Advent is over, and Christmastide has begun! It would be so nice to keep the Christmas tree up all year and continue to enjoy the beautiful music and the sounds and smells of the season.
But we are not called to camp out in the coziness of
Christmas or the quilted comforts of home.
Mary and Joseph didn’t stay in Bethlehem. Before long, they were high-tailing it to
Egypt.
Likewise, the two Emmaus travelers didn’t stay locked in the
safe and familiar confines of home after Christ’s appearance to them over the
table. “They set out that instant and
returned to Jerusalem,” Luke writes.
2021 is just around the corner. We too have a world to
return to. How will our encounter with
Christ—Christ the newborn King and Christ the Risen Savior—how will that
encounter shape our path forward?
For these past weeks, Nouwen has taken us on a journey he
calls the Eucharistic life, and he makes an important point: “Communion is not the end. Mission is.”
This idea of mission can be overwhelming. “I’m just one person. What can I do? What difference can I make?”
The prophet Micah provided a good template for planning our re-entry: “What does the Lord require? Three things: do justice…love mercy…and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8)
These three qualities—justice, mercy, and humility—provide
the structure for answering the call to mission for ourselves, those closest to
us, and our communities.
Justice.
At the “community” level, we have justice. Jesus always calls us to a kind of justice
that restores those who have been cast out, those at the edge, on the margins,
those suffering under the oppression of illness, poverty, or empire. Our first question is, “Who or what needs to
be restored?”
Once you’ve answered the “what,” you can begin to consider
the next question: “How can I operate
within my circle of influence to bring justice to my community?”
“Hunger is too big,” you might say. But you can contribute to your food bank, or
volunteer at a food pantry.
“I’m worried about the environment, but I’m not a
scientist.” That’s ok. Maybe what’s in your circle of influence is
making some conscious decisions about how much you consume, or how much you
throw away.
“I’m troubled by so many in generational poverty or
without healthcare or in dysfunctional family systems or caught up in
addition…but what can I do about that?”
Start with being informed. Maybe
the first step in going back into the world to bring about a little more
justice is educating yourself about the history and structures that keep oppressive
systems in place.
Any one of us may not be able to change the world…but what
if all of us did our part to restore those on the bottom and the outside? I think Jesus was counting on all of us
doing just that.
Mercy.
Doing justice is the work of restoring our communities. Loving mercy is the work of restoring our
personal relationships.
Mercy is mission with those closest to us. Laying down one’s pride…taking the first
step…choosing relationship over being right… isn’t this what mercy is
about? To whom can you reach out in 2021 to forgive and start rebuilding a relationship? I know I have a couple in mind.
The Sufi poet Rumi gives us words to consider when it comes to “mercy”:
Mercy
is inviting someone into that field.
Humility.
If justice is community work…and mercy is relationship work…
then Micah’s call to humility is personal work.
Humility means admitting that there is more to learn, being teachable,
not having all the answers and being gracious enough to admit when you are
wrong. Our teachers could be the natural
world, our children and grandchildren, or an unexpected stranger. The key is looking long and hard enough and
being willing to be taught.
To summarize:
- · The Eucharistic Life ends not with Communion…but with Mission.
- · Mission is something each of us is called to do, and something we can do. Micah gives us a simple template to use…
- · Our mission in the community is justice—who or what needs restoration in our communities, and what part can I play?
- · Our mission with our closest relationships is mercy—who needs forgiveness, and what can I do to start building or rebuilding a bridge?
- · Our personal mission is humility—what do I still need to learn, and who or what can teach me, if I am humble enough to admit it.
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