9.30am Sunday 29 June 2008
Readings: Micah 6:6-8; Mark 2:13-17; 1 Timothy 1:12-17 TNIV
The film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness starring Ingrid Bergman that came out in the mid sixties, portrays the life of Gladys Aylward, a woman who believed God wanted her to go to China. She applied to the China Inland Mission to be accepted as a candidate. This was the response. (Show first part of scene 2 of DVD where Gladys is rejected by the China Inland Mission)
Gladys was not put off by her rejection from the mission, but went straight to the travel agency and booked her passage to China via the Trans Siberian Railway and took all her meagre earnings every payday to the travel agency until the fare was paid. Her only qualification was experience as a parlour made in England. Yet she did not let that put her off. She knew God wanted her to go. Once she arrived in China, she and the older missionary set up an inn for tired, hungry mule drivers crossing desolate mountain trails where after feeding them they would tell them Bible stories. When the older woman died Gladys was given the job of foot inspector, for the Chinese government wanted to stop the binding of children's feet, and the local Mandarin could not find anyone else to do the job. It turned out to be a wonderful opportunity as she was able to travel to all the nearby villages with the protection of the Mandrin's soldiers and share the Good News.
I share this as God's call depends much more on our availability than on our abilities, and when we look through the Scriptures and through Christian history we see that he chooses the most unlikely people to be part of his team. When I look at the twelve men Jesus chose to be with him and into whose lives he poured his own and I marvel at what an unlikely group they were - humble fishermen, political extremists, idealistic dreamers, government agents, and yet they played a vital part in the purposes of God. This is so encouraging as it gives us confidence that he can even use people like you and I.
The passage we read from Mark is an example of this, the call of Levi, or Matthew, as he is otherwise known. Considered the scum of society, his work as a tax collector for the Roman overlords meant that his fellow-countrymen despised him as a traitor. And yet Jesus chose him to be one of that small group to whom he would one day entrust his work. As we consider the call of Levi Jesus shows us what Christian mission is all about. What it looks like. In these few verses Jesus provides us with a model for mission today.
There are two important truths in the opening words of the reading from Mark - "Once again Jesus went out..." Note first that Jesus "went out." He went to where the people were. He did not wait for them to come to him. He 'went' to them. This is the foremost principle of Christian mission - to 'go'. We cannot expect people to come to us. This has been true for most of Christian history. True there was a time when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the time of Constantine that people lined up to be catechised. But that happened because people had first gone and taken the good news to every corner of Rome's domains. I don't think there has ever been a time in New Zealand when people have flocked to churches. There have been times when the church was central to every community and parents wanted their children to be taught Christian principles and so were happy for them to come to Sunday school even if they did not attend church themselves. But that is no longer the case. As our society has become increasingly secular and consumed with materialism, the church has become marginalised. The practice of Sunday worship has declined sharply in the last forty years. Celebrants now perform many of the functions that ministers once did in society, such as weddings and funerals, and these mostly in a secular setting. In one sense this is good in that it means that we must return to mission as it was intended to be. We are to 'go' to them. There has, and will always be, an 'outward' focus to the mission of the church. It is no more than what Jesus commanded us to do when he said, "...go and make disciples of all nations..."[1] "Jesus went out..."
But notice also that it reads, "Once again..." These words remind us that Jesus went in search of those he was seeking to reach. He was constantly going out. We read in chapter 1 of Mark that when his disciples found him praying early one morning, he said to them, "Let us go somewhere else - to the nearby villages - so I can preach there also." And then adds the words, "That is why I have come."[2] Jesus came to proclaim the good news. There was a divine necessity for him to do this for he had been sent for this express purpose. From his baptism until his death, this was his message. And is it not the same for us. We have been entrusted with this Good News and must constantly be looking for opportunities to share it with others.
Mark tells us, "A large crowd came to him and he began to teach them." Jesus never lost an opportunity to teach the people. No doubt his subject matter was 'the kingdom of God' for that is what his coming heralded - how God wanted his people to acknowledge his reign and rule, to give him his rightful place in their lives and living, and to love him with all their being.
After teaching the crowd, Jesus walked past the tax collector's booth, where he spotted Levi, son of Alphaeus. This verse shows us that James and John were not the only brothers within Jesus group of disciples. Levi had a brother too, for in the next chapter when Mark lists the twelve we read that one of them was James, son of Alphaeus. It would seem unlikely that Levi and James had different fathers. Mark tells us that Jesus called Levi to "follow" him, and straightaway and does so. This is what we all must do. When Jesus calls we must promptly obey, whether it be to accept him as our Saviour and follow him as our Lord, or to do his bidding in some task he asks us to do.
Sometimes we may wonder why we are asked to do certain things, but God wants us to be prompt in our obedience. Word for Today reading ?23 July. Timing is critical. It can be very humbling to see this. The girls and I sensed this when were with Judith at the time she got news that her father had been admitted to hospital, and then two days later when he passed away. It is more than just coincidence that what we had been planning for six months or more should exactly coincide with that news coming through. It is a reminder that God knows what lies ahead and prepares the way. It was a humbling experience.
Levi does not hesitate to answer Christ's call, and promptly invites his colleagues to a meal with Jesus. He wanted his friends to meet Jesus, too. John Stott points out that Levi could not invite his friends to meet Jesus until he had met him himself. This is true. We cannot commend to others that which we have not experienced ourselves. William Temple, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, argues that evangelism can only be an invitation to come to Jesus from the voice of a forgiven sinner. Those who have experienced the joy of forgiveness themselves, and who know what it means to be reconciled to God, are the only ones who are qualified to invite others to meet Jesus.
What happened in the home of Levi brings out another truth concerning Christian mission. We often assume that people are like, or become like, the company they keep. The Bible warns of the dangers of such. Yet many people choose to be with others they hope to influence for good. Jesus befriended sinners, and such people felt comfortable in his presence. His example is a model of mission for us. Jesus was not just a passing acquaintance. He was a true friend.
Further, what Levi did in inviting his friends to meet Jesus is an example and encouragement for new Christians to invite their friends and family to Jesus. It is our first mission field.
Next we read that Jesus' acceptance of Levi's invitation to eat with 'sinners' draws quick reproof from the 'religious' people of his day, the Pharisees. They would not associate with such people as they wrongly assumed that to keep company with sinners would contaminate them. They believed that keeping themselves separate was necessary for holiness. They equated separatism with holiness. But holiness is not a matter of the company we keep. It is a matter of the heart.
Jesus response to the Pharisees question - "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" - is critical for Christian mission. He said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Christ came into the world to save sinners. Jesus became a human being, one of us, so that he could do this. His coming amongst us shows us clearly that God wants to get involved with sinners. The Apostle Paul was deeply conscious of this, and knew that it was only through the grace of God that he had been saved from a life of blasphemy and violence. This is why he wrote to Timothy saying, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus same into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst."[3] He was "forever grateful," as we sung earlier this morning, for what Jesus had done for him. "Christ Jesus same into the world to save sinners." This is good news, for we are all sinners. All of us have fallen short of God's glory. No one is right before God outside of the redeeming work of Christ on the cross. Christianity is a rescue mission, and those who have been rescued the Holy Spirit enlists to tell others.
You may be wondering what you can do, what you have to offer. The story of Gladys Aylward is a great encouragement as to how God can use unlikely people in his work on earth. Her witness and example touched the lives of many in China. Even the local Mandarin, the highest official in her area, who had the power of life and death over the people, became a believer. God also used her to rescue 100 orphans from certain death at the hands of the Japanese invaders. (DVD Clip Scene 20) You can read her story of the book by Allan Burgess called The Small Woman.
And what about Levi, otherwise known as Matthew? There are various traditions about what he did, where he ended his life and how he died, none of which can be verified with any certainty. But we have the Gospel that bears his name, the first of the four accounts we have of Jesus' life in the New Testament, and know from this that he had a burden to make the Good News known to his own people, the Hebrews. We are deeply indebted to him for this, for although he wrote this book with his fellow Jews in mind, its audience has been much wider than that. The despised tax collector, an unlikely candidate for Christian ministry, became an Apostle and Evangelist to the world.
And we can learn much from Jesus in this story. We need to befriend sinners, those he came to save. However, we must first meet him ourselves and experience his forgiveness and reconciliation, before we can introduce our friends to him as well.
We can also learn from the fact that Jesus was willing to step outside what was considered good company, and in doing so won the hearts of the common people. He was comfortable in the presence of both the poor and the privileged, and was able to share the good news with both. In the model he gives us in these verses, he helps is to see what Christian mission looks like.