BLOG 12.20.12: ADVENT AND OUR PARTICIPATION IN THE MISSON OF GOD

When we get beyond Advent, beyond the “Lessons and Carols” of the Christmas celebration, the inevitable question ought to come to us: Alright, what does all of this have to do with me, and how does it equip me for my own participation in what God is doing in this neighborhood, and in this real world? What does my attendance on church activities, my service inside the church, my assent to the affirmations of a worship service … have to do with what God calls me to be and do and think in God’s mission?

Here goes …

Advent has to do with “the word made flesh,” the incarnation of God in human form. OK? Jesus would later say: “As the Father has sent me, even so do I send you” (John 20:21). Do you begin to make the connection? Then he would make a later enigmatic statement about his building of his church, implying that somehow that was vitally connected with his mission, that somehow it (we) would be the agent of his mission, and that the gates of hell wouldn’t be able to prevail against it.

Hmmm!  What is that all about?

Does that mean that it involves you and me? Are we also, somehow, to be God’s word made flesh to our neighbors and co-workers and friends? How would we be equipped to realize such an incredible calling? What does the church community have to do with that equipping of us? Paul will make the point that it is God’s predestined purpose that those whom God calls will be conformed to the image of his Son, and that the Son is the firstborn of a new humanity (Romans 8:28 [sorta]). He will later put ‘meat on those bones’ by saying that the way we are to be recreated into Christ’s likeness, is into true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24); then recreated in knowledge after the image of our creator (Colossians 3:10).

This points us to the fact that the purpose of our calling by Christ is to be made like God (reflecting the divine nature) in our behavior, in our relationship to and communication with the Trinitarian community, i.e. holiness, and in our thinking.

So what does that say about what is the purpose of the church that Christ is building? What is its function? How is it instrumental in equipping and encouraging me and us in the calling we just looked at? And then, how is it that it seems to have drifted so far into something “religious” and unrelated to the mission of God? If my participation in the church community doesn’t affect my life deeply and realistically for my mission in the “Monday morning world” … then it is essentially irrelevant to my Christian calling!

I’m heartened by the growing evidence that the emerging Millennial (or iY) generation is a generation not simply willing to be passive consumers of church activities, but want to be seriously engaged and imaginative participants in what God is doing in the world, and will be either looking for or inventing church communities that equip and energize them for that thrilling mission. But … that also means that more and more of this emerging generation are likely to by-pass venerable church traditions and forms that don’t have that same focus on Christ’s mission, and our calling to it. Fascinating? Scary? Exciting? … Yes, but inevitable.

Merry Christmas!

I’ll see you again after the first of 2013. Peace!