“Called out” Text: Mark 6:1-13
Preached by Rev. James Murray, Dominion-Chalmers United Church, July 5 2009.

The theologian John Cobb was born in Japan where his parents were serving as Methodist missionaries. His aunt was also a missionary who served in China. When the Japanese invaded China, many missionaries were caught in the deadly crossfire of the conflict. One day word came to the Cobb family that this beloved aunt was trapped on a hill, surrounded by Japanese soldiers. The messenger asked the elder Rev. Cobb what they should do. John Cobb remembers his father saying “There is nothing I can say to my sister which will make her listen to me. As for the Japanese soldiers, they will just have to learn to fend for themselves.”

I grew up hearing such stories of our missionaries, who heroically served the Church in far off places. We don’t send as many missionaries out into the world as we once did, because what it means to be in mission has changed over the past century. And while the image of Jesus sending his disciples out two by two will always guide us, a missionary today is more likely to be called out into the urban context where they already are living, than to be called out to another part of the world. We live in the largest English speaking mission field in the world today. There are so many people outside our door who do not know Jesus Christ or the love of God, that we can no longer afford the luxury of believing that being a missionary is just the work of an elite group of professionals. Mission is something every disciple of Jesus Christ is invited to do. Mission is something we are all called out to do.

And what is this mission?

The mission of the Christian Church, is to live the Way of Christ, and to share the blessings of Christ with others.
This mission involves us doing three things.
The first part of our Mission is for us to experience God in meaningful ways. We do this through worship and prayer as we nurture our spiritual life.
The second part of Mission is for us to be a community of support. We do this by caring and sharing, by working for healing and by always learning.
The third task in Missional practice is for us to go into the world to serve. We are to share who we are with others who are in need. Like those disciples sent out into the world, we share ourselves, so the people we meet might be invited to join our community, so they too might experience God in a meaningful way. This morning we heard of Saint Paul’s spiritual experience, and you can tell this moment had a profound impact on every aspect of his life. It was not a moment he was going to quickly forget.

Not everyone is going to experience God in such earth shattering ways. In the Muslim tradition, there is a very definite pattern to the religious life. The call to prayer is heard five times a day. They are small prayers you learn as a child, and you recite the same prayer every day. This simple daily discipline is at the heart of how they experience God. It shapes their perception, as God is with them in every part of their daily routine.

This kind of discipline was also popular among the early Methodists. Their name came from the fact they had a very strict Method of studying scriptures. The concept of Sunday School as we know it comes from the Methodist tradition. These Sunday Schools were not meant just for children. The adult class was the backbone of the congregation, for these were the people who were committed to breaking bread together, studying the Bible together and praying together.

Today we are far more individualistic in how we pursue the spiritual experience. There are many daily devotional guides you can find in printed form or on the internet. People spend time pursuing new practices like meditating and walking the labyrinth. People also find spiritual nurture through playing music, singing, and worship.  Regardless of how you do it, the goal remains the same- to experience first hand the living presence of God in your life. To find God through theses earthly actions, through the breaking of the bread.

The second part of our mission is to be a community to one other. To be a community is to eat together. What the Bible calls breaking bread together we would call eating together. We do this at pot-lucks, and at coffee time following the service ever week. When we share communion, we are eating with Jesus, and being fed by the truth he teaches. It is to be a group who looks after the stranger as well as we look after our own family. We have come from every continent and country in the world, and yet we are one people in this place. We are made up of new born infants, youth, adults and seniors, yet we are all equal in this place. We care for each other, we share our resources to help each other out. We work together for the healing of body, mind, and spirit, as well as healing of relationships. It was no accident that our overseas missionaries built hospitals and schools. Healing and growing are essential ways we build up any community. We value education, because it helps us live better lives. We are continually learning new things, so we might better understand one another, so we might better understand what God is all about, and so we might better understand this world we live in. All of these are intertwined, for we are in a relationship with all three.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to meet and hear the Canadian writer Jean Vanier when he spoke in Montreal. Vanier asked us a very different kind of question. He asked, “How small is your God?” He was wondering who is important enough for us to notice or befriend in this life. Do you only seek out the rich and powerful who can help you? Or are you willing to notice and embrace the weak and vulnerable among us? Is your God small enough to notice the poor? Does your God care about the troubled souls of this world? We are all imperfect beings with some character faults. Is your God small enough to accept you as you are, and welcome you in? We seek to be a community whose God welcomes all of us in, imperfections and all. When we break bread together, we are to feed everyone with this bread, from the first time guest to the longest serving member.

Finally, there is our third task, which is outreach. Some picture it as the high point of our mission, with worship and community merely being the lower stages. Some consider it to be an add-on, something you do only after all the other bills are paid. I picture the three tasks as being three spokes on the same wheel. Without one of the three spokes, the wheel will not run smoothly.

Outreach is much more than doing good deeds or giving to charity. To reach out, is to live the love of God. It is to live as a Christian in the world. It is to put your beliefs into action. It is to offer this bread to a hungry world. Our job is not to save this world. Christ has already done that by his death and resurrection. Our job is to proclaim the resurrection, to live it. We make a difference in this world when, like Christ, we are a forgiving, loving, patient, generous, compassionate and wise person.

The early outreach of the church was summed up in one sentence. “See how they love one another.” People saw the loving care the worshipping community had for one another, and the character of the Christian believer as they went about living their everyday lives. Those who saw this love in action wanted some of that quality of life for themselves. When they asked about what was going on, they were invited to join in and experience it for themselves.

Have you ever seen a Mobius strip? You take a strip of paper, put a half twist in it, then connect the ends together. As you follow it around, the part which was on the outside ends up being on the inside, and what was the inside is now on the outside. Outreach becomes in-reach as outsiders are invited in on the strength of what they see you doing out in the world.  And so the outsider is invited to become an insider, an equal part of the community, where they too can come to experience God in their lives. They continue on this Mobius strip journey, as they in turn go out to live a life of faithfulness which then invites many more others to join in.

Outreach is to live your beliefs. To reach out to others with the love you have found in your spiritual life, which is nurtured by a community of faith. Together, these three tasks form our mission, our purpose. They are the spokes which makes the wheel turn smoothly. They provide the disciplined pattern for our lives.

And the best news is we don’t have to do it alone. We are not called out on our own.As Saint Paul puts it We have the graceful example of the Lord Jesus Christ, the experience of the  love of God  and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit   which are with us all.
This day and always. Amen.