Exhortation, Third Sunday of Lent

We often think about mission as the thing that happens after all the really important stuff is over and done. Jesus died, rose again, ascended, and gave the Spirit, and now that everything is finished, we start the mission. Mission is announcing what has already happened.

There’s some truth to that, but the word “mission” points us in a different direction. “Mission” comes from the Latin “missio,” which connotes “sending.” The church is a mission because the church is a people sent.

This helps us see the depths of the mission of the church. Jesus too was sent, and then Jesus sent the Spirit. In our mission we are imitating the missions of the Son and Spirit. Jesus said to His disciples, As I was send, so I send you.

But we do more than imitate the missions of the Son and Spirit. We participate in those missions. The missions of the Son and Spirit are manifestations of what the Son and Spirit have been doing throughout all eternity. The Son is begotten of the Father, and He is sent by the Father; the Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son, and is sent by Father and Son. When we are caught up in the mission of the Son and Spirit, we are also participating in the life of the Trinity.

Jesus sends the Twelve to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. That’s His own work, and the work of the Spirit, and like the Twelve we share in that mission because we are we are caught up in the flow of the Spirit who was poured out to renew the earth.