We should consider the purpose and intentions of a gracious God through faith, and as a result try to participate within this activity through faithful and fruitful words and deeds.
The mission of God crosses all boundaries, promotes inclusive hospitality and grace, expresses radical relevance, recognizes the need for humility and boldness, and has no ultimate outcome except that which brings life in its fullness for all people in all places.
1. God’s Mission is Reconciliation. As the world is more connected, we have more and more opportunities to see income disparity, unequal access to health care and suitable education, as well as dangerous and dehumanizing levels of racism, sexism, religious extremism, political polarization, xenophobia, and discrimination based upon sexual orientation.
While brokenness and exclusion threatens to tear apart local communities, churches, and international companionships, God’s mission is reconciliation, to the point that our common identity as children of God takes precedence over the color of our skin or passport, size of our bank account, gender of our life-partner, and affirmation of religious belief.
2. God’s Mission is Transformation. While some in our world strive for a larger flat-screen televisions with hundreds of channels, DVD screens in gas-guzzling SUVs, or the perfect massive diamonds for marriage proposals, there are others who would die for a clean cup of water or a simple bowl of rice. The world is messed up.
When people receive open acceptance and radical hospitality, they learn to look outward and strive for relief, development, and advocacy. The result is an interconnected world that intimately transforms for the better and embodies the life-giving love of God found in Jesus. When lives are changed, so are communities, nations, and the global village.
3. God’s Mission is Empowerment. One of the common metaphors of social transformation is “give someone fish and they eat for a day, but teach someone to fish and they eat for a lifetime.” In the 21stcentury this statement is not fully accurate, for in our interconnected multinational context of economics and ecology, one has to ask who has access “to the pond.” The long-term structures of poverty and injustice too often remain, to the point that “access to the pond” remains restricted, and the cycles and structures that keep some wealthy and others impoverished continue.
As reconciliation and transformation occur, authority and access is given to those who are too often marginalized and silenced, for people recognize that full independence is a myth, and interdependence is not only a factual local and global reality, but it is a Christian faith essential and a core component to God’s mission.
The full article is available here
The full article is available here
