Mission is an Act of Love

Dr. Paul Borden
Executive Minister, GHC
pambreen@aol.com
December 2011

The celebration of our Lord’s first advent is really a celebration of God’s mission to the world he created. Matthew in his narrative of our Lord’s arrival tells us that he came to save his people from their sins. Jesus in one of his first sermons tells the people that he had come to preach good news to the poor, provide release for prisoners, give sight to the blind, liberate the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Elsewhere he tells the disciples that he had come to do the will of the Father. God the Father, functioning as an eternal mission agency, sends his Son, Jesus, to carry out the mission of providing a way for women and men to be reconciled to God. Christmas is all about mission.

In a culture that focuses on meeting our consumer wishes for gifts, good feelings, and an abundance of food, we often lose the understanding that Christmas is not about us, our family or even our congregation. It is about the mission of God to reach a world that is far from him, because of sin and all of its effects on individuals, cultures and the creation. The love of God, demonstrated in our Lord’s first Advent, is about reaching out to people who do not know God and in many cases are far more concerned about their earthly temporal needs than their relationship with their creator.

This is a great time for leaders to use the Scriptures to focus on mission and vision. It is a time to remind the followers of Christ that we celebrate a God who loved us before we even knew him and did for us what we could not do for ourselves. It is a time to focus on the mission of Jesus Christ, who is not only our Savior but our King. And our King calls us to serve his purposes both individually and collectively. 

Christmas might best be celebrated by using our worship services to focus on the mission of reaching out to people who are not yet disciples of Jesus Christ. Perhaps our giving would be better served in not buying gifts for each other but giving to help the hungry and the oppressed, to reflect the will of our King. Perhaps the invitations to times of feasting rather than being with family, might be with those who may enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ because they have developed a relationship with us.

Our God was intentionally orchestrating history through the birth of the God/Human, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was doing this out of love for those he had created. Our God modeled for us that mission is an act of love.