Do you know what the Mission Statement of Saint Paul’s is? “To be the Body of Christ, by dying to self for the sake of our neighbor.”
In life and death, you have one grand calling: to embody Christ. And what does the form of Christ look like?m He dies to self for the sake of his neighbor.
Now, take a second to plumb the mystery of grace. Who is God’s neighbor? Who is next to God? Who is his equal? No one. Nothing.
If anyone ever had a right to disregard his neighbor, it is God. If anyone could have walked past the beaten man from Jerusalem, it wasn’t the priest or the levite. It was God. He could have walked right past and no one could say, “You ought to do something!” For he has no neighbor. He is beyond all and before all.
But see His grace: he humbled himself; making us his neighbors; deciding to live next to us; making us his own; defending, saving, even dying for us.
This is what we must embody.
What if our mission statement was something else:
“Disciples making disciples.”
“Proclaiming the love of God.”
“Bringing the Gospel to all the world.”
Those are good, very good in fact. But they leave something out.
How is all this going and proclaiming supposed to happen? Ah! That’s the key! That’s the point upon which everything turns. And how, how will it all happen? DEATH. “To be the Body of Christ, by DYING to self for the sake of our neighbor.” Unless you die, you will bring no good news, preach no gospel, make no disciples. Unless you die, there is no life.
This is the key to missions, to discipleship, to small groups, bible study, finances, giving. Name it. What does Paul say about money? “It is better to give than to receive.” The is the financial way of saying, “It is better to die for another, than to live for yourself.”
And why? Why is this the key? Grace. This is the form grace takes. Grace humbles itself. God humbles himself. God dies to self. And he does it all for our sakes, his neighbors.
“To be the Body of Christ, by dying to self for the sake of our neighbors.” Amen. May it be so for Saint Paul’s.
Tom+