Mission. It’s everything the church is sent into the world to do. It’s our proclamation in words and deeds of God’s kingdom that has come in Jesus.
And increasingly, it’s on the lips of Christians and churches. Well – at least as an agenda item for our meetings.
Maybe church decline has made us wake up to this. In a society where Christianity is no longer natural or normal, we are belatedly realising that we cannot just sit here and wait for people to come to us, as past generations of Christians did.
But then we jump into panic mode. We lift a technique or a fashionable approach off the shelf. It comes with great claims and great reviews. Perhaps there is a book that tells us of the wonderful results this method has had elsewhere.
So we try it. But it doesn’t work for us. More gloom and despair.
Could it be that we need to listen to Jesus? I know that sounds obvious, and possibly patronising, but it’s shocking how little time we do spend seeking out his voice on the matter.
I’m going to suggest we listen to what Jesus has to say about what mission requires from our reading today.
Firstly, Jesus says mission requires compassion:
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and illness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
There it is: ‘he had compassion on them.’ Compassion for the crowds is his motivation. They have been let down by their leaders. This has left them far from God. He sees their need, and he has compassion. This is why he engages in mission. Compassion.
I have to say, it is not always why we dip our toes into the waters of mission. Our motives can be different.
Martyn Atkins, a former Principal of Cliff College and Secretary of the Methodist Conference, used to tell a story about how he visited a church that said they wanted to engage in mission. He asked them why.
The reply came back that they had lost numbers and had a lot of job vacancies to fill. Otherwise, the church wouldn’t survive into the future.
Atkins observed that this was a poor motivation for mission. It was a motivation that didn’t care about the people they wanted to reach. They only cared about themselves.
Compassion is the only healthy motivation for mission. What we need to consider is not so much the future of the church as the needs of people who do not yet know Jesus.
They may not realise that they are ‘harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,’ but that does not change their need of Christ. They may be satisfied with reaching their own standard of what it is to be a good person, but they still need Jesus. They may think they will be satisfied by chasing money, but that only demonstrates their inner emptiness, even if they don’t know it yet.
I am sure you can think of people you know who do not yet acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Some of them will be as close as your own family. However full and happy their lives may be outwardly, they are lacking the most important thing of all. Can you allow compassion to rise up within you for them, and let that drive you to prayer, just as it did Jesus?
Others of them will have the kind of needs that Jesus met in the reading. Will you allow their presenting needs also to motivate you to compassionate prayer for them, and for their deepest needs, namely to know Christ?
I hope you have a list of people you pray for regularly – and I would suggest daily. Will you ask God to let you feel something of what his heart feels for them? And as a result, will you let the compassion of the Father grow in your heart, and motivate your prayers, your words, and your actions for the people on your list?
Secondly, Jesus says mission requires delegation:
37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’
1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and illness.
Jesus delegates. Even he can’t do it all. He appoints others to share in his mission. I sometimes wonder how well today’s church has learnt this lesson.
Outside of my local church responsibilities, I have spent some time in recent years helping probationer Methodist ministers (those in their first two years of ministry). I have provided reflective supervision for some as a safe space for some to ponder how things are going. I have also served on the District Probationers’ Committee. In doing this, I have observed the crazy list of ‘competencies’ that new ministers are expected to display, according to the official documents. They are supposed to prove themselves as good preachers, as leaders of traditional and modern worship, as community figures, as pastors, as people with a prophetic voice, as able administrators, as evangelists, as wise on property issues, and so on.
Quite honestly, the system wants people who are better than Jesus. No wonder some circuits write specifications for new ministers that mean the Archangel Gabriel would be turned down. I am reminded of the lay leader who said many years ago when talking about recruiting a minister, ‘You don’t buy a dog and then wag your own tail.’
And how nice to be compared to a dog, by the way.
Oh, and if you think that’s fanciful, there was a church in one of my previous circuits, where, when the circuit asked them to provide volunteers, responded, ‘We don’t do things: we pay other people to do them for us.’
Jesus shows us a different way. Delegation. Responsibilities are shared. They cannot be loaded on one person. Even Jesus cannot do it all. He appoints apostles. They will share in his mission.
We all have a part to play in the mission of God. We do not hire someone else to do the dirty work for us. While we shall each have different gifts and strengths, we are all sent into the world to be witnesses to the love of God in Christ.
Put it another way: if compassion has motivated us to pray for people, then this is the point at which we become the answers to our own prayers. We need to be willing to do what it takes.
How can we use our gifts and talents to demonstrate God’s love to others? If you are good at cooking or baking, have you thought of making some food for a sick person, or a grieving family, or someone who is struggling financially? If you have musical gifts, can you use them to soothe people with troubled souls? If you are good with words, can you bring hope or comfort to those who are despairing?
And given that people’s deepest need is that they are like sheep without a shepherd, will you rely on the Holy Spirit to give you the right words at the right time to point them to the Good Shepherd?
Thirdly and finally, Jesus says mission requires imitation:
Compare what Jesus did with what he called the apostles to do. First, Jesus:
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and illness.
Now, hear again what he commanded the apostles:
7 As you go, proclaim this message: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” 8 Heal those who are ill, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
It’s pretty similar, isn’t it? Jesus might just as well have said, ‘Go and do what I’ve been doing.’
Simples, as the advert would say.
But I hear you protest. And I do, too. Mission is as simple as healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead? Well, I don’t call that simple.
Here’s the thing. We don’t all have all the gifts of Jesus, although there’s no harm in seeking more spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit. But we do have some.
And even if we don’t have a specific gift, there is still something for us to do. For example, some people seem to have a specific powerful ministry of intercession, but we all have the general call to pray. Others have a specific gift of evangelism, but we all have the general call to be witnesses. Some have a specific healing ministry, but we all have the general call to pray for the sick. And you never know what God might do.
Let me repeat a story I have certainly told informally in some church circles and may have mentioned in the odd sermon. I once had a political refugee join one of my churches. He had fled for his life from another country where the regime was one of the cruellest Islamic governments in the world. He had to depart so quickly he left behind his wife and young son. And he didn’t know that his wife was pregnant with their second son.
He had shown an interest in Christianity and joined our church, slowly picking up English as he went. He came to Sunday worship and small groups.
One day, after a morning service, he asked me to pray for his second son back home. He was very sick. His wife had taken him to various doctors, but none could help him. Would I pray? Of course. I said a simple, short prayer, and thought no more of it.
Until, that is, he asked to be baptised. Two of us questioned him. He said that he had never come across anything in Islam like the teaching of Jesus, especially in the Sermon on the Mount. He also noticed how Christianity treated women so much better than Islam.
And one last thing. Did I remember when he asked me to pray for his younger son? Had he told me that after that, his son had been healed?
Well, wow. Because I have never thought I had a healing ministry. That is only one of two cases I know of where I have prayed for someone and they have been healed. But this incident played its part in leading this man to Christ.
Conclusion
So how about we let the compassion of Jesus for people in need drive our mission, rather than our fretting about the state of the church?
How about we all accept the responsibility to play a part in the mission of God, rather than just leaving it to the ‘paid staff’?
And how about we begin to imitate the ministry of Jesus, even if we think what we’re doing is feeble in comparison to what he did? Because you never know what his Spirit might do through your offering.
Big Circumstance 
What Do You Think?