PC(USA) - Witness Season - Bible Reflection


Mission Is Abiding in Jesus, the Witness Season reflection for July, August, and September, was written by Douglas King.


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Mission Is Abiding in Jesus Our society has taught us to do things. We’ve learned that problems can be overcome only by action. It would be natural to carry this inclination over into our spiritual life. It’s time to rethink that tendency to view mission as activism. That rethinking will be the focus of our attention in this study. MISSION AS JUST HANGIN’ AROUND??

Take turns reading John 15:1–7 aloud. Branches on a vine are not particularly active, yet Jesus uses that image to picture for his disciples their future role as he meets with them for the Passover meal just before his arrest. The author of John’s Gospel gives extra weight to this image by including it in Jesus’ farewell discourse to his followers. Let’s consider this image of the vine and the branches as another way of looking at our mission.		“Abide in me as I abide in you.” John 15:4)

Think about this passage before reading on. As you read it again, you might consider these questions: What does this image say about the relationship between Jesus and God? Between the believer and Jesus? How do you understand the idea of “abiding”? Specifically, what does it mean to abide in Jesus? What kind of fruit is Jesus talking about here? What is Jesus suggesting when he now calls his disciples “friends” rather than servants (ch. 15:14–15)? How does this image compare with your own relationship with Christ? Do you feel like a branch on a vine? Or does that image simply not fit with your own spiritual life? What images would you use to picture your relation with Christ? Finally, pay attention to the “missionary” note here: Jesus says “I appointed you to go and bear fruit . . . (v. 16, emphasis added). Commissioning and sending—the classic elements in mission—are right here. But why is Jesus sending these people and for what purposes? What kind of “mission statement” is he giving them?

ABIDING IS BEING CONNECTED I will highlight just a few points that strike me from this passage. I hope you’ll find others as well.		“Abiding in Jesus is the starting point of any mission.”

At the heart of this passage is a powerful image: a steady, quiet, long-term “abiding” in Jesus. This abiding is the starting point of any mission. Abiding is not a matter of going somewhere, reaching some target or goal, such as people “over there” in some foreign land. When we abide someplace, we stay there for some length of time. Dropping in or traveling through a place is not abiding. When we abide someplace, it just means being there—not doing anything in particular, not earning the right to stay or paying for the privilege, just being there. But abiding in a person, in Jesus? What sense does that make? Perhaps we can think of it in comparison to the person we’re closest to in our own lives: a parent, a child, a spouse, or a very dear friend. How do we abide in that person? Most simply, it’s a matter of being with someone, staying with them. First, we care about them so deeply that their joy is our joy; we feel their pain in our hearts and in our bodies. Second, we trust them. We can be open with that person, sharing our deepest thoughts and feelings in a way we can with no one else. They know us as we are and still embrace us, so our fears and weaknesses and nastiness can all be brought into the light when they are present. Third, we will be loyal to them. We will try never to betray the secrets they share with us; we will try never to do anything that hurts them; when we have made promises to them, we’ll do our best to keep them. Finally, and most important, such a close connection means that we will be shaped by those in whom we abide. If I am that close to another person, for better or worse, that person will “rub off on me,” influencing the way I think, my feelings, my ways of talking and acting. So we see “abiding in Jesus,” being connected with him, as a starting point for mission. As followers of Jesus we seek to become so close to him that his character, his way of being, shapes our own lives. Jesus’ concerns become ours. We seek to be loyal to him, to follow where he would lead us. And where does he lead us? The simple but very hard answer is that he leads us to death.


DYING TO GIVE LIFE Jesus’ understanding of death as the doorway into new life is hard for us to understand—let alone to live out! But here it is, right at the center of his final conversation with his closest friends. He reminds them that people who truly love are willing to give up their lives for their friends. He knows he will soon be doing just that, so this is no idle preaching! Jesus is talking about the death that faces him and is inviting his friends to follow his own example.

“For Jesus, life was a matter of daily dying.”	Giving up our lives. What has that to do with mission? Everything! Jesus’ own mission, his journey toward his death, is one in which he gives up control over his own life. We see this at many points: In the wilderness he was tempted to carry out his mission in his own way, by seizing power (Luke 4:1–13). He lashed out at Peter for suggesting that Jesus might claim his place as Messiah/King without dying (Mark 8:27–33). In Gethsemane he wrestled in prayer with the temptation to save himself from death (Mark 14:32–42). For Jesus, life was a matter of “daily dying,” of allowing God to direct his life instead of controlling things himself. And he showed his love precisely by giving up control, by being willing to let someone else’s needs come before his own. So now he prepares his friends to carry on his ministry by inviting them to share in his own dying, his own giving up of control, so they too may bring new life to others.

FRUITFUL FRIENDS Woven through Jesus’ talk about vines and dying is talk about bearing fruit. Jesus’ disciples must have asked him, as we might today, “What should we do?” He answered simply, “Bear good fruit!” (See John 15:16.)

Let’s think about a vine that bears fruit. Just how much does that vine have to do in order to bear its fruit? Not much at all. The vine simply absorbs sunlight through its leaves, along with water and nutrients through its roots, and the fruit just happens! Nobody is likely to scold a vine for being lazy. I’ve seldom seen a vine or a tree that died from overwork. The fruit comes along because the vine simply IS, without trying hard to do anything at all.		“Nobody is likely to scold a vine for being lazy.”

Here is a very different picture of mission from the picture of “doing things” that we generally see. If mission is the fruit we bear when we follow Jesus, then it seems we don’t really have to do much at all. We simply need to allow our connectedness with Jesus, and with the Christian community, to bear its fruit in our daily living. Sounds easy, perhaps, but it’s not! It doesn’t come naturally; it goes against our grain. We want to be doing things, not just abiding. We want to be in charge, to set our own goals, to do our own good deeds. But Jesus’ words about dying remind us to let go of control and to let him transform our lives in ways that will produce good fruit. Finally, what is that good fruit? This passage offers no answer, except that it is “fruit that will last” (John 15:16). We can assume that Jesus wasn’t talking about freeze-drying the fruit, so we’ll need to look further. To learn more about this “good fruit” we must look at Jesus’ life as a whole to see what he offered the people to whom he was sent and how he carried out his mission.


JESUS: THE MODEL FOR MISSION If we are followers of Jesus, we are people with a mission. Our mission is, first of all, to be loyal to Jesus, to mold our lives after his life, to follow his pattern . . . to abide in him.1 Here I’ll simply suggest some ways of understanding Jesus and his way of life as a way of looking at our own calling to be in the world—to be in mission. A FRIEND AND PARTNER: Jesus had a remarkable way of dealing with people as companions. His disciples viewed him with awe and respect, yet he consistently treated them as his friends, coworkers, partners. Very soon after he responded to God’s call into his ministry, he sought out some people to share that ministry with him. Repeatedly he empowered them and sent them out to do just what he was doing: preaching and teaching and healing. That understanding carried over into the early Christian community. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews went so far as to claim that “we have become partners of Christ” (Heb. 3:14). It’s hard to imagine how offensive such an assertion of human partnership with God must have been to the good Jews of that time. Yet here were these Christians, claiming that they were partners with the one they called the Son of God! Such a bold claim could hardly have arisen from within the Christian community unless Jesus himself had given some basis for it in the way he dealt with his followers. So Jesus carried out his mission with others as companions and partners; it was never simply a matter of what he was doing for others.

“Jesus carried out his mission with others as companions and partners.”	SERVANT: Jesus called on his followers to act as servants to others. But, amazingly, he acted as a servant himself, kneeling before the disciples to wash their dusty feet before the Last Supper. Consistently Jesus reached out to those in need. He responded with words and actions to their particular burdens and sufferings. Jesus surely had a lot on his mind, but he never was preoccupied with his own concerns. He was always ready to take time for others, sensitive to even an unspoken feeling.

TEACHER: Jesus knelt to serve others, but he was also a firm and respected teacher. He spoke to his people “with authority” (Luke 4.32). He spoke clearly about God’s will and way, arguing with the educated religious leaders of his people, pressing his case for a God of grace against the traditional belief that God’s favor had to be earned through fulfilling the demands of the Law. But like any good teacher, Jesus didn’t just lecture—he listened. He asked questions and told stories. He taught through conversations. (Those lengthy passages that sound more like lectures, such as the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 5–7, may well have been organized in this form by the Gospel writers, even though Jesus may originally have said those things in much more conversational form.)		“Jesus spoke clearly about God’s will and way . . . pressing his case for a God of grace.”

COMPASSIONATE STRANGER: Clearly there were things that set Jesus apart from ordinary people: his passionate commitment to his God, his resistance to legalism and to the established authorities of religion and government. Yet this difference never set him apart from the common people. He responded to them with concern and compassion, listening to their concerns, arguing with them or encouraging them—but always taking them seriously. HEALER OF THE BROKEN: The clearest expression of Jesus’ compassion was in his acts of healing. By mending the broken lives around him, he showed both the power of God and God’s intention that human life be whole and good. He didn’t just talk about God’s goodness and love; he acted them out, and invited his friends to follow his example. DESTROYER OF WALLS: Jesus constantly crossed the boundaries and broke down the walls that divided people. He went out of his way to violate the most important barriers between the groups of his time and place: the lines between male and female, between Jew and Gentile, between “good” people and “bad” people, between young and old, between rich and poor. Early in his ministry, Jesus apparently made a conscious choice to associate with “outsiders”—the people who were poor, who couldn’t afford the costs of obeying the religious laws of their time, who were viewed as sinners and outcasts by the good, pious, law-abiding people of their nation. His readiness to violate the religious boundaries of his time got Jesus in trouble, but for him it was the central element of his ministry.2 THE ONE WHO CONNECTED: Jesus was most impressive, perhaps, not for his miracles, nor for his teachings, but for his amazing ability to “connect.” He related to all sorts and conditions of people, even the outcasts and sinners. His commitment to his own message and destiny never shut him off from the people in all their individual concerns and needs. He listened, he heard, he questioned, he answered, he acted in response to the unique person who stood before him.

“Jesus constantly crossed the boundaries and broke down the walls that divided people.”	How well do we do that? How hard it is for us to pay attention, really pay attention, to the people right in front of us. We are so absorbed in our own affairs, our own feelings, our own desires and anxieties, that we can’t really see or hear what’s going on with the other person. (How often we hear “Pay attention!” from our spouses, or children, or parent, reminds us of how we do that!) Having spent some time looking at Jesus as a model for mission, let’s turn finally to some more practical questions: How might we model our lives, and our mission, after Jesus’ mission?

THE HAZARDS OF MISSION I’ve tried to point to two dangers in mission. The first is that mission is dangerous because it inevitably seeks control over another person or group in order to make them believe or act more like us. That mission-as-control has destroyed cultures and whole peoples in the past, and the danger remains.		“Mission is hazardous to us, to our own safety and security, when we follow Jesus’ model for mission.”

The second danger in mission is radically different. We see this danger in Jesus’ own life. It’s the danger that if we truly join in Jesus’ mission of living in and for the world, we too will be regarded as enemies by our “good” and respectable neighbors. We too will be called upon to give up our lives. We may not be called upon literally to die, but at the very least, we will undergo the “daily dying” of living without seeking to control the world around us. This is what Jesus meant by giving up our lives in order that we might truly live (see, for example, Mark 8:35). So mission is hazardous to us, to our own safety and security, when we follow Jesus’ model for mission. And when we engage in mission as activism, as control, then it’s a hazard to others. Think again about people and groups that you have seen engaging in mission. What kind of hazards do you see in their efforts? What about mission efforts of your own, or of your church?



THE MOTIVE FOR MISSION I’ve asked you to follow me on a fairly long road to think about the reasons for our being involved in mission. Where has that road brought us?

Our mission must always be in response to the needs around us.	First, I hope I’ve shown that the central reason for Christians to be involved in mission—in crossing boundaries to show the reign of God in the world—is because that’s exactly what Jesus was doing. Not only that, it is what he invited his followers to do in his name. If we seek to follow this compassionate stranger named Jesus, that’s the path we must trace.

As Jesus’ mission was always expressed in his caring for people, so our mission must always be a response to the need around us. In our world, in our nation, in our own community there are countless people whose lives are filled with pain and frustration. They may be excluded from finding real happiness because of the particular group they belong to or because of their poverty or their disability or some other factor, often beyond their own control. If we are connected with Jesus, abiding in him like the branches on the vine, we can’t avoid being touched by the pain of those people. Of course we may try to ignore it or explain it away, but if Jesus’ compassion touches our hearts and opens them to the pain of the world around us, we can’t help but be moved to mission by that pain. But what forms might that mission take?


REACHING OUT WITH OPEN HANDS One clear way to see this mission is to think of hospitality—receiving a guest, a stranger, with “open hands.” One of the most ancient forms of Christian mission wasn’t really “outreach” as we think of it. It was a matter of receiving guests, wandering travelers, refugees from war or starvation, in the monasteries of the early Christians, and later among the Celtic Christians of Ireland and Scotland.3 This was not hospitality with strings attached, such that guests had to attend worship or otherwise show some acceptance of Christian faith. It was simply “receiving the stranger.” And that open-handedness spoke for itself of the open arms of God. I invite you to consider this image of open hands, an image of hospitality, as another way of thinking about our mission in the world. You might begin by listing the ways you and your church already do show hospitality and ways you have been affected when others have welcomed you with open hands.

1 In this section I will be drawing on two studies on mission: Bruce E. Gannaway, Mission: Commitment to God’s Hopeful Vision. Louisville: Global Mission Ministry Unit, PC(USA), 1992; and Turn to the Living God: A Call to Evangelism in Jesus Christ’s Way. Louisville: Office of the General Assembly, PC(USA), 1991. 2 This view is developed by Albert Nolan in Jesus Before Christianity. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1978. 3 See The Celtic Way, by Ian Bradley. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1993, pp. 74-76. Our Ministry: Mission—The Christian Life, Adult Foundational Curriculum (Louisville: Presbyterian Publishing House, 1995). Used by permission.



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