My favorite is Indiana Jones. He pelts off into the far reaches of the world after whatever treasure with not much more than his smarts, his whip, and his trademark Fedora hat.
We all ran off to New Orleans after Katrina on a grand adventure with no idea what we were to do or how or even where we would sleep, but we knew we had to go. And we were amazed at what happened, how we were used by God, and the fact that it was so chaotic that obviously no human was in charge, yet everything happened that needed to.
Our Call to Missions
We are all called to missions. In all the New Testament gospels and Acts, Jesus is quoted issuing the Great Commission when visiting his followers who were in hiding after His crucifixion and resurrection.
Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Mark 16:15 He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
Luke 24:46 He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
John 20:21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Acts 1:8 you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
In the Old Testament, Isaiah equated service to others as Worship, or fasting. Back in his day, 700BC, God had retreated from Israel as described throughout chapter 57. In verse 3 of Isaiah 58 God tells us through His prophet that he heard his people ask why they fasted if He didn’t respond. In verses 4&5 He answers because their 1 day fasting as worship ends in fist fights with each other. He asks sarcastically, “is this the kind of fast I have chosen?” then goes on to explain what he expected of them and us.
Isaiah 58
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
I believe we all know this in our heart of hearts and that’s why I’ve blown through this pretty fast, but we look at this as just another obligation in our lives.
Jesus tells us this is not to be a burden because his “yoke is easy and [His] burden is light.” (Mat 11:30). Are you stressed out? “You will find rest for your souls”, He tells us. This is a Grand Adventure that our hearts crave; a work that we can get lost in; worship that never ends while we are here. All this has been true in my experience and is echoed by volunteers and other missions leaders I have worked with. The more important discussion I’d like to have with you is…
What keeps us away from Missions
If we have this “Great Commission”, This Grand Adventure that we were made for and designed to execute, why do we have such a difficult time with it? What stands in our way?
Missions, by nature, tend to fall under the social justice category. Us “Christian Conservatives” tend to look at social justice issues as liberal, leftist, and even communist. I’m one of you, remember? How do we discern who really needs help and who is taking advantage? How do we provide the “hand up, not a handout” that so many service organizations strive for? We get suspicious of people and don’t trust that our giving will be truly appreciated or effective. We don’t want to “waste our resources” on those who are unworthy.
Last week, on my way home from Alabama, someone hit me up for money at the gas pump north of Louisville. He gave the “trying to get home (to Columbus no less) spiel. I gave him $5.00; he gave me a toothy smile and a “God bless you”. The people at the other pumps blew him off. I pumped my gas, hit the restroom, and grabbed a drink at McDonald’s before coming back out to my truck where his car was still setting at the next pump. As I pulled out, he came out the door with 2 frapachinos and a sticky bun. That adds up to about $4.85 I figured. He gave me the same grin with a bit of “sucka” behind it.
I was mad. I knew he was lying when I gave him the money, or I’d have filled his tank, but my first reaction was discouragement and that made me mad. I got over it after some brooding up I-71 and decided I’d do the same thing next time. Not because it’s the socially responsible thing to do, but because Christ calls me to serve others. Our love for Him makes us willing to do what may seem unwise from the World’s perspective.
WWJD? Jesus helped all who needed it. Now we can argue that He certainly had a gift of discernment we can’t hope to obtain, but this guy touched pariah’s of His society healing the blind, demon possessed, the lame, and the outcasts. He hung out with evil tax collectors and prostitutes… put down the religious elite and put forward simple fishermen and trades people as his apostles.
The people described in Isaiah 58 were like us too. Wrapped up in their own advancement economically, and seeking more influence in their world. Is the church you know really any different today? Many aren't.
We work VERY hard to provide for our families, an honorable thing. We want to give them the best. We pursue the American Dream of a comfortable house in a safe neighborhood. We send our kids to Christian, or other private schools, or at least strive to live in a “good” school district. We focus on our family’s advancement, setting up our kids to be happy, popular, and well educated, plotting and saving for the day when they are paid off and we can retire and enjoy our spouse, fishing, and traveling.
What are we teaching our kids though? Are we displaying the Great Commission to them, or teaching them to look out for number 1?
Our primary resources are time and money. The quest for one takes from the other. We struggle to maintain a balance between them, spending enough time with our families while also working to provide for them.
I have come to believe our quest for the mythical "American Dream” has hijacked way too much of our resources, both time and money that we should be investing in our mission; this Grand Adventure. The dream itself has been hijacked by marketing in our society and economy that is driven by consumer purchasing, much of it on credit.
This sounds like radical stuff and it was in 700BC too. I’m not here to give you a guilt trip or to strong arm you into joining my mission. It doesn’t matter to me what you choose as your mission outlet. There is no shortage of opportunity there.
I am here to share a secret with you that if you don’t have one; if you aren’t actively spending your time in service to others in some way that you are missing out on a grand adventure.
Think about your financial situation. Most of us don’t own the houses our families live in, a creditor does and we pay rent in principal and interest every month. We don’t own the cars we drive, or the TVs our families watch, or the programming, or worst case, the groceries we are eating because we are purchasing them with credit. When we look at our own finances, we realize we are not “rich” = living the American Dream. Most of us are still a couple paychecks away from being homeless, no better off than the poor people in inner-city Columbus, Appalachia, Africa, or New Orleans we are working so hard to rise above.
Is that scary? We are trusting in a socioeconomic system that will eventually let us down. We are not trusting the God of our lives who calls us to His work, this grand adventure, but ourselves, our money, our employer, our banker, our financial planner. Our very Christian walk has been hijacked to advance our worldly selves, in place of our mission, our commission. Our light burden and easy yoke have been replaced by an inescapable debt burden, high stress, and poor health.
We can find our way out of this, but in a spiritual world at war, we have to realize that there is heavy opposition. Like any other addiction, it’s a one step at a time, day by day struggle.
If you have a dollar or other bill in your pocket, take it out and look on the back. Even a coin will do. Even our money has a message for us. What is it?
Because I also work in youth ministry, I subscribe to Relevant Magazine even though I’m not in the target demographic personally. The lead article in the latest issue primarily focuses on money and faith, though it applies to our time as well. I found some excellent fodder for this talk there and quotes from some Christian authors whose opinion I have a lot of respect for.
Donald Miller (Searching for God Knows What and Blue Like Jazz) references the story of the rich young man from Luke 18 and explains:
This guy had said, ‘I do everything right,’ and Jesus said, ‘Well, do this.’ (give all he had to the poor and follow Him) And he couldn’t do it. Jesus was trying to say, ‘See, you’re not OK; you’re sick just like everybody else is sick.” Then He says, “I’ll heal you.’ And the guy says, ‘No, I want to stay sick.’
…The real issue is about addiction and it’s about addiction to money. We live in a culture that’s addicted to money, and we’re addicted to what money can buy us. And we’re fooled into thinking that, ‘I can buy this product, and this product will make me happy.’ And we’re fooled because the average American sees 3,000 commercial images a day. It’s like somebody constantly asking you if you want crack – 3,000 times a day. And you only take it once a day… that’s not good.”More importantly, if disaster relief work has taught us anything, it’s that this stuff we buy, our houses, our jobs, our economic system is amazingly ethereal; not real, but contrived.
Does this look like your vehicle?
living room?
Your kitchen?
Your front garden?
What about this?
The people who own these homes in Chalmette, Louisiana were middle class people who did everything right. Paid their mortgage, worked hard, saved for retirement, paid their insurance, furnished and stocked their homes with the things they needed. They were living the American Dream. These homes sold for over $200,000 before Katrina wasted them and all their contents. The insurance didn’t pay because it was flood damage, not storm damage. They didn’t have flood insurance because they weren’t required to or even advised to because the levy systems, they were assured, would protect them.Like the insurance? Like their employer? They lost their jobs because the businesses were all wiped out as well or they couldn’t find housing less than several hours away.
It all crumbled. They were us too. One tornado, one flood, one asteroid, whatever, and we’re in the same boat.
Tony Campolo is another of those "new socially active Christian authors" that is quoted in the article:
When you think, ‘How do I love my neighbor as myself?’ It becomes just impossible to do that within the worldview of the American dream,” But I think what’s exciting is that Jesus has another dream, and Jesus is offering us [that] dream.Can you picture your house and possessions after a “hurricane Katrina?” Draw a mental skung line at about 4 feet up the wall and visualize the mold and rot on everything below it with the mildew creeping up the wall above.
The way out
Missions is our way out of this mire we’ve worked our way into. Our way of connecting with the urgings of the Spirit, loving our neighbors, worshiping our Lord unreservedly, and beginning to live this grand adventure we are called to and crave so strongly.
In disaster relief and recovery work, the lyrics of Audio Adrenaline's song "Dirty" off the WorldWide CD has become our theme song and echoes this:
Tired of being clean, sick of being proper
I wanna live among the beggars and dig out in the dirt
Step outside the walls we built to protect us
Don’t be afraid to get some mud on your face.
Come on, come on everybody.
Come on, come on and serve someone
Let's get dirty, let's get used
No matter where you come from
If you're beaten up or bruised
Let's get foolish, let's get free
Free to be the one thing
We were meant to be –
let’s get dirty
Volunteers, most of whom had never been on a mission trip before, found amazing freedom in doing this work!? Angie G, an early volunteer after Katrina supplied the quote I use on the blog, web site, tabletop display, and business cards.
"I don't want to go back to church and dress up and everything be nice and pretty. What we've been doing here is real church; it's getting dirty and helping people."Who listens to the band Switchfoot? Their song “American Dream” will not leave my head. It became my personal theme song as soon as I heard it. These couple of verses perfectly illustrate what I’ve been talking about and the new philosophy I’m working to adopt in my life. No, I’m not there yet either. I’m one of you, remember?
When success is equated with excess
The ambition for excess wrecks us
As top of the mind becomes the bottom line
When success is equated with excess
If your time ain’t been nothing for money
I start to feel really bad for you, honey
Maybe honey, put your money where your mouth’s been running
If your time ain’t been nothing but money
I want out of this machine
It doesn’t feel like freedom
This ain’t my American dream
I want to live and die for bigger things
I’m tired of fighting for just me
This ain't my American dream
When success is equated with excess
When we’re fighting for the Beamer, the Lexus
As the heart and soul breath in the company goals
Where success is equated with excess
‘Cause baby’s always talkin’ ‘bout a ring
And talk has always been the cheapest thing
Is it true would you do what I want you to
If I show up with the right amount of bling?
Like a puppet on a monetary string
Maybe we’ve been caught singing Red, white, blue, and green
But that ain’t my America,
That ain’t my American dream
Their lyrics only mirror biblical truth in modern poetry:
Luke 16:13 – “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
Matthew 16 - 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
“We were meant to live for so much more!” (another Switchfoot lyric), “but we’ve lost ourselves.”
What’s in it for me?
After itemizing what true Worship/Fasting is, God continues in Isaiah 58
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness [a] will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
The grand adventure.
Who’s the coolest adventurer you can think of?
The bible is full of adventurers living this grand adventure.
Wanna be one?
Servants Unite exists for 2 reasons. To serve victims of natural disasters and a fallen world. And to serve volunteers without faith, or who are not experiencing the fullness of their faith, living this grand adventure. I pray that you will find and accept that challenge in your own life and find the deeper faith, personal relationship, and constant amazement at God working in this world that so many others have.
Bow with me please:
Thank you Lord for all these volunteers who have given a week or more for Your work to answer Your call. Thank you for the opportunity you've given to minister to the afflicted, to break the yoke of oppression, depression, and hopelessness. Thanks for allowing us with our limited skills, but the benefit of Your Spirit guiding us to feed the hungry and rebuild shelter for those made poor by this tragedy. Thanks for allowing us to reflect your noonday light. Thank you for helping us to find this "real" faith, this "true" and compassionate faith you mean for us.
Lord, I ask a special blessing on those here today that they will ask You to help them seek Your will for their life. May your spirit burn bright in them for all the world to see and my they find Your burden light and Your yoke easy. I pray that they find their role in this grand adventure and experience the joy that only You can bring.
I ask these things in the name of Jesus.
Amen
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