#2...
I Send You
John 20:21-22
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has
sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
The Triune God's Mission of Sending
It all started with a Father's Love. The mission of the church starts with God's mission. It's rooted in who God is. What we do in mission responds to what God
has done, participates in what God is doing, and anticipates what God will do.
We understand God as Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. We understand the relationship in
the Trinity through a particular action, the action of sending: God the Father
sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit. But the sending doesn't stop there. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are
sending the church into the world.
With the sending of the Spirit Jesus declares that he is
also sending his disciples - that means you and me. In the gospel of John, near the end of the
story after Jesus had died on the cross, risen from the dead, and before he
ascended to the Father in heaven, Jesus breathes on his disciples and says
"Receive the Holy Spirit." We
read this in John 20:22
But this
sending of the Spirit is inseparably linked to what Jesus has just said in
verse 21: "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending
you.”
As it turns out, that's not the only place in the gospel
of John that Jesus speaks of sending his disciples as a reflection of, or a
follow-up to, the Father's action in sending him. In John 17, as Jesus is praying to his Father
before he goes to the cross, he speaks these words in verse 18: "As you
sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." What does this word "sending" mean,
and what might it have to do with mission?
In the NT Greek, the action is covered by the verb
Apostello, which means "to send out."
The words Apostle or Apostolic are based on this same word. There's an age-old question people have when
they read the gospels, and it's a good one:
Does Jesus have 12 disciples or 12 apostles? The answer is "yes." The same group is referred to with both words
in different places, but here in John 17:18 & 20:21 Jesus confirms it: His
disciples - followers, learners - are also his apostles, those he sends into
the world. Wouldn't things look a bit
different in the church if we talked as much about apostleship - our identity
as those Jesus sends into the world- as much as we talk about discipleship?
But what does this have to do with mission? Well, the word mission in English is based on
the Latin missiō, which is a form of the Latin verb meaning "To
Send." Real mission is about God
sending us.
The Pattern: As the Father sent me...So I send You
As the Father sent Jesus into the world, so Jesus sends
us into the world (John 17:18). So what does it mean to be sent as the Father sent Jesus? From the portrayal of Jesus in the gospel of John, we see
four dimensions of what it meant for Jesus to be sent by the Father:
- Sent
into the world to be seen
- Sent
to live in relationship with God
- Sent
to relate to people in love
- Sent
to invite into relationship with God
These function as four ways we can participate in Jesus'
sending of us.
First. We are, just as Jesus was, sent into the world to
be seen.
In his gospel's first chapter, John speaks of Jesus - the
Word of God - being sent into the world so he could be seen, so he could be
present with people. In John 1:14 in the
Message, Eugene Peterson puts it this way: "The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood. We saw
the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son,
generous inside and out, true from start to finish."
As the Father sent Jesus into the world to be seen, to be
present to people in the world they lived in, Jesus sends his disciples into
the world. In his John 17 prayer he says
"my prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect
them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world,
I have sent them into the world."
What does this mean for us? I think Eugene Peterson gives us a clue in
his use of the word neighborhood. Jesus
sends us into our neighborhoods, the places we live, the places we're
"seen" by others. Where is your neighborhood? Or neighborhoods - if you include the
different worlds of family, work, service, recreation. Each of us is sent to a different place,
wherever God has planted us by virtue of our family status, the location of our
home, the place we work and the people we work with. At the same time, in a congregation we share
in a common neighborhood as we together look at ways Jesus sends us out into
the world around the church, from Mill Creek to Mexico.
Second. We are, just as Jesus was, sent to live in
relationship with God.
In the gospel of John, one of the aspects of Jesus' life
that is featured most prominently is Jesus' relationship with the Father. Repeatedly, their relationship is described
as an intimate fellowship so close that Jesus is "One" with the
Father. In his prayer for the disciples
in John 17, Jesus prays that we might also live in this kind of close
relationship with God.
We are sent into the world by Jesus to be people who live
a close relationship with God in the midst of people, many of whom do not enjoy
this same relationship. Our efforts to
do things in mission are always conditioned by Jesus' words in John 15:
"If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me
you can do nothing."
What do we do when we are in the place Jesus has sent us,
whether that be in the University District or Uganda? We live in relationship with Jesus. Basically, we live the Christian life. That's part of Real Mission. It might seem strange to think of your
spiritual life of prayer and Scripture reading as mission. Spiritual growth and mission sometimes seem
so far apart as separate programs listed in a church brochure or on a website,
and I know from experience that it's easy to slip into "majoring" in
one at the expense of the other. But our
daily experience of our relationship with God is a vital part of God's mission.
Third. We are, just as Jesus was, sent to relate to
people in love.
In the gospel of John, Jesus relates to people with
love. The gospel features Jesus
investing in close, loving relationships with people. He calls his disciples friends, and constantly
speaks of and demonstrates his love for them.
He develops a loving relationship with a particular family - siblings
Mary, Martha & Lazarus. He's
available to spend time in conversation with people who have questions about
God - Nicodemus in chapter 3 and the Samaritan Woman at the well in chapter
4. This love for people is the reason
why God sent him in the first place - John 3:16 "For God so loved the
world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life."
For us, real mission means relating to real people with
real words and actions of love. The question for each of us is - Who is it? If we can't think of someone
we're already in relationship with, Who might it be? Real mission involves names. Where there's a name, there's a narrative (a
story), and there are needs. Relating to
real people with real love involves conversation: speaking and listening,
asking questions, and inviting questions.
The action part of mission - whether it involves meeting spiritual or
material needs - always emerges from compassionate conversations.
Fourth. We are, just as Jesus was, sent to invite people
into relationship w/God.
In the gospel of John, Jesus invites people into a
relationship with the Father. He invites
disciples with the words "Come, follow me." He invites people to believe in him in order
to have a relationship with God the Father "You believe in God; believe
also in me" (Jn 14:1). As he gets
closer and closer to the cross, he proclaims that when he is lifted up from the
earth, he will draw all people to himself (Jn 12:32). And in his prayer for the disciples in
chapter 17, Jesus prays for those who do not yet believe but who will believe
because of his disciples words of invitation to consider Jesus’ message.
The disciples he sends invite people into relationship
with Jesus, and through him into relationship with God the Father. The original 12 had done a pretty good job
from the start. First thing Andrew did
when he started following Jesus was find his brother Simon and bring him to
Jesus. Philip told Nathanael about Jesus
and when Nathanael offered a skeptical reply, Philip said "come and
see!"
Wherever we are sent by Jesus, whatever
human need we're responding to out of his love, we're always sent to personally
invite people into a relationship with God through him or invite them into a
community - like the church, or a small group - where they can learn about
Jesus' love for them.
__________________
“'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am
sending you.' And with that he breathed
on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'"
Remember that it all starts with a Father's
love, and continues through a Son and a Spirit, who send us.
Next episode...
#1 Witness
