Mission Central

Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30; 1^st Corinthians 13:1-13

Central Baptist Church, Lowesville, VA

28 January 2007

We live in a world of distraction. We are a society of leisure, even while rushing from one to another distraction. Busy schedules control our days with medical appointments, social outings, business meetings, daily chores, sporting events, and errands for paying bills, shopping, or transporting children to their appointed places. Families cry out for time to interact as families amid all our distracted rushing. How will we ever find time and energy to fulfill the central mission of our lives before God? Are we able to live according to God’s purposes?

Jeremiah was not sure what to do with Yahweh’s call on his life. He felt unprepared, unqualified, and unable to meet Yahweh’s expectations. He was less than confident before the mission set before him. It was no meager mission. It was a commission to be Yahweh’s mouthpiece before the nations of the world. Jeremiah did not feel up to the task. Who would? He disqualified himself as too inexperienced, too young, too unprepared, too incapable. Certainly God needed a hero-sized individual to perform such a great and important calling. God’s response refocused Jeremiah’s qualms on the question of trusting the provision of the One calling.

Yahweh would provide the words to share. Yahweh was calling, and Yahweh would fulfill what Jeremiah lacked to fulfill the central purpose for his living. The question was whether Jeremiah would submit to live according to God’s defining mission above his own scattered purposes in life.

“5000 Baptists to 5000 Baptist churches” was the slogan we developed for the seminary extension program in Rio Grande do Sul. The idea was simple, but frightening to many. For over fifteen years Baptists in the state convention had numbered right around 5000. Church starts had been at a standstill for about as long. The reigning idea was “it is too hard for the gospel to take effect here. We need to focus on strengthening our existing churches. We don’t have the resources to worry with new church starts. Poor us, we don’t have the wherewithal and there is just too much opposition from spiritism for the gospel to take hold.” This defeatist attitude ignored God’s message to Jeremiah—God would provide the wherewithal if we would be faithful to take up God’s mission despite the odds. Will our actions and words proclaim Christ’s mission as central to all our living?

Love is about much more than words. It is the central focus of the gospel message. God loved us supremely in Christ Jesus. We are now to live according to the demands of that same love, sharing it before all the world. Nothing short of true love will meet the expectations of the gospel of Christ. Paul even comments that the real thing casts into contrast the imperfect representations of love. It is this real love by which we are to live.

God’s love requires much more than a “feel-good” perspective on living. It requires much more than helping others find happy thoughts by which to live. It requires more than efforts to make others feel good about themselves. It demands that we share the message of God’s supreme love by which God came into the world to die on a cross on our behalf. It is this love by which we are compelled to live. It is this love that is to be a visible reality in our lives.

We have heard stories of the gospel being abused. We know that some share messages that emphasizing condemnation over redemption. We know that others share messages of a divine love which lacks any sense of human responsibility. We respond to both excesses as ridiculous misrepresentations of a love that would lead Jesus to the cross for our redemption. Too often, however, we recuse ourselves from sharing the real thing. We would rather live according to a gospel that does not compel us to share its good news. A “feel-good” perspective on life lulls us into a complacent shirking of responsibility to assume the mission by which we are to love and live.

Jesus knew the mission set before him. He understood from the beginning the uncertainties that would be part of fulfilling God’s mission to rescue and redeem. This first experience in Nazareth set the stage for the rest of his ministry. There would be opposition. The opposition would turn violent at times, but the mission was to carry him beyond those uncertainties. The first violence of opposition, however, was not what we might expect. Opposition first came in the form of praise and distraction from focus on God’s purpose.

The hometown boy returned to Nazareth, experiencing the esteem of all as they marveled at what had become of the son of a working man. It would have been easy for Jesus to relax into the friendly atmosphere, yet he chose to distinguish between his life mission and the opposition their praise posed. The praise of the crowd distracted attention from the message of Jesus’ words. They did not really believe he had anything to tell them, they just wanted to experience the miracles he had performed in other places. As long as Jesus would play the games that kept him in his “proper place” at home, all would go well. Underlying the surface, however, was the expectation that he should not disrupt life’s familiar patterns.

Jesus refused to be distracted by praise. Jesus refused to be distracted by being placed on stage before the hometown folk. He had a greater mission to accomplish. His mission would take him beyond the limits of hometown roles, rules, and routines. It would interfere with the ordinary. There would be opposition to his mission and message. The centrality of his mission demanded he clarify its distinction from what others expected. His mission’s importance outweighed the opposition arrayed against it. He had to choose between God’s mission and the distractions offered by others.

We worked with a sister church that embarked upon a project to loan out Campus Crusade’s Jesus film in high-rise apartment neighborhoods. Members would take the video and offer it on loan to people, along with a card for follow-up dialogue. Many were very receptive to watching the video. A problem arose, however, as people began loaning the videos outside the reach of the church members. Follow-up efforts became complicated with tracking down cassettes loaned to sisters, co-workers, neighbors, and friends. After a while, the church gave up the project, since they were losing track of the copies they had purchased. They lost sight of the main purpose—sharing Christ, regardless of any benefit to their membership roll. Even this good purpose distracted them from God’s greater mission. What is the central purpose of our living? To what extent do we offer our lives to God’s mission?

Like Jeremiah, we are called to a greater purpose in life than all the distractions the world affords. We are called to become God’s mouthpieces, proclaiming Christ’s love, grace, and redemption to the world. Opposition is a given. Opposition comes in many forms to distract us from the central mission for the Christian life. Will we bow to life’s many distractions, or will we live according to God’s central mission? What will our living as Central Baptist Church proclaim to the world? Will God’s mission be central or just one more distraction?

—©2007 Christopher B. Harbin