Become God's People: Equip Ourselves for God's Mission
One part of equipping ourselves for God’s mission is to determine the level of our own commitment. The ultimate sacrifice for any of us is our own life. A major theme in the lectionary readings for this week is the emphasis on laying down one’s life as a proof of love. It was important for early Christians to believe that Jesus laid down his life as a part of God’s plan rather than having it taken from him as a random incident in the oppression of Jerusalem by the Romans. Such a belief, however, raises serious questions for us about the character of God. What is more likely is that his death was an unplanned part of Pilate’s crowd control. What is more important is Jesus level of commitment to the way God wants the world to be and a willingness to take the ultimate risk of his own life by going to Jerusalem and staging some kind of demonstration. As a faith model his commitment was total even at the risk of his own life. Our own commitment to God’s mission invites a similar commitment. How do we define God’s mission and are we willing to risk death for it? For two-universe Christians there is the mission to bring in the reign of God and to experience an eternal oneness. For one-universe Christians the mission is to bring in the reign of helping and to experience oneness with the efforts of past and present generations for the benefit of future generations. Equipping ourselves for God’s or Earth’s mission begins with the magnitude of our own commitment and no commitment is greater than the risk of our own life.
