Our Mission As Christian

On Saturday I poured my regular morning coffee and set out to check in on social media. I came across an article about an Anglican Church that had welcomed a Muslim community into their space. It was a wonderful story of solidarity, unity, community and love. It was, I thought, an example of what can happen when people move beyond the differences and embrace the common bond we share as brothers and sisters of the Universe.

A wonderful story and then I continued to read … and I began to feel sick!!

Then I continued reading some of the comments posted and began to feel sick!! Such fear and hatred from people who call themselves Christian ranting about how wrong this picture is. Some comments talked about how the Christian way is the only path to the Divine and that people who believe otherwise must be converted. One comment suggested that the Christian God and the Muslim God are different. One person named that to see a Christian Minster and a Muslim kneeling in prayer side by side was a mockery of the Gospel.

Jesus was about breaking down barriers

I found myself wondering:

What Bible do they read? What Jesus do they know?

When I read the stories of Jesus, in whose footsteps I have chosen to walk, I do not find Jesus turning anyone away. In fact, the opposite is true!

Jesus was about breaking down barriers, crossing lines of division, and opening doors of dialogue. When he broke bread with community I do not recall anytime when he said “you must believe everything that I do and treat those who don’t with distain.”

I do remember that he said

“all the law and the prophets can be summed up in this manner. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbour as yourself.”

And St Paul reminds us that in Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female but that we are all one.

Our Mission As Christian

Someone asked what the point of evangelism is if we do not expect that others must believe what we do. I thought about that for a minute (only a minute) and this would be my answer:

As a follower of Jesus my task is not to shove rhetoric and doctrine down someone’s throat. Rather my task is to live into the vision that Jesus had. To do that I must model love, compassion, justice, joy, forgiveness, reconciliation, community and so much more. I am responsible for creating space where every child of the Universe has the opportunity to experience Divine presence and live to their full potential.

Last winter Chris and I wrote a piece of music for the “Choirs for Comfort “ and I think these words reflect what it means to be an evangelist and to live the dream of Jesus

“When we all sing together
and draw on each person’s melody
Our voices will grow stronger,
our message will ring clear
though we are different
we can still show unity.

When we all sing together
And in true solidarity we stand
The light shines through the darkness
Our vision becomes clear
We can work for justice in the land”

This is what Jesus calls us to do. The day that we stand side by side, hand in hand with people regardless of race, religion, colour, creed, sexuality, gender … That is when we will have fulfilled our mission as Christian.

May it be so.

Blessings
Valerie

© 2017 Rev. Valerie Peyton Kingsbury. All rights reserved.