World Mission Sunday: Send Us Out as Faith Witnesses
CONTENT
Join with me in prayer:
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
It has been nine months since I last visited and it is great to be back. God has been working.
I’ve been able to return as a witness twice to two Edenite towns and a Edenite cities.
Friday the first 11 chapters of Revelation in the Edenite language were approved and we’re still on track to publishing the New Testament Translation this Fall.
We’ve finished enough translated scriptures to craft and pray a simple version of Morning prayer.
Your generous gifts have enabled these developments and demonstrate your commitment to the ends of the Earth. Thank you.
Acts 1:8 says:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Jesus is speaking to the Apostles, just before ascending to Heaven.
He frames his worldwide agenda from Isaiah 49. In Epiphany, we say every week, “I will make you as a light for the nations” and we respond, “That my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Christ’s agenda is salvation reaching everywhere.
Jesus has prepared the Apostles for three years, they witnessed his death and resurrection, and Jesus spent 40 days convincing them and teaching about his kingdom.
But the last question they ask him is what, “Are you restoring the kingdom to Israel?” I sympathize. They longed for deliverance from the brutal Roman empire. They have promises from the prophets about Israels end-time restoration. The Messiah’s come. But they haven’t taken onboard his agenda.
His goal is the salvation of the end of the earth, and he promises to empower and claims them for a critical role and activity.
He says: Focus on me and my agenda! That is your identity. That is your ministry.
Let’s thank God for Jesus’ agenda.
We are about as far removed in space and time as could be imagined from the Apostles. And yet, through them, Christ has brought salvation even to us.
Peter went went west into Europe, Thomas went east all the way to India. They were witnesses amon diverse geographies, cultures, religions and languages. They passed on this promise to the churches they established, who in turn spread all over the world even to us. Let us thank God.
Yet there are places, peoples and languages with no witnessing church or Christians. It’s just six hundred miles from Jerusalem to Eden where I serve, Christ’s witnesses are rare and almost all live their entire lives without meeting a Christian or visiting a Church community.
For the fullfillment of Salvation reaching to them, we must still expectantly pray for this promise to be fullfilled.
Christ called me to Eden, but God has brought people from the ends of the earth here.
Fairfax county schools have students from over 200 languages and 200 countries.
Springfield has thousands of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists, atheists, and agnostics. You work, go to school, live in the same neighborhood, maybe the same family.
The ends of the earth is here physically, yet it s still a challenge to enter the door of your neighbor or coworker and be a witness.
Let’s unpack this promise a little:
You will be my witnesses
YOU
The you in there can be taken individually or corporately. Your corporate witness in West Springfield is critical and important. As important as that is, most of us spend 90% of our time not gathered like now, but scattered in our neighborhoods, workplaces and schools. As we pray. “Lord send us out to do the work you have called us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord”.
BE
The promise is about BEING, our identity, our role, our ministry in the world.
MY
Central to the identity is that we are Christ’s. We belong to him. We follow His agenda. He has claimed us for a ministry and a task.
In Eden, people are suspicious of who I represent. Are you an agent of the US? Are you a company man? Are you a charlatan or a hypocrite? This verse helps settle that for me. I belong to Christ and am on the lookout for what He’s doing.
This last week I started training in the school district with people from around the world. Christ’s claim over my life as a witness has been a precious lodestone for me to remember whose I am, and has been a promise that kept me expectant. Each day has been a joy just in being Christ’s witness, his servant among people who have no witnesses.
WITNESS
What is that? Someone who testifies to what they have seen and heard Christ do.
[Note here: Assumption that Christ spends years working salvation into people’s lives and gives us mini-assignments as that, one step along the way]
Luke models that in verse 1, “I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until he ascended” That is all we need to share, Jesus has done and said in our lives, and what we see him is doing and saying right now. Simple but not easy.
Bringing up these topics is risky. Who will they think I am? One of those Christians that stands on a street corner shouting the “end is near” or a salesperson.
Will others understand clearly what I say?.
For both these, the Lord says we need something? Do you need a seminary degree? Do you need discipleship? Those are good. The apostles had three years with the Master himself. Was that enough to fullfill this. No: They needed the power of the Holy Spirit, which the Lord promised.
We need that the power of the Holy Spirit just as much as the apostles.
Last week Bishop Chris came to Church of the Epiphany and I saw with new eyes the Anglican liturgical expression of receiving the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnessses. In Baptism the Holy Spirit gives us the power of new life and to be united to Christ. In Confirmation, the Bishop as a representative of the Apostles, lays hands on believers so they’ll receive power to be witnesses and servants.
The Anglican communion has started a non-geographical diocese to welcome Muslim born believers into the into the Church universal. In September He gained my trust after seeing him up close for a couple days as his chaplain. My Edenite partners trusted him as well. They nodded their heads in agreement as he described the special needs of Muslim born believers. One of the Edenite places has connections to the Syriac Orthodox. Orthodox take very seriously the grace imparted by a Bishop. So I asked Bishop Yassir if there was a way to connect with his Diocese. He ended up asking me to pray about ordination. For him, ordained priests are an essential part of Anglican discipleship. So I’ve begun the ordinatoin process with his diocese. I’m excited for the day when one day hundreds, thousands are empowered for witness among the Edenites.
In your families, workplaces, schools and neighborhoods, are you relying the Holy Spirit to empower you to be Christ’s witnesses? Life is busy, hard and distracting here in Northern Virginia and it is easy to forget about the Holy Spirit.
If you have any doubts about the Holy Spirit being given to you to empower you for ministry,
First recall your own confirmation. Let that be a source of confidence for you.
If you struggle with the reception part, consider receiving a fresh reaffirmation when the Bishop visits you in May.
If you’ve been baptized, consider preparing for confirmation and receiving this gift.
How does this power of the Holy Spirit
Whose Agenda?
I hadn’t been to a town called Aldous in five years. I went to a conference in May expecting to lead a group there. At the last minute a local leader changed our itinerary. My heart sank because I’d prayed for months with growing anticipation.
However, I started seeing buses to Aldous. I was sooo close. That day I read in First Thessalonians 3, where Paul said “when I could bear it no longer.” That is how I felt about missing Aldous. I gently broached the idea with Beerah, asking if I could be excused from the group the following day. Beerah wasn’t happy but acquiesced.
So I started off and soon all my contacts were dead ends. I wondered Was I being led by the Holy Spirit or just following a fool’s errand? Aldous was out of the way. Was it worth the risk of just showing up? But the town was neglected and I could not bear the thought of not trying. I caught the first bus of the morning to Aldous and arrived with just the name of a man I’d prayed for for years. He and his family had suffered greatly for decades as Orthodox Christians, but fifty years ago, most had denied Christ and converted en masse to Islam. Another man hosted me. His family had abandoned Orthodoxy for Islam. But he thought well of Christians. Aydin took responsibility to show me around town and introduced me to a couple of the few remaining Armenian Orthodox Christians. They boldly encouraged Aydin to return to Christ!
I think something is happening in that town.
We are inheritors of this apostolic calling to be witnesses as we scatter. Let us remember that we are his, we belong to him and his agenda. Let us expect the power of the Holy Spirit to speak as witnesses.
Let us pray:
“Holy Spirit after we have eaten at your table, send us out to do the work you have given us to do as what … faithful witnesses.. and Let us go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
