Here's the reflection I shared in tonight's Bread for the World service at
St Martin-in-the-Fields:
The
Mission Summer School is a new initiative from
HeartEdge and
St Augustine's College of Theology exploring mission using the 4 Cs of commerce, culture, compassion and congregation and enabling a deeper engagement with the theology of mission by exploring how it relates to participant’s own practice.
Each morning of the Summer School we are using this passage (
Luke 10.1-12) for our sessions of
Dwelling in the Word. With Dwelling in the Word we stay with the same passage throughout our time together on the basis that we can always go deeper into the passage and that our shared reflection, inspired by God's Spirit, will always bring new insights.
The passage we have chosen is one which in the church traditions among which I grew up was used as a rallying cry for mission, a call to go forth and tell the good news because the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. The challenge was always for you or I to swell the ranks of those scarce labourers by sharing the gospel with others, whether here or overseas.
I now think that the emphasis such appeals placing on telling the good news to others is an example of the way in which we often overlay our preconceptions on Bible passages and see what we expect to see instead of paying attention to what is actually there. There isn't actually a lot of telling in Jesus' instructions to his disciples, instead there is a whole heap of being with.
So, let's journey with the disciples for a moment through the directions that Jesus gives for their mission. First we should note that he asks them to travel lightly taking nothing unnecessary with them, not being distracted by small talk along the way, welcoming hospitality when they receive it but simply moving on to the next place and the next person whenever they were not made welcome. So, no distractions, just a clear focus on their task.
By sitting light to possessions and by accepting hospitality as it was offered to them they also imposed as little as possible on the people, villages and areas through which they travelled. In our society, since the advent of the Industrial Revolution, we have done anything but. Our footprint has been heavy on our world as we have exploited its resources for our own gain and we are only now beginning to realise the consequences. So, for ourselves, we will do well to reflect deeply on powerful slogans, such as ‘live simply that others might simply live’ and ‘touch the earth lightly,’ which challenge us about the footprint we leave on the earth and its inhabitants.
Travelling light didn’t mean travelling alone. Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs. 'By travelling together we bear one another’s burdens, share joys, and lighten the load of our journey.' Jesus’ expectation was also clearly that his disciples would find open doors and receive hospitality in many of the places to which they travelled. So, Jesus envisaged an evolving mission where they would knock on doors and enter wherever those doors were opened to them.
A key aspect of this approach was to find people of peace in the places to which they travelled. He asked this of his disciples in a context of hostility and challenge where they would be going out like lambs among wolves and yet, among the wolves, he was confident that they would find people of peace. Jesus also calls us to look outside our group or congregation to find people of peace within wider society. He calls us to do this however fractured or secular our communities may be because he is confident that such people can always be found. Ultimately, that is because God is always at work through the Spirit in the world and our task is to see where that is happening in our communities and networks and get involved.
In my previous parish in East London we found allies in those who were lobbying for improved facilities in the local area and those who were interested in setting up green businesses. Through those relationships we brought a library back to the area and step-free access to a local station but also drew new groups into hiring and use of the church centre and set up a social enterprise support service in that same centre. Finding people of peace in our area and joining with them brought much benefit to our church and the wider community.
What Jesus asked next of his disciples was that they spend time being with the people of peace they found, including sharing meals with them. Here at St Martin's, we have much experience of being with others in this way through our Sunday International Group which offers hospitality to those who have no recourse to public funds. In the International Group people are either hosts or guests but the distinction becomes increasingly blurred with guests becoming hosts as both groups come to know each other and as hosts receive insights from and understanding of those who have come as guests. At St Martin's many of those who first came as guests to the Sunday International Group have become treasured members of our community, congregation, Nazareth Community, PCC, volunteers and staff team. We have been renewed, revived, challenged and changed by their presence with us. It has truly been a case of renewal from the edge. The basis for this has been sharing a meal together.
When he introduces the concept of being with, Sam, our Vicar, often uses the example of a soup kitchen where all the time and effort goes into preparing the meal to the extent that those doing so never sit and eat with those for whom the meal is prepared. That ignores the deep need that each of us have for connection and the extent to which shared meals, being signs of heaven, enable us to live God's future now.
When we experience a depth of relationship over a shared meal not only are relationships deepened but misunderstandings and hurts can be healed, and a greater sense of integration and wellbeing can come into existence. That is why Jesus can then, in this passage, speak of healing occurring at this stage in his missional process. In thinking about healing it is vital to remember that, in the society of which Jesus was part, healing was the route to inclusion for many who had been excluded from the social and spiritual life of his society. It is that focus on inclusion and integration as the source of wellbeing that we need to mirror and emulate today, rather than notions of supernatural healing or cure.
When all this has happened - the recognition of people of peace, the being with people of peace, the sharing of meals, the welcome and integration of all - then we have something to say. What can then be said is that the kingdom of God has come near. That in our relationships, sharing and mutuality we have experienced together a taste of heaven. That is not something that we have brought or that is about something only we can offer to others. Instead, it is about real communion, a real sharing, a mutual sharing of selves that is welcoming and inclusive one of the other. In heaven there is only relationship with God, with ourselves, with one another and with the whole creation. It is only as we enter into real and deepening relationships with those who are other than ourselves that we anticipate heaven in the present and live God's future now.
All the talk in my past experience, of church of going forth to tell good news to others who were in need of the news that only I could bring to then if they were to be saved and go to heaven only served to obscure the relational mission to which Jesus called his disciples when sending out the 70 and to which he calls each one of us.
It's not a guilt inducing call that makes the salvation of others reliant on our response. It's a relationship affirming call to live in community, to form partnerships, to deepen relationships, to experience communion, and to live God's future now. As
Rachel Held Evans once said, “This is what God's kingdom is like: a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes. And there's always room for more.”
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