Missional Spirituality 2. Luke 1. 25-45

Chelmsley Wood Baptist Church members turning up on Remembrance Day found their premises condoned off as a man had been murdered outside. Their Pastor said, 'To turn up for worship and be faced, literally, with a pool of blood and a police cordon brings home the importance of proclaiming and living the message of Christ in our community.' We live in a messy worldwhere mission is like birthing soemthing. Being – becoming – a missional Church is a lot like getting pregnant. Mary has a lot to teach us about the way God calls us and deals with us as we look at the mission context we live in today...

1. Missional spirituality begins with God. For Mary this pregnancy journey began when the angel Gabriel came to her. She wasn't looking for this. It took her by surprise.  God takes the initiative and comes to us with this surprising call to be involved in what he is doing. When I was in Gloucester, someone had a moan at me once because I was, he said “Always going on about Mission. People get bored hearing it.” Well, I don't want to bore you and I don't want to nag you or put you on a guilt trip.... What I want to do is be biblical, and say that it begins with God. In fact, you are here because God has taken the initiative. You are not here simply because you're the sort of oddball who is interested in religion like some people are into BSA motorbikes or Beatles or Buddy Holly records. You are here because God is on your case. Maybe you kind of wonder what you are doing here this morning. Well, I believe you are here because God is on your case. He wants to speak to you, he wants to do something in your life. We start right there. If you don't know Jesus personally this morning, God has something to say to you. He wants you to know that you are precious and loved, and he wants to come into your life. If you are feeling hemmed in buy the humdrum, just jogging along and not sure what the point is, God wants to let you know today that you are formed in his image, and formed for a purpose. God is taking the initiative. He always does. The whole Christian Good news, the whole Christmas event, the whole coming, life, death and resurrection of Jesus was about God taking the initiative. ”God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5. 8)

You are here because God is calling you to be part of his mission in his world. The call to be part of what God is doing comes with the new birth package. Mission is God's initiative, but it is part of the same initiative God took when he sent Jesus into the world, it is part of the same initiative god took when he first got hold of your life. The way that will work out in your life., isn't something for me to nag you about today. It is not for me to say “You were saved to serve, so get on and find out how you are supposed to be serving.” Rather, it is god's initiative. Missional spirituality, the kind of walk with god that invo0lves us in God's mission, begins with god. Not with us. It is God's mission. He is coming not  just sending.

2. Missional spirituality is incarnational spirituality. Gabriel says to Mary, You're going to have a baby boy. Call him Yeshua, “the Lord saves”; he will be Son of God and messiah the “son of David.” It's time Mary; I am at work and I'm not just speaking words, I'm sending my Son; I'm coming into the world. This is more than a new time of the prophetic. It's going to have arms and legs. Mary, you're not just going to give birth to a prophet, you're going to give birth to the Son of God. Missional spirituality is incarnational spirituality. It takes seriously John 1. 14 which says “The Word became Flesh. That's what incarnation is: the “word becoming flesh.” Mary had the immense and scares privilege of being involved in God's missionary activity, God's saving work, God's incarnation, God becoming flesh.

And that is what Missional Spirituality is still about. It is about God becoming incarnate. It is about God touching lives. It is about God's love being seen. Learning to show the Father's love. Some of you dread mission because you find the whole idea of telling someone about Jesus scares; the whole idea of trying to talk to your husband or wife or son or daughter about Jesus – when they have made it plain they don't want to know – is difficult to say the least. But God isn't always or only calling us to talk. He's calling us to show... And while we can do a wee bit of that individually, through little acts of kindness, we are not able to make Christ incarnate on our own.

If we are going to do this, we need each other, just like Mary needed Elizabeth. They worked out their experience of god's miracles together. They shared Gods' word together, They affirmed each other. Elizabeth says to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb...” (v 42) How do you think this teenager felt, when a mature, godly, wise lady took her seriously, respected her humanity and honoured her ministry? You know what Paul says about the Church. It is Christ’s “body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Eph 1. 23) “You are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.” (! Cor 12. 27) God is in the business of shaping a Church that will make him incarnate, that will live out the life of Jesus in the world today. And he calls us who are part of the Church to be part of that incarnation. It's a new thing; and becoming an incarnational Church may seem like pregnancy and birth for us as individuals. Missional spirituality is incarnational spirituality. It's mope than words.

3. Missional spirituality is beyond us! Maybe, like Mary, you want to ask “How can this be – as you are.... too old, too young, not educated, not confident, not ready.” I hope you do! Mary's question wasn't one of unbelief (like Zechariah's, v. 18)); it was one of self-doubt. Her question, “how will this happen since...” accepts that it will but doesn't know. Mary may well be asking “What do I do? Do I marry Joseph tomorrow and start a family with him? I'm only a girl; am I ready for the responsibility of being Mother to messiah? Do I need to learn to read and start studying the Bible? What do I do? Nothing.

We are as Bible Believing Christians instinctively drawn to ask the question “What do we do?” We love a project. Define a problem in the Church, describe a group of unreached people, and we've got a programme for it. So we ask “What do we do?” And God says “nothing.” There's nothing you can do to make this happen. That doesn't mean it will be easy, effortless or pain free. Far from it. But it will not be achieved by your effort. Mary, what do you do? Nothing.

4. Missional spirituality is supernatural. The Holy Spirit will do what needs to be done. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (v. 35) It's that simple. God will do it. The Holy Spirit is at work. This is the realm of the supernatural. Elizabeth's baby kicked hard when Mary entered Elizabeth's house. Events like that were little reminders that they were dealing with miracles. “The Spirit will come upon you.”

You'll find similar words in Acts 1. 8, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,” and in Isa 35. 15 “When the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field.” As for Mary, so for the Church: the Holy Spirit comes upon us, incarnates god's life, brings in God's future, and makes a new creation.

God overcomes our obstacles by his Holy Spirit. He calls and equips all of us. He can do it, He can birth the supernatural in our lives. He can make the most ordinary of Churches into a body where God is incarnate. It's not about us. Malcolm Duncan, Pastor of Gold hill baptist Church, says “Genuine spiritual experience whether of faith, hope or love can never be manufactured by us it can only ever be received. Our lives are our response

5. Missional spirituality is surrender. Mary's response to this was so amazing as to be more or less iconic... This girl, asked to pay such an enormous cost, says to the angel, “OK. Let it be to me according to your word.” “Yes, I am prepared to sacrifice my plans; yes I am prepared to surrender my reputation; yes I am prepared to surrender my vision of how my life is supposed to pan out. I am you servant. Do what you want with me.” Missional spirituality is being available to God so that he can make himself incarnate.

That's it, in a nutshell. It is about the supernatural, not just the natural. It's not something we can do but something that God does... what he wants us to give to him is our availability, our co-operation; the surrender of ourselves to him. Whatever the cost. Whatever the obstacles; whatever our personality. And our God says “Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?” (Isa 66. 9). As we say to God “Have your way,” he will bring his Kingdom to birth.

© Gilmour Lilly December 2012