Can you imagine the work we would be doing if we lived in Jesus’ day? Sure, some of us
would be merchants or tax collectors, but the vast majority of us would most likely find
ourselves in agricultural work. This is reflected in Jesus’ parables that often involve farms and farmers, crops and harvests, oxen and yokes. Today, our work is diverse and not only in different career fields, but some of us travel around the city, country, or even the world to complete the job at hand. Since our lives involve much more than our farm, field and family, we are very well aware of events around the world. This morning as I opened up BBC News, the top three watched videos were about the Canadian elections, Madrid’s power disruption, and Trump’s first100 days. This is without even wading into the sea of local Mancuian news. In this midst of information overload, Dr. Steven Garber writes, “Looking out at the world, we want to understand it, we want to respond to it—and yet we find it so very hard to do so in any morally meaningful way. Knowing what I know, what am I to do?”
What do we do as believers who want to make a lasting impact on the world? Let me
remind you that you are part of the royal priesthood (1 Pt. 2:9). Our purpose as priests is to be a visible image of the unseen God and unlike idols who are idle lifeless objects, mankind was
made to reign and rule over the earth to display God’s authority and reign (Gen. 1:26-28). Within the context of our priestly role, our answer to the question “What am I to do?” is to live missional lives. Missions is both the announcement and the demonstration of the reign of God through Christ.
So, back to Dr. Garber’s question; Knowing what I know, what am I to do? You have been placed in a specific culture and community in which God has given you tools to make the world flourish in ways that demonstrate God’s reign (1 Cor. 12:7). Our church should be a place that gathers in order to strengthen one another toward this priestly purpose before we disperse to our workplaces, classrooms, and sports clubs in order to reflect our King Jesus. This is the beauty of Christ’s church. We are the light of the world, the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13-14). We are a church of driving instructors who don’t ghost their learners. We are barbers who tame chaotic hair into beauty. We are nurses who bring peace to patients during their darkest hours. We run restaurants that are known for their generous hospitality. We plan infrastructure and buildings in ways that take the needs of future generations into consideration. Why? Because we have been given the priestly mission of announcing and demonstrating who God is. So, knowing what we know about the world around us, we choose to take action. This is missions.
Rev. Justin Siemens