Our Mission as a Church, Part 3: That Through Your Grace

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this brief blog series, we’ve been examining one of our collects (a prayer that gathers our thoughts and intentions) and breaking down its very relevant components. We’ve discussed how this prayer focuses on the mission of the church and asks God to keep (protect) us in his steadfast faith and love.

Here’s the collect one more time:

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

… We May Proclaim Your Truth With Boldness

All that we’ve already discussed takes place only by the grace of God. We need God’s help for each part. So what does it mean to proclaim God’s truth with boldness?

The apostle Paul was so on fire for Jesus that people said he was out of his mind. If we are out of our minds, let it be for God’s sake. In other words, Paul says, “The love of Christ urges us on” (2 Cor. 5:14a). Something is at work inside of me that causes me to care deeply about your personal concerns, about how you think about God, about what’s going in your family and your relationships. And proclaiming his truth with boldness may be to the people that are the closest to me, or it may take me to places that I never imagined.

Let’s think for a moment how shocking it is to think about this prayer within the light of the parable of the good Samaritan, a parable that actually is pretty clear but contains truths we’d rather avoid.

The whole point of that parable is this: who is my neighbor? Well, it’s including those crazy Samaritans that we don’t want anything to do with. I mean, in the original, Samaritans were the hated others. There was this profoundly protectionist, even racist attitude that Israel had displayed toward the Samaritans. They called them half-breeds, and they wanted nothing to do with them. So that when the Samaritan becomes the one who is in fact the hero of the story, as opposed to a very good rabbi, that was shocking to Jesus’ hearers.

God was messing with them through that parable. And he does the very same thing with us. And so, to minister, “to proclaim your truth with boldness” means you never know where God is going to take you. You really begin to say, and actually mean it, “God, where do you want me to be available for you today?” And you see what kind of things that God creates, including appointment that may not have been in your calendar at all. You start asking the people behind the convenience store counter, “How are you?” as opposed to just paying for the soda and walking out without actually seeing the person. Because you see, all people matter, not just the people who are our friends or who look like us.

And so God begins to open our minds and our hearts to people we wouldn’t necessarily cater to, or even perhaps give us the truth that needs to be spoken in the great love that God gives for us, for the people whom we care deeply about but whose lives are a train wreck.

… We May Minister Your Justice With Compassion

Justice has to do with structural wrongs, things that are set up that intentionally keep one group down so that another might be able to remain in power. Sometimes those are racial, sometimes those are political, sometimes they’re related to issues of class. Sometimes they’re used around language like, “Well, we don’t want those people to come in because it will lower our property values.”

Dealing with questions of justice has to do with how the social order gets managed. Because if you begin to care for somebody, then you are concerned about the way that person is mistreated. And sometimes, the way they’re being mistreated is a structural issue. And therefore, you’re willing to speak up.

… For the Sake of Our Savior, Jesus Christ

And why do this? For the sake of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Because he is, you see, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—not just the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of people who are just like me.

It is possible to use a portion of Scripture, not to bring forth those truths, but instead, to justify the entirely unbiblical treatment of a group of people. This issues has been around ever since somebody who was a Christian got into political power. Centuries ago, St. Augustin wrote this: “Whoever then thinks he understands the holy Scriptures or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up the twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand the Scriptures as he ought.”

If I’m reading the Scripture correctly, what that will invite me to do, perhaps even command me to do, is to draw near to God in a new way, that I might know more of his love. And for that love to be worked in me, in such a way that I’m learning in new ways how to love the people around me, whether they are like me or not.

When we pray this collect, we’re praying for each other. That God would work in us something new, something deeper than what we’ve known in the past. And we pray that God would help us to minister his truth with boldness and to minister his justice with compassion—for the sake of Jesus Christ, who loves everyone.

How have you seen God’s truth proclaimed with boldness and/or God’s justice with compassion? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer.

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on June 17, 2018, at Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Winter Haven, Florida.) 

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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