Now some of you may recall a few weeks ago, Simon talking about Mission Statements. Well I want to pick up where Simon left off because thinking about our Mission is pretty critical, particularly this Sunday as we think about Jesus’ ascension into heaven, leaving his disciples with a blessing to wait for the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (next Sunday) and found his church.
I have to admit that, I only realised yesterday that I was preaching today and was thus tempted to simply reuse Simon’s talk and see if anyone noticed but I thought that at least Simon might, so I had better be a little bit more original.
Now as I started thinking about this issue of Mission Statements, I thought it might be fun to see if some of the corporate Mission Statements that are around have any meaning whatsoever to any of us mere mortals. To that end, I have dug up some mission statements from some well known companies that I am sure we have all, at some time or other had some dealings with.
Now all of the management textbooks tell us that when formulating a mission statement, it should be unique and say something about your particular organisation that is distinctive. I assume, therefore, that the identity of the company should be obvious from the few well chosen words that have been put together to represent the very essences of these corporations.
So here goes. Any guesses for the first one?
So that’s the corporate world – but what about the church? Should the church have a mission statement? Should there be one for the church (corporate) as in the Anglican church and/or for the local church here in Bunbury. Well, as of a few weeks ago, both exist. Let me start by sharing with you the erudition of the House of Bishops whom I assume are responsible for the Mission Statement for the Church of England. The mission is as follows:-
Insert CofE Mission
Fired and inspired by this statement and embarrassed by the absence on the St Boniface website of anything under the heading “What we believe in”, Rick, Eric, Trevor, Peter, Simon, Mike and I put our collective brains together to come up with a Mission Statement for St Boniface. I’ve been cynical about all of the other mission statements so far, but as I had a hand in this one, I clearly think it a winner. It is as follows:-
Insert St Boniface Mission
Expand on St Boniface Mission
So with these words of inspiration ringing in our ears lets take a break to sing and then return to this issue of Mission as related to Ascension Sunday in a moment.
This detailed account of the Ascension is unique to Luke’s gospel. John and Mark make much more fleeting references but Luke not only finishes his gospel with this account, he also starts his second book, the Acts of the Apostles, with an expanded version of the story. It’s worth a moment to read that.
Read Acts 1, 1-11.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that Luke chooses to ‘overlap’ his two books with the same story – to end the gospel and start Acts with the Ascension. It is the obvious breakpoint between a story that involves Jesus himself (the Gospel) and a story that describes events after Jesus leaves the disciples to fend for themselves as it is the story of Jesus leaving for the last time.
Luke, among the gospel writers is most focussed on taking the message of salvation out to the Gentiles – he is of course known as Luke the Evangelist. Luke is therefore very concerned in his writing to underline the continuity of events before and after Jesus’ ascension – to describe them as one unbroken narrative theme. To relate the founding of the church, which we will hear about next week at Pentecost directly with Jesus’ involvement.
Luke once again emphasises the importance of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples ongoing work. This emphasis on the Holy Spirit is woven throughout Luke’s gospel. Luke continually refers to the power of the Holy Spirit at work at key times in Jesus life so he naturally continues to emphasise the importance of the Spirit in the ongoing lives of the disciples with the clear implication that they can do nothing without it.
Luke is describing the mission of the church in very clear statements and we would all do well to pay particular attention to them. The church lives in the ‘in between’ time, in a journey between the “already” of Jesus life, death and resurrection and the “yet to come” of his return. But the church’s role in this “in between” time is not a passive waiting marked by inactivity. Rather, the church is given a mission to be a clear witness to the world of the power and forgiveness of God.
The church is called to proclaim the good news of forgiveness and reconciliation. It’s a grand vision, a huge mission statement of the church as God’s people. God’s agents of transformation in the world. Now in some ways this seems pretty straightforward. The idea of a mission to the world is not an especially difficult one to grasp or even to undertake.
If this were a business, and the Mission Statement had been passed down to us from on high, we would start drawing up local objectives and plans to deliver it. We would leap into action and start to deliver the Mission. We would marshal resources, come up with success criteria and measure our results – bums on pews? Numbers confirmed? Growth?
But that is not the mission on view here. The mission of the church given here by Luke from Jesus is to go into the world as God’s people and proclaim a subversive, transforming message about a suffering God who calls anyone without discrimination to respond. It will not be a popular message. It will be a tough job. But even that is not the heart of the message here. The key message is to wait. To wait for the power.
Before the church can be a church it must wait for the power to come from God. We cannot do what God has called us to do without God’s help. That enabling power for which they are waiting is not something that they can generate or make happen by their own efforts. It is a gift from God, in his own time and in his own way. When that power comes, it will enable that group of disciples to storm the world with the message of the gospel. It gave these few, the power to found a church that would change the world and last for 2000 years. But first they had to wait. To wait and trust in the promise of Jesus that the Spirit would come.
There’s a lesson here for us as we think about our mission for this church here in Bunbury. Whilst we should be keen to get out there and start the job of evangelising, perhaps we need to take more time to stop once in a while and reflect on whether we have waited sufficiently for the power or whether we are just plodding along working in our own efforts. Perhaps this Ascension Sunday, as we observe the return of Jesus to his Father and realise that we are left in the world on our own, and as we wait this week for Pentecost, would be a good time to do just that.
If we try to be the church without the power of the Holy Spirit enabling our mission, we run the risk of expending a lot of energy without really fulfilling our mission. Or, perhaps worse, we run the risk of attributing what little success we have to our own efforts rather than to God’s Spirit working through us and with us. Luke tells us clearly that the church cannot be the church without the power of the Holy Spirit enabling Jesus’ followers to carry out their task as witnesses.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting we should sit here in deep prayer and meditation – although a little more of that would do no harm, waiting for some miraculous and spectacular occurrence to happen as a sign of the presence of the Spirit. The Spirit’s presence is usually unseen, working through us, guiding our actions and words and not bursting through in tongues of fire or filling our mouths with the language of tongues. It is unlikely that the Holy Spirit will announce His presence here in St Boniface by slaying half the congregation but we know he will come. We know he does come – just as Jesus promised us through the disciples.
And that is what makes our Mission seem attainable. That Mission that at first glance can make us feel so uncomfortable. The mission that requires us all, as a corporate church to go out to people and tell them the uncomfortable truth that they really do not want to hear , that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ and through repentance and God’s forgiveness of sin.
If we are to do that on our own, we may as well give up before we start. The really Good News is that we do not have to do this alone, the Spirit is with us.