BLOG 6/24/17. WHEN EVERY NATION COMES TO US!
Since the beginning of the modern missionary era in the, what? 18th century? missionary-minded churches have had a vision of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the nations (ethne, or people-groups) of the world. Missionaries of all kinds, Protestant and Roman Catholic went with the colonial empires engaging in translating the Bible into many languages, doing humanitarian works, engaging in medical ministries, and producing remarkable stories of physical endurance, and also the hostility of the cultures being entered.
The church seemed to have no qualms about evaluating the existing cultures and religions inferior and erroneous to that of the West and of Christianity. There is so much to be applauded for many strides made (along with embarrassing contradictions). It was the first time many languages had been reduced to writing. Schools for youth produced a new generation of educated leadership. Hospitals were a new phenomenon where formerly illness and death were endured, often without any hope.
Many of us grew up singing: “We’ve a story to tell to the nations, that shall turn their hearts to the right, …” and attending missionary conferences where a calling to missionary service was considered to be one of the most significant ways to serve God.
But in recent generations a remarkable change has occurred as the world has become smaller and smaller. Maybe World War II is the first bellwether of this shift. Businesses began to open more and more branches in potential markets in many nations. Travel became more efficient. Colleges and universities encouraged a year of study abroad, and recruited nationals from across the globe. The world also became more dangerous. Tyrannical nations and religious extremists drove many out of their homes and they sought refuge in the West.
Today there are more than sixty-three million refugees in the world from those very nations to whom we sent missionaries in the past. Truth be told, many of those refugees are actually Christians, who have been driven out of their homes by unfriendly regimes. Jesus’ Great Commission was to: “Go and make disciples of every nation/ethne, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” His word was: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). … But look what has happened: the whole scene has shifted. Now the whole world has come to us. New Yorker Magazine has the lengthy account of a Pakistani community of tens of thousands on Coney Island, replete with mosques and imams. In nearly every city and small town there are colonies of Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Confucionists, and a myriad of other religious groups, along with those with no discernable religious affiliation.
And yet there are those in influential places, in politics and public, voicing the opposition to and disdain for these very immigrants whom world chaos has brought to us. Christ’s commands us to love everybody,” to engage in good works and humanitarian ministries to the strangers within our gates (even enemies!) includes our ministries of support and hospitality and legal aid for these victims of our world’s turmoil. Christ’s Great Commission has entered a new chapter: the nations have now come to us, and it is to these very persons that anyone who claims to be Christ’s follower, must now consider himself/herself to be Christ’s messenger of his love and good news to these in with our hospitality, and good works. But … that means engaging them, learning their stories, understanding their religions, … and demonstrating to them the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and praying for them, and becoming the fulfillment of Christ’s Great Commission to them. … and for those who refuse this ministry, there are sobering words in Matthew 25:41-46. We’ve still a story to tell to the nations.
