From Our Pastor...

Mission Impossible?

      Imagine this: a first class passenger seat on an airplane headed to an interesting, unrevealed destination; a smoke-filled room with a tired looking bare wood table and a couple of battered chairs; a gleaming chrome-filled kitchen in a high rise apartment; a perfectly ordinary living room like our own home; the back seat of a car; or a remote wooded location. The agents of Mission Impossible set aside all trepidation, accept the toughest of assignments, and somehow get it done. (Okay, movie magic is just a tad different from real life!) Nevertheless, as agents of God’s word we can find ourselves in just as many interesting situations that require a response to our own call to mission. No smoldering tapes required!
      Imagine now that we have each received a direct communiqué of our personal and corporate mission from no less a source than mission control itself. Do we do what agent Jim Phelps or Ethan Hunt do on Mission Impossible: listen carefully, allow the tape to self-destruct, then keep our mission secret to avoid being detected? Do we think twice about whether we are going to decide to accept the mission or not? What do we know about being agents of God in His ultimate mission for the reconciliation of the whole world in Christ’s name?
      I couldn’t resist looking up a definition of “mission” in Webster’s on-line dictionary. It included such considerations as, “A body of persons sent to conduct negotiations or establish relations with a foreign county, including the business with which the persons are charged.” It also included special assignments and secret missions. Finally, it included the definition of mission as, “An inner calling to pursue an activity or perform a service.” Sharing our faith can feel like we have entered foreign territory, especially if we have been keeping our Christianity under wraps or have internalized the adversary’s misinformation that it is inappropriate to share the most important part of who we are with anyone outside of our parish family. In fact, the opposite is the truth, because Christianity has never been “politically correct” – Jesus’ own death was at least partly politically motivated and engineered. God had the last word on the world’s notion of “P.C.” through the resurrection of our Lord and Savior! Would it be too crude to say that J.C. (Jesus Christ) trumps P.C. (politically correct) every time in God’s kingdom? Perhaps!
      When it comes to mission, the common factor for each and every one of us is that we each have a story to tell. Our story tells how God has transformed our own lives. It includes the parts about what God means to us, and how Christ lives in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our stories are as unique as our fingerprints. Only you, and only I, can share our own story of conversion, of faith, of the daily joys and struggles of living as a disciple of Christ, and of our continuing transformation in Christ. Agents Phelps and Hunt were not sent out without training or the equipment to do the job. We are all equipped to share the good news, according to God’s grace and our faith in Jesus. This is not an impossible mission – it is God’s desire for our lives that we share our stories of Christ’s love. Our lives are like a continuous book of how God is making us new, healing us and making us whole, guiding us into good works for the glory of His name, helping us to develop our gifts, and best of all, showing the world the many beautiful faces of Christ.
      Imagine this – we have already received a direct communiqué from God to share His love and the good news of Jesus Christ. This is our mission, should we choose to accept it. We are all already empowered to be God’s agent of reconciliation in the world. We simply have to share our stories of faith and life in Christ. Go therefore …