Mission

When peace like a river attendeth my way.

Mission: (n) a specific task with which a person or a group is charged.

We chatted about Christian mission yesterday morning in an adult study group. About how some churches see themselves as a mission, as in Evangelical Mennonite Mission Church or that Anglican church in Northern Saskatchewan that gives the settlement of Stanley Mission its name. It’s the oldest church structure in Northern Saskatchewan, serves as a reminder to us that some European Christians of earlier centuries saw themselves on a mission; “charged with the specific task” of converting Indigenous people of North America to the Christian faith.

But the New Testament charges us with a variety of “specific tasks,” including “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” (Mark 16:15) Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and prisoners, inviting strangers into our homes are also pretty specific tasks. (See Matthew 25:35-40) 

Then there are the “specific tasks” of acting as salt and light, giving flavour and guidance to our world. (See Matthew 5:13-16) On top of that, there are tasks implied in the beatitudes: be peacemakers, hunger and thirst after righteousness, practice meekness, be merciful, keep a clean heart. Even thoughtful exploration is urged upon Timothy by Paul: “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that doesn’t need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

I could go on. Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn. Be mindful of the judgment, use your talents to prosper the gospel, "judge not lest ye be judged," etc., etc.

Way too much for one person to do, eh?

There are those who maintain that we’re doing too much feeding, visiting, clothing or inviting at the expense of proclaiming . . . and/or the other way ‘round. Perhaps they’re forgetting that need drives remedy, or ought to, at least. Crassly put, there’s no point in giving a starving child a Bible and inviting him to prayer. Maybe sometime, but I’m inclined to think that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs should be standard reading for anyone contemplating Christian mission. Food, shelter, are basic; safety is next and it’s once these are more or less satisfied that the human mind can genuinely turn itself to pursuing needs for education, for self-actualization, to searching and embracing things like spirituality, morality, duty, etc.

Anyone who’s worked with desperate refugees has noted that conversion is occasionally considered if it appears that it might help in the struggle to meet basic needs. The principle suggested an indoctrination technique endemic to the residential school system; children’s lack of acquiescence to priests and nuns was punished with the actual or threatened withholding of food, shelter, safety.

Picking through the “specific tasks” suggested in scriptures with the goal of ranking some over others is folly. It can’t help but lead to divisions. And divisions lead to futility and discouragement and the entire noble project is diminished. Isn’t it in the picking at details, the taking of a highlighter to the texts on which we base our faith, that we split up time and again into error? Into the very state that the gospel was meant to remedy, unfortunately?

What if we were to scratch specific task and determine that ours is a general task: to be decent, generous, tolerant, optimistic, loving human beings? That’s not hard to understand and all might well fall into place if we would resolve to do unto others as we would prefer to be done by. That, also, can be found in scripture to be a mission, a specific task even, if you like.

“But now abideth faith, hope, love—these three. But the greatest of these is love.”

Let’s think about it. I mean really think about it.