In Matthew’s
account of Jesus’ passion, Judas turns in the beloved
Savior to the highest bidder. It was short-sighted selfishness
in the face of God’s eternal grace.
When our family returned to the States in the summer of 2007
after nine and a half years of mission service in Peru, many
relatives and friends commented on how much our children had
grown over the years. As we drove around the country that summer,
one of our children noted, “We may have grown some, but
this country has grown more!” He was right. As we traveled
across the miles, we felt like we saw nothing but oversized
SUVs, palatial shopping malls, super-sized meals—and super-sized
Americans as well!
Our kids saw the contradictions in the media clearly: the program
content on the food and home shopping channels was offset by
ads for weight-loss and fitness products. The dissonance was
almost deafening to a family that had worked so recently with
Peruvians who struggled to survive on less than $2 a day.
The same temptation faces all of us today. As the PC(USA)
struggles against continued cutbacks in mission giving to vital
ministries in more than eighty countries around the world, our
shortsighted selfishness tempts us to buy into the consumer
mindset that ignores the plight of our neighbor by focusing
our attention on ourselves. The good news is that Jesus freed
us to love our neighbor as ourselves through the mission of
the church. Join us in mission!
—Rev. B. Hunter Farrell, director, World Mission, General
Assembly Council |
