"Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father who created all the lights in the heavens." (James 1.17)

One
of my favorite images for us is a cup or a clay jar. I am an empty
vessel, and I depend on God to fill me. If my cup runs over, it’s only
because God has filled my life to overflowing! The same is true for
you. And the life God pours into our lives, we must not keep in our
own little container, but we must freely share it with others. Jesus said, "If you want
to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life
for me and for the good news, you will save it" (Mark 8.35). Also, "It
is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 25.30b).

“When
religions assume that their adherents are chosen only to be blessed,
and forget that they are blessed to be a blessing … they become part of
the problem instead of part of the solution.” (Brian McLaren)

Last
week we began a series to help us understand and embrace our role as
missionaries to the Juniata Valley and beyond! As missionaries, we have
a responsibility to serve God and the world. Jesus said, "Much is
required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required
from those to whom much more is given" (Luke 12.48b). And remember
Jesus words following the resurrection: "As the Father has sent me, I
am sending you" (John 20.21).

You and I have been sent into the
world with the same mission that Jesus had — to love the world and
announce that God’s kingdom is here! And Jesus was clearly on a
mission. He came "not to be served but to serve others, and to give
(his) life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10.45).

God is a
missionary God, and we are a missionary people! We are people who are
sent as Christ’s missionaries, or ambassadors, to the world. “Missions”
is not a program of the church, or something we do on the side; it’s
who we are!

With blessing comes responsibility!
Abraham certainly discovered that (Genesis 12.1-3).
God called Abraham while he was in the city of Ur, to leave his home
and to go to the place where God leads him. Abraham’s call begins with
a command: “Go out!” or “Leave your country!” If we’re going to follow
God, it’s going to require total surrender — dying to ourselves, our own agendas, and
surrendering completely to God’s leadership. Like Paul, our lives are
"a drink offering being poured out on the altar" (2 Timothy 4.6b).

Where
did God tell Abraham to go? “To the land that I will show you.” God
doesn’t tell Abram where he’s going to send him. Following God begins
with a step of faith. God requires faith (see Hebrew 11.8-10).

It
reminds me of the movie, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," where
Indiana Jones is involved in a search for the Holy Grail, the cup from
which Christ drank at the Last Supper. As the film reaches its climax,
Indiana must go through three tests in order to reach the Grail. In the
final test Indiana Jones comes a huge chasm with no visible way to get
to the other side. He recalls the instructions from his father’s diary,
and finally steps into the void, and to his amazement, his foot comes
down on solid ground. A bridge appeared, but he had to take the step of
faith first.

What’s keeping us from being missionaries to our
community? Perhaps we don’t grasp the magnitude of God’s love for the
world around us. Or maybe is spiritual apathy, lack of compassion, or
even a tendency to be selfish.

At the recent Men’s Rally,
speaking of drinking from the deep well (i.e. Christ), Bishop Middleton
said, “The deep well is not just for your own benefit. You’re not
called together just for your own enlightenment, but to work together —
the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. Jesus is laying on you
this night to give your heart to Christ, for the sake of yourself and
the world that is hurting.”

This selfishness can even manifest
itself in our ministry. Instead of helping others beyond the Valley, we
can say we’re going to keep all of our efforts and money here in the
Valley. Yes, this Valley is our primary responsibility, but we also
have a responsibility, particularly as United Methodists who
participate in a larger connection, to bless our world.

Jesus
said, "But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive
power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout
Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1.8). Similarly, I believe
Jesus is sending us to the Juniata Valley, to Huntingdon County, to
Pennsylvania, to the US, and to the ends of the earth!

If we’re going to be missionaries, we must take a step of faith, and live out our faith in Christ, so let’s talk about action.

Action! Being a Blessing
“Our actions are a presentation of our name, our integrity or identity.
… We are not saved by our actions, but we are known by them.” (Michael
Frost and Alan Hirsch)

Matthew 5.16; 1 Peter 2.12; 1 Peter 4.11

God has called us to be the church for a purpose. He has sent us on a mission.

“The
church is where the Spirit of God is forming a people who are the
expression of God’s redeeming work in the world. They are the people in
whom the dwelling of God is forming a new creation. They are God’s
witnesses in the world.” (Robert Webber)

The Summons (song by John Bell)

• Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go
  where you don’t know and never be the same? Will you let my love be
  shown, will you let my name be known, will you let my life be grown in
  you and you in me?
• Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name? Will you
  care for cruel and kind and never be the same? Will you risk the
  hostile stare should your life attract or scare? Will you let me answer
  prayer in you and you in me?
• Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name? Will you
  set the prisoners free and never be the same? Will you kiss the leper
  clean, and do such as this unseen, and admit to what I mean to you and
  you in me?
• Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name? Will
  you quell the fear inside and never be the same? Will you use the faith
  you’ve found to reshape the world around, through my sight and touch
  and sound in you and you in me?
• Lord, your summons echoes true when you but call my name. Let me
  turn and follow you and never be the same. In your company I’ll go
  where your love and footsteps show. Thus I’ll move and live and grow in
  you and you in me.

A prayer of missionaries ….
Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood
our souls with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole
being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of yours. Shine
through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may
feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us,
but only Jesus. Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you
shine, so to shine as to be light to others. The light, O Jesus, will
be all from you. None of it will be ours. It will be you shining on
others through us. Let us thus praise you in the way you love best by
shining on those around us. Let us preach you without preaching, not by
words, but by our example; by the catching force - the sympathetic
influence of what we do, the evident fullness of the love our hearts
bear to you. Amen. (Mother Teresa)

John 20.19-23

We began the year with a series on discipleship entitled “Follow me.” The series was based on Jesus’ calling to the first disciples. But the calling did not stop with “Come, follow me.” Jesus continued with the ultimate purpose of the call: “and I will make you fishers of men & women.” (Matthew 4.19)

My question when I look at Jesus’ words of sending in John 20 is how is he is sending us? As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. How did the Father send Jesus; how is he sending us? At first two words came to my mind in summing up Jesus life: love and sacrifice. But then I thought it would not be complete without adding a third: life. I realized all three of these words appear in a key verse, the verse that probably most of us have memorized, especially we who grew up in the church. John 3.16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

1.    Love
God loved the world
loved sinners
didn’t love sin, but loved sinners
loved you and I
continues to love those who do not love him
loves his creation
loves his fallen creation
loves those who are unlovable

Jesus loved sinners so much that
he ate with them
he drank with them
he went to their homes
he let them wash his feet
he called them
he talked with them
he spent time with them
he defended them
he saved them from stonings
he forgave them

God now sends us into the world to love. We are to love as he loves.

We are to love the world. That may sound a little foreign to some of our ears. I think somewhere along the line we, as Christians, have gotten this wrong. I did a word search in the Bible for the two words "hate" and "world." No where are we told to hate the world. We are told that the world will hate us. But we are to love the world as God loved the world. We are to love the sinner - we don’t love sin, but love the sinner.

We know John 3.16, but do we know John 3.17?
John 3.17
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Christians sometimes are quick to condemn. We cannot condemn someone’s lifestyle and then expect them to listen to a message of love. The church has been too quick to condemn, be it out of pride or arrogance, and the world will not listen to us anymore. I read an article in the local paper shortly after I moved here of a young woman who was a homosexual and she voiced disdain for the church. She felt hated by the church. The church had condemned her, instead of reaching out to her in love.

Above I stated that Jesus defended sinners, saved them from stonings, and he forgave them. I had a specific story in mind. When Jesus came across the adulterous woman who was about to be stoned by  the religious. He defended her. He saved her from being stoned. He said that the one who was without sin should cast the first stone. And when all had walked away, he offered her the gift of forgiveness.

2.    Gave – Sacrifice
Philippians 2.5-8

God the Father gave his only begotten Son.
God the Son gave up the heavenlies to become human, to become a servant. He humbled himself and became obedient to death.

We are called to a life of self-sacrifice. We are sent into the world to give and give and give.
To give of our time to love others.
To give of our energy to serve others.
To give of our love to the most undeserving.

3.    Life
To offer the gift of life to the world; the gift of forgiveness.

John 20.23
If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.

Romans 10.14-15
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

We are sent to tell others of the new life, the everlasting life, that is made available through Christ Jesus. We are sent to offer the forgiveness that comes in Christ Jesus.

Spirit
John 20.22
And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Breathe is the same word used in the Greek Old Testament to describe God’s action when he formed the man from the dust of the ground and "breathed into his face the breath of life" and the man became a living being. Gen 2:7

It is the same used in Ezekiel 37:
‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD !  5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.  6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD .’

This is not Pentecost (Acts 2), because at this point the disciples are not fulfilling their call. They are still behind locked doors. They are not yet out being witnesses of the Christ.

There is progressive giving of the Spirit. It is a process.

Just as Jesus was completely dependent upon the Father, we are completely dependent upon God. We need breathed on; we need the Holy Spirit in our lives in order to love as God has called us to love and in order to give as God has called us give. We cannot love without the love of God in us. We have nothing to give without the Spirit of God with us. God loves us and we give his love away.

Jesus was sent by the Father; we are sent by Jesus. Jesus is the presence of God; if the Spirit of God lives in us, we take the presence of God with us wherever we go. We are called to be the presence of God to the world.

Summary
Sent in love to love.
Sent to Give.
Sent to give Life that comes through the forgiveness offered in Christ.
Sent to be the presence of God in the world as the Spirit lives in us.