Vol 2:7 Noticing God Already Active in Our Community

Being missional is all about God, participating with what God is up to in the world around us, noticing what God is noticing, seeing the people whom God loves whom God came to set free in Jesus Christ. Last week I mentioned I was at a gathering of FORGE America and though we were using the missional language I noticed that some were missing the point of what it means to be missional. I heard among some who participated the strategies with which they were going to bring into a community in order to engage people missionally in a community – but all they were doing was trading “program” language for “strategy” language.

The point is that we cannot go into an area with predetermined plans – be they programs or strategies; we must first enter into a particular place – be it a neighborhood, be it a urban community, be it suburbia – and begin listening for God, begin looking for God – where God is already active and engaging the people whom God came to in Jesus Christ. It means taking the time to be like Jesus, to be incarnational as Jesus was – and by that I mean, “pitching our tent,” being present among a people in order to discover where the Spirit is already moving. Once we hear the voice of God being expressed in cries of the marginalized, the poor, once we see God moving through unlikely groups of people and organizations, perhaps even a church or two, then we are ready to begin asking, “Lord, how do you want us to participate with you in what you are already doing?” It is only after we have engaged in such a process of discerning discovery that we can begin to develop strategies and/or initiatives.

For a while now, the community I serve has been discovering the voice of God in our community in which we find ourselves. We have heard God speaking through community organizers, through county agencies, through the gifts and passions the Spirit of God has poured out into our lives – and for our discipleship community of Christ we are hearing that engaging in food justice is one of the ways we live out the present and coming reign of God in our midst.

The congregation I serve is hearing God’s voice through various organizations expressing the need for strengthening the wellness of persons and families in our communities – churches, community organizations, people able to survive because food is available through food pantries. In this past week, I have been involved in five different gatherings or conversations where providing healthy food to those in need was the primary agenda – a group of pastors and churches sharing the need for accessible and affordable produce and other healthy alternatives in their own communities, a county commissioner convening a dialogue on how to develop urban community gardens, a forest preserve district interested in purchasing urban lots for allotment and community gardens, a conservancy willing to partner with us as a congregation as we seek to develop a church supported agriculture initiative, a local partnership of non-profits seeking to enhance the lives of those struggling to have a better life. This confluence of interest and voices is not mere coincidence – it is seeing and hearing God being active in our midst.

Indeed, God’s voice comes in many different ways, through many different people, through sacred and secular organizations – we need to be open to hear God speak through whomever and however God chooses to speak. Are we listening? Are we watching?

Vol 1:42 Rhythms of Patience - Waiting for Healing and Restoration

Continuing Advent reflections (3 of 4) - As the people of God in the world, we are called to demonstrate a different way of being human as we participate with God in God's mission of redeeming humanity and creation. Throughout Advent, I will be exploring what it means for us to demonstrate a different rhythm of being the people of God in relation to rhythms of our culture.

John the Baptist knew what his mission was, even when he was imprisoned (cf. Matthew 11: 2ff), but he was getting impatient, unsure if indeed Jesus was the coming one, the Messiah – he was not seeing the fruit of God’s mission of healing and restoration to Israel. As God’s people, being involved in God’s mission – at least we hope we are, we wonder like John as well – is all that we are doing making a difference? Is God’s mission of redemption and healing and restoration transforming the world in which we live? We get impatient as well – where is all the healing and restoration?

We tend to look at the grand sweep of things and in our trying to be God’s missional people, we miss seeing life being transformed all around us. But what does Jesus say to John’s disciples, what is the Spirit saying to us? Jesus’ response is one of asking whether they have eyes and ears that see and hear what God is up to in the world. Jesus in essence is asking, “are you noticing the mustard seed-sized things going on? Though, in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus does not present the parable of the mustard seed until chapter 13, we are privy to this parable in which Jesus links God’s reign with the mustard seed – remember the reign of God is like a mustard seed, small, unnoticeable, unless you know where it has been planted – but it is growing, always growing – until it is revealed to be a plant that birds nest in and others notice.

In reflecting on Jesus’ response to John’s disciples, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor” I cannot help but wonder whether we take the time to tell stories of the presence of God’s reign active all around us, stories of God’s life-giving rhythms being manifested in contrast to the life-sapping rhythms of our culture? We get so busy, so into our own agendas, so caught up in the commerce of the season, of life, that life and ministry becomes another doing, rather than noticing that God is active in mustard seed-sized happenings all around us. If we take the time to hear and see – we will begin to notice some pretty amazing things – in fact we will begin to see that God’s mission is being carried out everywhere.

I don’t know about you, but patiently, daily, attuning my eyes and ears to notice what God is up to, to seeing God working in the small things gives me hope, changes my sighs of impatient waiting and wondering into encouragement so that I do not tire in doing good, gives me resolve to continually submit myself to participate in what God is doing in making all things whole – because God is in fact doing this.

What are you seeing and hearing?