February 8, 2004
By Jack Price

"Your mission, should you to accept it.."  These words and that unforgettable theme song mark the beginning of the hit television show Mission Impossible.  The tape recorded voice would go on to say, "If you are killed or captured, we will disavow any knowledge of your actions.  Good luck."   

The Mission is serious business.  When you are sent, everything is at risk.  And everything finds its meaning   in the mission.

Many years ago, when London Bridge was lined with shops from one end to the other, there lived in the town of Swaffham, in Norfolk, a poor peddler who longed to be rich.  One night, he had a dream.  He dreamt that, if he stood on London Bridge, a man would come and tell him how to become rich.  He had the same dream the following night and again the third night.  So the peddler went to London.  After a long and arduous journey, the poor peddler arrived on London Bridge.  He walked from one end to the other, marveling at the beautiful shops, yet he received no message.  Finally, on the third day, a shopkeeper accosted him. 

"Are you a vagrant?"

"Why are you loafing around here?"

"Are you begging for alms?"

"Why are you here?

"What is your business? 

Embarrassed, the peddler told his dream.  "I dreamt if I came and stood on London Bridge, a man would tell me how to become rich."  The shopkeeper laughed right out loud.  "You're a fool to come all this way because of a dream.  Why, I had a dream myself.  I was in a place called Swaffham -- in Norfolk, I believe -- in an orchard behind a peddler's house.  There was a great oak tree and, under it, a great treasure.  You don't see me going all the way to Norfolk just because of a dream.

The peddler listened, with growing amazement.  Then, without a word, he set off for home.  There he dug beneath the oak tree behind his house and found a treasure.  He was never in poverty again.

            The folks in old Nazareth were fine until Jesus started talking about "mission," about being sent.  Then, life got exciting in the old hometown.  Jesus had gone back to Nazareth, his hometown.  He spoke in the synagogue service.  When the time came to read the day's scripture, he read from Isaiah where it was written:

                        The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me to bring good news to the  poor.

                         He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

               and recovery of sight to the blind.

                           to let the oppressed go free,

                        to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

All went well until Jesus sat down and began his sermon.  (read Luke 4: 21-30)

"Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.  This remark was well received.  "Isn't this Joseph's son?"  They may not have understood just what he meant, but it sounded good.  They were "amazed at [his] gracious words."  "Where did he learn to talk so good?  Certainly not here in Nazareth."   "Yes, and not from our rabbi!"  Anyway, they were impressed and they like him.  Jesus, however, could never leave well enough alone.  He goes on to clarify what scripture means for them.

Jesus moves from talking about calling to talking about mission, about being sent.  He challenges own people, all the while knowing that "a prophet is without acceptance" in his own home town.  He challenges them by reminding them of two stories.  These two stories about "being sent" really seem to irritate the good folk of Nazareth.  First, the prophet Elijah, in a time of great poverty, famine, and distress, was sent to minister to a non-Jewish widow.  His successor, the prophet Elisha, was sent to heal a Syrian man with leprosy.  The mission of these revered prophets is not only to chosen people of Israel, but also to outsiders. 

The message to the home folks is that they too are sent to Gentiles, to bring them good news of God's love and to share with them the blessings of covenant relationship.  Jesus is telling them that God's good news, God's liberty, is not for them to keep for themselves.  It is to share with Gentiles.  Their mission, should they choose to accept it, is to the outsiders

They chose not to accept it and Jesus learned a powerful lesson about telling the truth.  It can be dangerous.  Just ask any politician today.  Jesus told difficult truth and the home folks heard him.  They heard enough and meant to throw him off the nearest cliff.

God sent Jesus to his own people.  Many did not receive him.  Jesus lived his calling, walked his mission, right up to the cross.  In a supreme act of faith and love, he offered himself, not to appease angry God, but to teach us how to be fully human in the new creation of God. 

As surely as God names us with a unique and individual identity, and with a congregational identity, God prepares us as spiritual people.  As surely as God prepares us as spiritual people, shaping our giftedness through who we are, where we are, and what we experience, God calls us.  As surely as God calls us, through our identity and our story, to places of service, God sends us where we need to go.  And you and I get to participate in deciding!

Our mission, "should we choose to accept it," is really our choice, in terms of our service.  Usually, amazingly, we are sent to serve where we most want to go, even when we don't know it at first.  Often we are sent to our own back yard, to people we know best.  Wherever we are sent, we can trust it is where our heart lies and our treasure awaits.

            Crossroads Church is filled with people who struggle with and resist traditional ways of being church.  As a community of faith, we resist restrictions concerning who is out and who is in.  We resist restrictions concerning which gender it's okay to be, what gender orientation it's okay to be, and what is acceptable to believe.  Perhaps what we truly have in common here is our commitment to nobody telling us how we have to be church.  Someone said to me recently, "Perhaps all that really binds us together in community is the mutual desire to practice personal freedom - the desire and the fear that freedom may be challenged.  Perhaps the fear for our future as a congregation is that we have no true identity, no calling, other than the desire not to lose that freedom.  That may be true.

            This body values individual liberty very highly.  Our future as a congregation depends on our ability to transcend that fear; to embrace our corporate calling and the mission that emerges from our identity as freedom-loving people.  God offers us a new birth of freedom:  freedom to bring freedom to others who are "imprisoned."  God offers us insight to bring sight to those who need to open their eyes.  God offers us freedom from bigotry, isolation, fear, and death.

Crossroads' mission is to be church to those on the edges of church, people hurt by the restrictions, people seeking meaningful answers, and people seeking life-giving, but not usual, community.  Our story, our identity, and our call become our mission.  It is a mission to ourselves, to people outside our congregation, and to the greater church.

Will we go?  Will we choose to accept this mission?  The actions of five years of ministry clearly say, "Yes."  We've begun.  Will we continue?   Will we continue to answer "Yes" to the new challenges that lie ahead?  We will discover that answer as we live and serve in the Spirit, as we continue to make choices as a body, and as we continue to minister together.

We are sent.  We are on mission.  Wherever we are sent, the Spirit leads us and assures us that, where we are going is where our heart lies and where our treasure awaits.

Eternal God,

You come to us and invite us. 

In the light of your Spirit,

we see your glory in the faces of those who worship together with us today. 

Give us the courage to see your Spirit and to be your Spirit

in the dark prisons of life. 

In our hearts, in our life together,

In our ministry and mission, Spirit of the living Christ,

Please shine through us.  O God, please shine in us.  Amen.