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The Second Sunday of Easter

"On A Mission"

The Rev. David Frazelle

“He’s a man on a mission!” Even out of context, this simple statement conveys a powerful message about a person. “He is a man or she is a woman on a mission.” Whenever I hear this, I immediately know that I am dealing with someone who lives for a purpose greater than himself, someone who moves with intensity, commitment and singleness of heart towards that purpose. I know that I am dealing with someone who is willing to risk and suffer for that purpose. “He is a man or she is a woman on a mission.” Whether these words describe a player on a basketball court, or a parent protecting a child, or a dedicated professor, I know a great deal about the person being described.

You and I are women and men on a mission. We may or may not know it yet. We may choose to ignore it or to accept it. But whether we like it or not, we are a people on a mission, because the risen Lord has declared it, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit,” says Jesus. And with these words, he makes us into a people on a mission.

Today’s commissioning story follows a familiar pattern found at the end of all the gospels. After the crucifixion, the disciples are huddled in fear. Jesus appears among them and greets them. They recognize Jesus, and he immediately gives them their mission. At the end of the gospel according to Matthew, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” At the end of the gospel according to Mark, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.” At the end of the gospel according to Luke, “Preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in my name to all nations.” And in our passage for today, from the end of John’s gospel, Jesus commands, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” We have been sent. We are a people on a mission.

I say that we have been sent, because the author of the gospel is careful to include all his listeners in Jesus’ mission. Jesus sends those first disciples as the Father has sent him, and immediately afterwards he breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” This is John the evangelist’s way of insisting that all who have received the Holy Spirit of the living God in baptism are on the same mission as those first disciples. All who have been baptized have been sent as daughters and sons of their heavenly Father just as Jesus was sent by his Father in heaven. All of us who have been baptized have been ordained to bear into the world the reconciling love of God – the love that forgives, the love that heals, the love that raises from the dead. You and I, here and now, we are people on that mission.

The Christian tradition alive in our liturgy insists again and again upon this fundamental truth of the Church’s missionary identity. This is why we cannot simply leave church; we are always sent from church. The newly baptized are sent into the world in witness to God’s love, to confess the faith of Christ crucified, to proclaim his resurrection, and to share in his eternal priesthood. Newly married couples are commissioned to reach out in love and concern for others. We are sent from the Eucharist to do the work God has given us to do, to love and serve him with gladness and singleness of heart. The deacon sends us out the door in peace to love and serve the Lord, to go forth in the name of Christ. In our burial service, even the dead are sent on a mission to serve God among the glorious company of the saints in light. The Church is not a place to which we come and from which we go casually. The Church is a place to which we are called and from which we are sent, because God has made the Church into a people on a mission.

What would it look like for the Chapel of the Cross to fully accept that we are a people on a God-given mission? This parish already knows that it has been sent on a mission, of course. Our outreach ministries, our domestic missions and our international missions; our ministries of teaching, fellowship and prayer; our ministries of hospitality, music and financial giving outside the parish – these and other ministries are numerous and powerful. And yet, leaders in those ministries have been praying fervently for new participants in their mission areas. These ministries are strong, and yet our level of financial giving has frozen support for these ministries at last year’s levels and would not be enough to sustain all those ministries in 2009. Our median annual pledge has been stuck at $1,300 for the past ten years. According to the biblical norm of the tithe, which the Church guided by the Spirit has adopted as its norm, this figure would indicate that our median annual household income at the Chapel of the Cross is $13,000.

These realities of our participation in the Church’s mission will change with radical growth when we hear and receive that mission as the mission that the risen Lord has given to us. Our stewardship of God’s gifts of time, talent and treasure will be transformed beyond recognition when we say yes to the mission God has given us. We will find our purpose, and we will move with intensity, commitment and singleness of heart towards that purpose, when all of us hear and receive the good news that we have been sent to bear the reconciling, healing, life-giving love of God into the world as members of Christ’s body on earth. We will be willing to risk and suffer for our divine purpose and calling when we hear our risen Lord Jesus say to us, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit,” and become what you are – a people on a mission.

© 2008: Chapel of the Cross