Mission is Messy

It amazes me the beauty that is found in the details.  The throw away comment in a conversation.  The quick passing reference to another subject that turns out to be a profound moment.  When students stop taking notes in a class as a professors shares real life stories - they stop taking notes because "this" won't be on the exam, but the stories shared are far more important and have more value than all else combined.

And so it is with God's Word - the details that catch you off guard and steal your breath.  Realizing again and again and again that a relationship with Jesus could never be considered boring.  In Genesis 47, we read of Joseph’s introduction of his father Jacob to Pharaoh.  As Pharaoh simply asks of Jacob’s age, Jacob’s answer is a beautiful picture of what mission actually is.  He doesn’t simply answer with the number of years, but rather – speaks of his life as a sojourner or a pilgrim.  

Jacob views his entire life as one long mission trip.  His life's purpose is to serve Yahweh at every turn.  There are no wasted moments with God.  Every moment was created for life - and what does it mean to truly wander with God?  Suddenly, all the annoyances of the slow traffic, unplanned circumstances, the "interruptions" that come our way.  What if they aren't interruptions at all?  What if we recognized that mission is not just something we “do” but the way that we choose to live.  In living into the Great Commission, we find ourselves as sojourners in every moment of every day.  

But pilgrimages in the olden days were messy.  Camels and donkeys, long stretches of travel walking on foot with terrible weather, no fresh water, traveling together with other people for safety and security.  The same is true in our lives today - living in community is difficult.  It's easy to talk about it, but when you come right down to it, it's incredibly messy.  Relationships aren't easy, and neither is mission.  

If you are expecting things to be wrapped in a nice clean box with a beautiful bow - then you will have missed most of the stories of Scripture and the stories of our family that have been sojourning for many years before us.  The broken relationships, death, violence, loosing everything you own, being called to leave everything behind, being asked to tell your enemies about the forgiveness and mercy granted by God, actually loosing everything and the resounding echo of a stone as it's rolled in front of a tomb.  The ultimate "defeat" as the One who we had hoped would bring salvation and make all things right was dead.

But so too comes the joy of the resurrection speaking life into relationships as the deaf hear, the lame leap, the dumb speak and the prisoners are loosed from their jails of addiction, poverty and despair.  The cross was real, and the empty tomb is still empty.  It is our joy to be able to embrace the mess, because we know the end of the story. What if we lived like it was true?

It is time for us as the bride of Christ to stop waiting for people to come to us.  To live into a kingdom agenda and to not just focus on what's happening inside our church buildings, but to know the actual joys and sorrows of our neighbors.  Are they hungry?  Suffering from a financial crisis?  Bound up in addiction?  Can they read?  Do they have clean clothes?  What about the broken and torn families?  Or the ones that have no boundaries?  Or the very day challenges that people face.  What does it look like to live life in the mess and speak the good news of Jesus Christ in Word and action?

In the same way that Jacob and so many others lived each moment of each day - how beautiful is the good news that we are called into the story?  That God has given us a role and a job to do in his kingdom, not because He can't do it without us, but rather in living into the mess - God changes us, and we realize again and again and again this beautiful love that has chosen us, called us His own and purchased us with a price.  The joy that we have in embracing each of the interruptions that will happen when we live into this calling, the mess that will become our lives when we truly walk in relationship with people, and amazing stories of adventure that will be told as we wander together with Jesus, daring to let the Spirit actually blow us where He pleases.

Welcome to the mess.  The Kingdom is Now.