Sharing Together

Today, I reflect on the theme of mission and our collective call to share the message of salvation. Drawing inspiration from biblical figures like Amos and Jesus’ disciples, I discuss the challenges and uncertainties they faced. I emphasise that mission is not exclusive to a select few but a shared responsibility for all believers. We must reach out with love and mercy, especially to those who have strayed. Despite apprehensions and community tensions, a simple and compassionate approach is key. God’s love is inclusive, and we are called to be bearers of Christ’s love to everyone.

(00:00:00) –  Apparently mission is something that we need to keep thinking about. We’ve had a number of gospels this year, and there are feast days that have invited us into this place of reflection about how do we announce this message of salvation to those who aren’t here? How do we become part of this community that shares our life and our love? And we hear that these people like Amos. He wasn’t a prophet. He wasn’t part of a prophetic brotherhood. He hadn’t been trained in any particular way. He wasn’t well equipped. He wasn’t qualified for this, this service, this, this ministry. And yet, even as a shepherd, just minding his own business, going about his daily tasks of tending for the sheep. He felt this impulse, this call to go. And it wasn’t even just to his own people. He was a Southerner based in the Kingdom of Judah around Jerusalem. But he was called to go to the north, now a completely separate community, a completely separate nation that had broken away from the south and split into two different nations.

(00:01:22) –  So that whole feeling of nervousness. How do I go into a foreign place where I know that they are very different? They’re not going to welcome me. And yet the Lord’s tenderness is for even those who have gone astray, even those who aren’t part of the community anymore. And so Amos goes and he receives all kinds of rejections, all kinds of of people attacking him because he sees what’s about to happen to the northern kingdom, that the corruption that is there, the lack of care for the poor, those who aren’t looking after the proper worship, they’ve set up idols instead of the one worship of Yahweh. And so Amos knows here he does it. He’s faithful to that. When the 12 are called by Jesus, I’m sure the same kinds of thoughts are racing through their heads, thinking, what on earth, Lord? Like we see the wonders that you do. But you’re the Son of God. You’re the one that is being called and chosen into this place where nobody’s where. You know they’re not the A-Team.

(00:02:37) –  Then other people that had first responded to go to God’s grace. They hadn’t been chosen by the rabbis of the day to be their students. All of them had just realised that they were just ordinary people going about their lives. But there were also all kinds of tensions, no doubt, within this group of the 12 people from very different political backgrounds, you know, Matthew was a collaborator with the Romans, and then Simon, who was, of course, against the Kingdom of Rome and like an agitator, a rebel. And so also with Judas, you know, those who were at would have been at odds. And there was very little that they would have shared in common. And yet the Lord is saying, go together, go in pairs, go and announce this kingdom So that they were all filled with dread. And how do we do this? What will we say? How will we go about it? And so for us to be invited to share God’s love, to go and announce the breaking in of the kingdom, to go and say to our neighbours, our friends, you know, this is the gift that I have received.

(00:03:49) –  It doesn’t have to be a particular script that we say we may simply engage in that that place of compassion, that place where we can be available to so many people that don’t have anyone in their lives, someone that we can simply be there to listen to them and to offer the love that God is inviting us into, to share that good news. To announce that breaking in of the Kingdom. But it’s wonderful if we can bring it into this the explicit context of the faith of the church to announce that, yes, that whatever you’ve done, in whatever way you fail justice, I have been forgiven. So also you can have your sins forgiven because Jesus died and rose again for all of us. He offered this salvation for every single human being on the world. And so to announce that kingdom, to announce that gift of his love, to offer to pray for someone, to offer simply to bless them in whatever situation and circumstance therein. It doesn’t need to be complicated. That’s what Jesus is saying.

(00:04:57) –  Do this simply. Get rid of anything and everything that’s going to get in the way. Don’t carry a whole lot of other stuff with you, but just in simplicity. Present yourself and your faith to those around you so that you can also be the bearers of Christ’s love. You can be those people that announce that breaking in of the Kingdom. You know, someone pointed out that we are no longer in a situation where it’s just the one sheep that has wandered away in the 99 have faithfully remained in the church. The situation we face today is that the 99 have wandered away, and we are the one who have stayed in the church. We need to really be attentive to the 99. We need to go out and to announce the breaking into the kingdom, to announce the love of God, and the mercy and the grace of the Lord is available to all those who aren’t part of our community. Let’s be that people. Even though we don’t feel equipped, even though we don’t feel we’re qualified for this, the Lord is inviting us and calling us nevertheless to go and to announce the Kingdom of God.