about us.
We are only the gospel’s instrument and witness, to be sent into the world that God so loves. As the church we must see ourselves as apostle to the world.
The church’s task of announcing the reign of God will mean moving beyond the four walls of the church building, out of the safe group of people who know and love each other, into the public square where we will encounter people very different from who we are.
We will be called to participate in ministries that may or may not benefit our church but do enhance the witness of God’s love in our community and throughout the world.
I think it may also be helpful if we rethink our language about missions. The word “missions” is confusing to the world we are trying to reach and to the church. It usually carries with it notions of “winning the lost” in “foreign” countries. It is language we’ve been using for over a hundred years. At the risk of heresy (you can burn me at the stake during our talk-back session), I wonder if there is a more helpful word than “missions” to talk about the nature of all we do. Is there something about what we call “missions” that is different that “ministry”?
To our determent, I believe, we have made “missions” a category within the life of the church. I wonder if rather than talking about having a missions program or a missions budget, if it would not be more helpful to think of the church itself as a mission.
One of the struggles I’ve always had as a pastor come budget time has to do with the question of how much we are giving to “missions.” It is of course a question of how much we are giving to denominational entities that send out missionaries to other parts of the world. And I think that was an appropriate way to think 50 years ago. But today it is said “the world has come to us.” And when I think about the question about how much of our budget goes to missions, I want to ask, “What part of our budget is NOT going to missions?” Everything we do should in some way be going to make possible the mission of our church. The danger of budget categories is that they can lead to misunderstanding about “missions” and the mission of the church.
In the book we will be studying this fall on Acts, pastor Anthony Robinson says,
Mission can no longer be relegated or delegated to a committee, to a staff person, or to certain specialized persons called “missionaries.” Mission belongs to the whole church. Those of us who are baptized Christians are all missionaries, set down here to be witnesses to God’s love and God’s dream for a broken and bruised creation. (Called to Be Church, Eerdmans, 2006, 44-45)
It is time, I believe, to stop talking about “missions” as something that is only done overseas or by those only in “full-time Christian service.” It is time to stop separating “missions” from keeping the nursery or teaching Sunday School or cleaning the bathrooms or visiting the sick. Sharing the gospel in words and acts of love through the church and in this community is just as much a part of what we should think of as “missions” as is going to another country and doing ministry over there. Both are essential to the mission of the church.
It has been exciting for me as a pastor to spend these last few months talking with Steve and Annette about the mission of their calling to work with immigrants and refugees and making their plight known to churches through video as well as the ministry they will do among immigrants and refugees.
It is exciting to hear John Carter, who shared with us last week, talk about his call to mission work as a full-time vocation.
These are real and important callings from God to particular ministries in particular places. We celebrate them and support them.
But do not think for one minute that you are not called to be a missionary, an apostle, one who is sent. It is the very essence of your calling as a disciple of Jesus. You may be a teacher, a stock broker, an accountant, a maintenance worker, a business person, or have some other way of earning of living. But whatever you do, you have a mission from God to be an instrument of hope and healing, redemption and reconciliation wherever you are. We are all of us called to be voices for justice and peace, love and compassion.
And in our world where countless people are going through the hell of war and terror, violence and oppression, our mission makes anything Tom Cruise has taken on as agent Ethan Hunt seem like a walk in the park.
Our mission can feel like an impossible one. But it is not impossible. Because as we go out into the world, we do not go alone. We go accompanied by the presence of the Risen Christ. “I am with you always,” he said, “even to the every end.” We go empowered by the Christ for whom death has no power. The Christ whose love is stronger than death.
Before Jesus departed he told his disciples he was going away, but would send his Spirit to be with them and in them. And what he promised them he promises us. His Spirit will teach us, guide us, encourage us, unify us, give us boldness, energize us, empower us, and transform us as the beloved children of God into a people like those of the church in Acts who literally, literally changed the world.
Apart from the Spirit of Christ we can do nothing of lasting value. But with Christ’s Spirit filling us, we can do anything God wants us to do.
So what does God want us to do?
You see the insert, “Engaging Our World,” a collection of ministry ideas we gathered as a congregation back in April. I’m not going to let you forget them. Is God calling you to start one of these?
I have another idea for us as a congregation. It is a way to engage our entire congregation in ministry. It involves setting aside a Saturday next spring to engage in a variety of ministry projects around our city, projects people of every age can take part in, ministry that can help us build relationships with people in our city we may not otherwise encounter.
In our talk-back session in just a few moments, I want us to hear from each other about ways we can engage in ministry as we seek to fulfill our God-given mission.
Think about this way. I asked this question to the new Ministry Coordination Council. Maybe it can serve as our guiding question. It is this: What is one specific thing you would like to see Crescent Hill Baptist Church doing?
And as you think about it, I want to ask that you not start your response with “We used to . . .” or “We don’t . . .” Think about the present needs in our community and how we can minister. You could start the sentence: “I wonder if the Spirit is leading us to . . .” And we can discern together where God is leading.
Our hymn of response this morning is printed on the front of your bulletin. It is a prayer to God to stir the church for mission and ministry in the world. May it be our prayer.
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CRESCENT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
2800 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, Kentucky 40206
(502) 896-4425
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