In our diocese, we have heard so much about “going local.” Going local is a different way of thinking about participating in God’s mission. Rather than imagining too broadly or unrealistically about God’s mission, we start from where we are. Also, instead of waiting for people to come to church by making our church activity attractive, we go where people are. This is the basic theology of going local that we join God who is already working in our neighborhood. Saint Agnes’ Food Pantry ministry can be a good example of going local. In a strict sense, we’re not physically going where people are. People actually come where we are. But the reason is that we are using our resources to meet people’s needs. Then, the essential nature of going local isn’t so much about changing our geographical ground of God’s mission but about meeting spiritual needs of people in our neighborhood. But for what? We want them to come to our church and become members. We don’t have to shy away from this very desire that we want our church membership to grow in number. There’s nothing wrong with this. Why is it wrong to share with our neighbors what we think is the best for life? Isn’t it a godly thing to share the best thing with as many as people?
This is a difficult task. Imagine we’re in a marketing industry. We need to have a dialogue with potential consumers what their needs are about a certain product. We interview them. We come up with something that might fulfill their needs. It might fail. Try again. Say, luckily we develop the best product that people love. Yet, this is not it. We have other competitors who might have a similar item like ours. Then, we try to differentiate ourselves from those companies. I bet we find this example too familiar since we are on the side of consumers who are dealing with so many of the same products that are manufactured by different companies with different brand names. In a way, all religious denominations are in this competition. You might think this example a bit blasphemous but let’s be honest. Churches are in a religious business. And The Episcopal Church isn’t doing so well. Perhaps, I’ve chosen the wrong career path. As we all know, more than 50% of the parishes in our diocese are dwindling. This phenomenon isn’t just limited to our diocese. It is happening to all the Episcopal parishes and to all other denominations. I’m going to be more bluntly honest with you on this going local or any kind of mission work. I sense there’s a huge stress on parishes that are dwindling whenever our diocese comes up with a new missional initiative. I think people are genuinely interested in any kind of local missions in which they feel connected and engaged with their local communities. Yet, small parishes like ours don’t have much energy or people to initiate it. At the same time, this lack of interest of lack of human resources to do any missionary work must not be something to be judged. What I’m more worried about is what this leaves behind such as a feeling of defeat or helplessness or even guilt so that there’s no theological imagination on our part about how we can actually join God’s mission. There are many diverse ways to participate in God’s mission. Yet, there’s one substantial condition or prerequisite for those who desire to join God in our communities and in the world. What I would call this prerequisite is the “evangelization of self.” So what is this evangelization of self? It is actually my term I have come up with. Imagine that your body and soul become the gospel of Jesus itself. This is not something you become who you are not. Complete opposite. Evangelizing one’s entire self is to become authentically who you are meant to be in your baptism with Christ. There’s no mask to put on to be someone who you are not. Bring your authentic self to wherever you are. In this way, your entire presence becomes the presence of the gospel of Jesus. Becoming ourselves should be the easiest thing to do, but for many reasons, this has become the most difficult task. We tend not to like ourselves much. We are very often hard on ourselves. We don’t see ourselves in the way God sees us as baptized. We have such high expectations for ourselves. When we don’t meet them, we chastize ourselves. We unconsciously believe we’re born perfect, even though we are perfectly imperfect. I’ve used a rather fancy term, “the evangelization of self” to talk about something that isn’t new at all. We usually call it “being born again” or “conversion” which involves a genuine experience of repentance in which we accept and acknowledge we somehow missed the mark. This experience of one being evangelized, one’s soul reformed, restored, renewed, revived, and resurrected isn’t just an instant event that takes place. It continues throughout our entire lives. This is a process and a journey that we continue to be on. In the lessons we hear this morning, we have two biblical images being naked or stripped away. Let’s look at Naaman. He is not just a soldier. He’s a command of the army of Syria who won the battle over Israel. He is also favored by the king. The Scripture, however, is quite realistic that this great man in favor of the king isn’t perfect. He suffers from leprosy. It makes him vulnerable yet opens his ears wide enough to listen to what the young servant girl from Israel says about the prophet Elisha who can cure him. Naaman uses his political influence to get what he wants. He has full support from the king. He can easily enter the land of Israel. He takes ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments for his medical treatment. He probably thinks that much is more than enough. It turns out that much is never enough. It is rather useless. It’s not going to help him get better. Also, his horses and chariots are completely useless. All his wealth and military power cannot get him what he really wants. They are nothing but baggage or garbage (?) to be thrown away. Elisha doesn’t demand anything from Naaman. He simply tells Naaman, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” Naaman who is full of pride, missing the mark of what is most important to him, gets outraged. He feels disrespected that this prophet doesn’t even give him proper honor and respect. He feels belittled. It just shows how greedy and self-centered he is in that he wants everything to be done his way. But once again, his vulnerability of being ill opens his ears wide enough to listen to his servants. They rationally suggest to him, “If the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” Naaman finally goes down and immerses himself seven times in the Jordan. He is stripped away of everything which he believed could get him what he wants, that is, becoming whole, becoming who he is without leprosy. In order to be healed, cured, and restored, he has to give up everything. He has to die first to live again. This is the mystery of the resurrection. For us Christians, the Jordan river also has a significant meaning. It is the river where Jesus was baptized and the voice from heaven declared he was God’s beloved Son. In our baptism, we die and live again with Jesus. In Jesus, we also become God’s beloved children. We are immersed in the water of God’s grace and love through Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit. We are restored. This is what I call the evangelization of self. Without this recognition and consciousness of our own baptism, we have no authority or power to join God in our world. This authority or power is not of what Naaman brought to the prophet Elisha. It is not of wealth or political or militant power. It is the authority that comes from the grace of God. For us to see this authority coming from God, we are stripped away of everything. So, that’s why we “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.” We bring ourselves alone. We bring our presence alone. We bring our restored, resurrected selves alone while seeing God with our faith and joining his mission. This isn’t easy at all. To really see ourselves completely naked and stripped away before God through our baptism isn’t easy. And joining God in the world isn’t easy either. Jesus himself knows this very well so he says, “I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” What this means is that we are going into the animal kingdom. In this animal kingdom, lambs are crucified and killed. Wolves eat them. Yet, we are not to eat them. In this animal kingdom, our stripped away selves, our baptized selves bring the presence of the kingdom of God. Wherever we are, the kingdom of God is proclaimed in the very midst of the animal kingdom. We are to proclaim peace. We are to eat and drink with those who welcome the kingdom of God, those who are sick and tired of the cruelty of the animal kingdom. We are to cure the sick, meaning we are to bring reconciliation and healing to the world. So with this evangelization of self, where are we going? Where is the harvest of God? We can say, “Let’s go local.” Well, I would like to suggest, “Let’s first go into ourselves.” In other words, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to evangelize us. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to show us what marks we have missed in our lives, how often we attack ourselves, how we love to hate than to love, how frequently we intend to be unaware of sufferings around us, or how indifferent we are to others. No purse, no bag, no sandals in the midst of wolves, my friends. St Paul thus confesses, “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” No self-deception, no self-hatred, no pride, no wealth, no political power or fame. But just our naked selves. Our presence. God doesn’t need anything but us. Our presence is all God wants for his mission. Don’t you find it exciting that others see in our presence God’s kingdom in this animal kingdom? We don’t really need to do in this business of God’s mission. We bring our presence in which we show God’s love, forgiveness, and compassion. When others experience in us God’s presence, they will wonder how we can do that, where we receive that authority or gift. May God use every single one of your presence to be God’s dwelling place. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
|