Monday
Philippians 2.14-15 “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.”
The mission of the church is to glow in the darkness as examples of light. In a dark world, if you want to know what light looks like, look at the church. The ministry of the church and its mission in the world is to be like stars in the night sky, lights that help travellers to navigate and are constant points of reference. That criterion helps us set our priorities in worship, mission, witness, prayer, social justice and services of compassion in and to God’s world.
Tuesday
Matthew 28.18-20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The Great Commission starts with a statement of power and ends with a promise of presence. Not power to coerce, but power to commission, giving authority to act as the risen Jesus’ representatives, now authorised to act and speak in his name. We do this, not on our own, but accompanied by that same risen Lord, at all times and in all places. When we talk of the mission of the church, we are simply referring to the mission of God in Christ. We are bearers of the good news, couriers of the grace of God, conduits of a love that has come into the world to redeem and to reconcile.
Wednesday
Matthew 28.18-20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The core commission is to go, make disciples, baptise and teach, and all of this done in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is news to be passed on, broadcast and demonstrated, lived and sung, embodied and enacted. Mission is to be so soaked in the teaching and truth of Jesus that it gives colour and flavour to the whole of our life, as individual followers of Jesus, as children of the Father, as a community of the Spirit. Whatever our strategies and programmes, our hopes and our prayers, they start and end with His words – go, make, baptise, teach.
Thursday
Thou, whose almighty word
chaos and darkness heard,
and took their flight;
hear us, we humbly pray,
and where the gospel-day
sheds not its glorious ray,
let there be light.
Interesting that one of the first missionary hymns starts at Genesis 1.1. The Creator God pushes back chaos and darkness to bring conditions for life. Likewise the Church looks for where there is the chaos and darkness of human life gone wrong and seeks to be the light God brings. All around us are places where there is no gospel daylight, or in Paul’s words there are people and communities looking for stars in a dark universe who give light and are trusted guides. This verse could easily be our start of day prayer, lifting our eyes to God whose almighty Word gives power to light the darkest places; and by that same grace powering us up to be the light of God there!
Friday
Thou, who didst come to bring
on thy redeeming wing
healing and sight,
health to the sick in mind,
sight to the inly blind,
O now to all mankind
let there be light.
“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Into a world fallen again into chaos and darkness, came Christ the Light of the world. All four Gospels tell of the healing miracles of Jesus, those pointers to the deeper healing of the fractured relationship between God and His broken creation. Sin is a disease deeply rooted in human life and affecting all of creation. Sin blinds the will, the mind and the conscience of every human being. We recognise it in hearts easily deceived, wills made plastic by wanting the wrong things, a conscience skilled in explaining away our guilt. All of this is in full show on the Cross, where sin is borne, its power defeated, and where the light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not win. There, once again God said, “Let there be light.” That light blazed with life-giving power across a dark universe on Easter morning – and it shines still.
Saturday
Spirit of truth and love,
life-giving, holy Dove,
speed forth thy flight;
move on the water's face,
bearing the lamp of grace,
and in earth's darkest place
let there be light.
Like the best hymns, there’s a whole tapestry of biblical allusions here. But it is the dove sent from the ark, then linked to the brooding of the Spirit of God over the waters in the Creation story that drives this verse. The prayer is made explicit: “May the Spirit of life move across the whole creation, shining the light of grace that illumines, and restores, and makes life possible.” This is a mission hymn-prayer that longs for a dark world to be illumined, a broken world to be healed, and a disordered world to learn once more the shalom of God. The church at the urging of the Spirit has its own role in all of this – go into the world, make disciples from all peoples, baptise in the name of the Triune God, and teach and live all that Jesus commands.
Sunday
Holy and blessèd Three,
glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, Love, Might;
boundless as ocean's tide
rolling in fullest pride,
through the earth far and wide
let there be light.
The Trinity is no mere abstraction. Jesus came to reconcile a world at enmity with God, in obedience to the will of the Father, in the power of the Spirit. The wisdom, love and might of God are all revealed in the birth, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself – He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us – God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5) What is revealed on the Cross is the Almighty Word of God spoken to the chaos and darkness of our world, and that word was love, blazing out in light, bearing with it the promise of new life and new creation in Christ.
It may well be that the Church, and that must mean each one of us, will become much more certain of the how of mission, when we immerse ourselves again in the why of mission. Then like Paul we will confess, “The love of Christ constrains us”, grace leaves us no choice, Christ has become our life’s imperative.
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