My
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ
We
began the main points of our Diocesan Vision by looking at the
ministry of all believers (1).
This
led us inward to
spiritual formation (2)
through visionary servant
leadership(3) in vibrant
Christian community (4). But
this, in turn, takes us a full circle back into the world with the
last of the main points of our vision: focussed
outreach.
William
Temple once remarked that the church is the only institution that
exists for the sake of its non-members. But this does not mean, as
so many seem to believe, that we are servants of the world (or
state). In the scriptures we are never described as servants of the
world, but rather as servants and slaves of God – a people
whose lives are yielded to the One who is their Lord and Master. And
the diakonos,
the
servant, primarily serves the community
of faith.
If
that is true, what then do we make of William Temple’s
assertion? St Mark begins his gospel with the words, “The
beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ,” and records
Jesus’
ministry as beginning with the words: “The time is fulfilled
and the Kingdom of God has come near.” Luke begins his Acts
of the Apostles with the words, “In my first book, O
Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,
until the day when he was taken up.” The implication is that
Acts is about what Jesus continued to do. The work of the Church
is, therefore, the continuation of Jesus’ ministry
– that
of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ; the news of the coming
of God’s kingdom.
The
church is, thus, not an end in itself, but only a means to a greater
end. We are called to build kingdom, not church. The church is not
the Kingdom of God, but rather a sign of the kingdom. We are called
to proclaim good news; a people to whom has been given the ministry
(diakonia)
of
reconciliation (2 Cor. 5: 18-20); a people who,
because we are reconciled to God and one another, make the life of
the kingdom visible in our own lives.
This
ministry of reconciliation is, in the first instance, prophetic
proclamation. Gospel is rooted in the unshakeable conviction that,
in Christ, God is restoring and reconciling the world and making all
things new. God’s sovereign rule is displacing our sin-sick
socio-political systems and generating a new order that reveals
God’s
purposes for creation. That is good news, and when proclaimed with
boldness, evokes a hope and hunger for a different way of living. The
“great omission in the great commission,” says
Dallas
Willard, is that we are no longer going out and “making
disciples” who live that new life in
Christ.
Prophetic
proclamation must be matched by prophetic action. The prophetic
word must be lived. We are the Body of Christ in the world –
God’s incarnation continues in us. We are the human face of
God in the world; God with skin on. “Preach the word of God
wherever you go, use words if necessary,” said St Francis.
Our actions speak louder than our words, and where we fail in action
our words are found wanting. As St Teresa of Avilla said:
“Christ
has no body now but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes
through which Christ’s compassion must look on the world.
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours
are the hands with which his is to bless us now. “
The
incarnation changes forever the way we respond to God and the world.
Because of the incarnation, God is in us, the Body of Christ. But
because of the incarnation, God is incarnate in all of humankind.
“Whatever you do for the least of these my children, you do
for
me.” Christ’s commandment to love begins with God,
but
equally includes our neighbour. And as the parable of the Good
Samaritan reminds us; our neighbour is defined not by limits, but by
our willingness to serve. There are no boundaries to love, but
rather, as Jesus said, it is by our love that we will be known.
The
final main point of our Diocesan Vision,
focussed
outreach,
makes specific reference to social action (especially HIV and AIDS),
social justice issues, Christian unity, evangelism and new church
planting - a diverse and, at first sight, an apparently random set of
concerns. But each relates either to the task of prophetic
proclamation or prophetic action. As Bishop Furse said in an
address to the Synod of the Diocese of Pretoria in 1913:-
"The
Christian Church has failed in the past and is failing today just in
proportion as the members of it have allowed themselves to become
content with or to acquiesce in things as they are … we have
not been possessed as we ought to have been with that divine spirit
of discontent with our own sins and sin generally in the world, which
is the root cause of all the injustice and lack of brotherhood that
besmirch what we are pleased to call our modern
civilization."
We
are the Body of Christ called to continue the ministry of Jesus. In
obedience to that call we must reach out into the world, proclaim
God’s truth, and make disciples of all people. In obedience
to that call we must reach out into the world with the compassion and
love of Christ, bind up the broken and wounded, and draw them ever
deeper into relationship with God, with us, with each other, and with
all creation. We are messengers of the kingdom called to bring heaven
to earth.
May
prophetic proclamation and action be visible in all our lives.
+Brian
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