A message for Mission Walk Sunday on 10/13/24, sponsored by the Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood of Greater Pittsburgh. It will benefit the mission work of the Church in Guatemala.
I would like to begin with a marvelous story about a four-year-old child who awoke one night in fright. She was convinced that in her dark room there were all kinds of spooks and monsters. Alone, she ran to her parents’ bedroom. Her mother calmed her down, and taking her by the hand, led her back to her own room. Once there, she put on a light and reassured her daughter with these words: You needn’t be afraid, you are not alone here. God is in the room with you. The little girl replied: I know that God is here, but I need someone in this room who has skin!”
The human need for touch is undeniable. And this is doubly so when it comes to our faith. Believing in a God who is somewhere out there but not among us gives little comfort. In Luke’s Gospel we see the importance of touch in a most dramatic way. Jesus encounters a grief-stricken widow in a large crowd on its way to bury her only son. Moved by compassion, Jesus says to her: “Weep not.” And then touching the casket, He commands the boy to rise, then gives him back to his mother. It was flesh touching flesh, thereby turning the mother’s sorrow into joy. This miracle, along with many others that Jesus performed, gives us a template for Christian missions. We are called to put flesh on our faith, and in this way showing God’s love for the world with a human face- our face. Today, let us see how this works in the fields of missions.
Let’s begin with an example of how missions does not work. Some years ago a Christian journal carried the lament of a bitter woman. She explained why she did not believe in God. Never in her explanation did she mention dogma, morals, or church authority. For her, the credibility of God and Christ depended on something else. Here is what she said: “Don’t come talk to me of God, or come to my door with religious pamphlets, or ask me whether I’m saved. Hell holds no threat more agonizing than the harsh reality of my life. I swear to you that the fires of hell seem more inviting than the bone-deep cold of my own life. And don’t talk to me of church. What does the church know of my despair- barricaded behind its stained glass windows against the likes of me? I once sought repentance and community within your walls, but I saw your God reflected in your faces as you turned away from the likes of me. Forgiveness was never given me. The healing love that I sought was carefully hoarded, reserved for your own kind. So be gone from me and speak no more of God. The God I see in you has no compassion. So long as your God withholds the warmth of human touch from me, I shall remain an unbeliever.”
Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus told us to go to all nations and tell of His love. He intended this to be done by putting flesh on our faith, that is, through human contact and not high theology. The challenge is not, as the woman makes clear, to pass out religious tracts, establish religious TV networks or pressure people to convert to our particular brand of Christianity. Instead we must radiate the compassion and love of God, so much so, that people will see Jesus in our faces and actions.
When Jeremiah the prophet received God’s call, he was commanded to “eat what is before you, eat the scroll, then go and speak to the people of Israel. So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth” (Jeremiah 3:3). The powerful idea is that in digesting God’s word he would turn it into his own flesh. In this way, the people will be able to see the word of God in a living body rather than on a dead parchment. Our task in taking God to others is not of handing somebody a bible or some religious tract. Instead, we are to convert God physically into the flesh of our own bodies. It becomes part of what we look like. If we do this with the Word of God and Holy Communion, others wouldn’t have to read the Bible to see what God is like, they would only need to look at our faces and our lives to see God.
As members of the Church we gather together every Sunday to affirm our humanity in Christ. We come to say I love you to others and hope to hear the same in return. In the end, we go to Church to ready each other for physical death, but always in the hope of the Resurrection.. Jesus gave hope to a woman by raising her son from the dead. God gave us hope by raising His Son from the dead. For us to experience this hope in a tangible way, we cannot approach God as individuals. We are not saved in a self-centered vacuum, sealed off from the rest of the world. There is no such thing as a solitary Christian. Walls don’t work in the Church. We need each other to be saved. I have to see your face and you have to see mine, and together we will see God in each other. The hope of the Resurrection lives in each one of us for the world to see.
Let me conclude with the story of a fallen woman who never knew Christ or the Scriptures. Hers was a heart filled with regret and sorrow over her wasted life. At odd times she would come to the public museum to stare at one painting, a still-life of bread and grapes. A guard noticed her fascination with the painting. He asked why she came so frequently to fix her gaze on such a simple painting. She explained that the painting symbolized all that was lacking in her life- a home, a husband, children, food, warmth, security, pure love.
Jesus no doubt had her in mind, as well as all of us who feel abandoned or lost and alone in the world. On the very night of His betrayal, He lifted His eyes up to heaven, blessing that same bread and wine, saying: “Take, eat, this is my body…drink of this all of you this is my blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin” (Mathew 26:28).
In Guatemala, this is what we offer to the long-suffering Mayan people, the very humanity of Christ, His flesh and blood. They, too, like all of us, have a holy longing for Christ. They, too, need to know that they are loved and valued as children of God. The world often forgets the poor and marginalized of the world, but Jesus never did. Today, we can reach out and touch the humanity of the Mayan faithful who struggle every day to survive. They are about to see the elevation of one of their own to the episcopacy on October 13, the same day as our Mission Walk. I will be there to represent all of you. Together, we can show them the face of Christ; we can put flesh on our faith. We can say to them, as we should to each other, “I love you and God loves you.”
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