The Mission Telescope - Sunday 8th August

It starts with a microscope. The first telescope was basically a paper tube with a magnifying glass at one end and another lens at the other end. When we look at the Church in Antioch that sent Barnabas and Saul out on mission, we find that the process started with what was happening closer to home. See Acts 11. 19-21 They took a magnifying glass and looked at themselves and their own community. Someone had come to them and told them the Good News of Jesus. Someone had crossed deserts and rivers, to reach them. Someone had gone out of their comfort zone, done the unthinkable and offered the Good News to Gentiles as well as to Jews, and a number of gentiles as well as Jews had come to know Jesus. Too often when we hear that said, we don’t take it in. It was a hugely costly and uncomfortable thing for a Jew to invite a non-Jew to become a brother in Christ. Jews weren’t even supposed to marry non-Jews. They weren’t supposed to eat with them; Romans ate disgusting things like pork sausages and rabbits, which the Jews believed to be unclean. But if a non-Jew became a believer, he would expect to break bread with his Jewish Christian brothers and sisters. Maybe it would be all right of all the non-Jews got circumcised, and became Jewish… can you see the problems that mission in Antioch opened up?

The Church in Antioch was a missionary Church. It was wrestling with the real problems of real mission in their own community. In order for us to use the mission telescope, we need to start with the magnifying glass: we need to think about how someone left their comfort zone to tell us the good news. I think of Jim Meiklejohn, a Church of Scotland minister and Biblical scholar who until quite an old man who gave his life to making sure that teenagers could hear the gospel in ways they could understand. And we think about the bridges we need to cross to give the Good News to our community: what about the Indian people who keep the corner shop? What about the young girl two doors down who’s a single parent? The first thing in using the Mission Telescope, is to engage with cross-cultural mission locally.

It is the work of the Spirit. So the cross-cultural, missionary Church was at prayer; there were people with spiritual gifts: prophets and teachers. God gives gifts and has never stopped giving gifts; but those gifts are not just toys to be played with; they are tools to be used in real mission situations. The Spirit will never be inconsistent with himself: he will always reveal the character of Jesus. He will always have a missionary agenda. So out of the quietness and rest of a group of spiritually gifted people worshipping and fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke: “Set aside Barnabas and Saul for the work I have for them.” We need to give space for God to speak. And when we do, we find that mission is on God’s heart. Wherever the Holy Spirit is seen in Acts, he is prompting and prodding God’s people outwards: on the day of Pentecost, the disciples spoke in tongues: that is, they spoke supernaturally in the languages of the people who were milling about in the streets below them; and then, they rushed downstairs, and out into those streets. At every turn, the Spirit was prompting the Church to go out: to Samaria, to Roman officer called Cornelius, then when persecution started, to Syria and Cyprus… Cross-cultural mission is the agenda of the Spirit. He is the Missionary Spirit.

The Mission Telescope, that looks to distant places, is the handiwork of the Holy Spirit of God. To use the Mission Telescope, then, secondly is to engage with the Missionary God. To spend time in prayer and worship isn’t a waste of time. It isn’t a substitute for action: it’s the springboard for action. We don’t rest from our work. We work from our rest. If you hang about with Jesus, it wont’ be long before you find he is making you a fisher of men. Engage with local mission. Engage with the Cross-cultural Missionary God.

It extends your reach. I must thank Martin Robinson and Dwight Smith for the "Mission Telescope" idea. In their book "Invading Secular Space" they are particularly thinking about the traditional telescope's ability to expand and collapse. The Mission Telescope meant that the Antioch Church had a ministry in Cyprus, the other Antioch (Pisidian Antioch) and in the hills in central Turkey. As Barnabas and Saul’s sending church they had a stake in the work in Turkey.

Acts 14. 25-28. Paul and Barnabas remain part of Antioch and return there from their journey and spend a long time there, reporting back, building up the church. And what they had experienced in Asia Minor had a permanent effect: Antioch got a reputation as the church with the gentiles in it. So (Acts 15. 1-4) when some people come down from Jerusalem claiming that the only real Christian in a Jewish Christian – telling everyone they should be circumcised – the Antioch Church is affected. It has an interest not only for the sake of their own non-Jewish members but also for the ministry of Barnabas and Saul. It is this sense of belonging, of participation that adds urgency to the circumcision question for the Church in Antioch. The mission was not just Saul and Barnabas’ mission: it was their mission. To use the Mission Telescope means to engage with cross-cultural mission globally.

It’s possible to use a telescope the wrong way round. What happens? Instead of becoming nearer, the thing you are looking at seems further away. There’s a temptation to think that once we have sent people off, that’s our bit for overseas mission done and dusted. We’ve let people go, written a cheque, promised to pray and then we can forget about them for four years. So, instead of making the mission field nearer, it’s actually further away: out of sight, out of mind. We have to use the Mission Telescope the right way and engage with cross-cultural mission globally: I think there are four ways we can do that:
1. Give. As Churches we support Andrew and Maria: are we doing all that God is calling us to do in hat respect?
2. Write. A people person (and evangelist usually are) likes to have contact with people, and is interested in what is going on in people’s lives and in the home Church. A wee note letting Andrew and Maria know how you are doing, will be appreciated: and remember: there’s only two of them and dozens of us so they can’t respond personally to every letter. They will tell you what is and isn’t appropriate to put in a letter.
3. Pray. They pray for us, and we should pray for them. Our prayers should be:
a. Informed. Read the prayer letters Andrew and Maria send home, and use the pointers they provide.
b. Imaginative. Try to think yourself into their situation. What will they be feeling as they fly off next weekend.
c. Biblical. Pray God’s word for them. Lay claim to what is promised in Scripture.
d. Spirit-led. Listen to God and let the Holy Spirit lead your prayers (Romans 8. 26)
4. Do… We collect ring-pulls for people in the dumps in Manila, Philippines. A group of skilled men can help build an orphanage, a few young people can do football coaching or guitar classes, even a Pastor can teach a module in Bible College. We might need to ask our government to speak up about a human rights matter, to offer hospitality to a Christian leader from the developing world…

But home mission and overseas mission are one and the same thing. In some tribes, teenage lads are sent away from the village when the hormones start kicking in. They are sent out into the bush to become men. There they live in their own camp, with the old support structures taken away. They are out of their comfort zone and it’s a big adventure. But that adventure, that shared experience of being in a new and challenging situation, that shared experience of being on the edge builds a sense of community. Later on they will sit around the fire and share stories: “remember the night we had nothing to eat? Remember when we had a lion stalk us and we had to chase it away? Remember when you killed your first antelope?” Only those who have been on the big adventure are really part of the stories. We can all be part of the big adventure of mission: we can we part of Andrew and Maria’s story, and I know they want to hear or stories too.

Far from draining resources that you could do with for Rosyth or Kilsyth or Kilwinning, missionaries put something back. And the experience of being a sending church reinforces the mission instinct in all of us. Because the principles are the same: cross-cultural mission, showing the love of Jesus, building relationships; earning the right to be heard; speaking the other person’s language; giving them the Good News and helping them to become authentic Christian community. I look forward to what God will do in Iraq, and Rosyth as we engage with his mission. Engage with cross-cultural mission locally, engage with the Cross cultural missionary God; and engage with cross-cultural mission globally.

© Gilmour Lilly August 2010