Contemplative Mission

I'm not fond of the word "mission". You won't find it in the New Testament, and it doesn't emerge in the sense that we use it before the Modern era. That last comment should serve to warn us that it is a very culturally defined word. Jesus' great commision in Matthew 28 seems to be referred to as the great text to encourage the church to be "missional" - a very contemporary word of which we should be suspisious.

So I approach the idea of mission with a "theology of suspicion". The important thing about any theology of suspicion is that it is walks hand in hand with a "theology of humility". It's all very well being suspicious of something "out there". But it will be destructive unless it is accompanied by a large dose of humility and suspicions about myself.

So I need to recognize that maybe my reticence about using the word "mission" is wrapped up with my negative experiences of a certain sort of evangelicalism over 50 year ago. These things run deep.

So with that as a useful tool in the box let's look again at Matthew 28.19-20. This is my rendering of it. I wonder what you think?

Take a journey, a long journey of living amongst all kinds of people,
and then be to ready enrol any of them, perhaps all of them,
as my pupils, learners, scholars and students.
Soak them in the reality of God,
the mothering Father,
whom I have shown you by living as Someone Like You
and whose very Spirit is in you.
Teach them how to be observant,
so that they notice the many things
I have entrusted to you and to them.
And I'll be alongside all of  you, with you and, indeed, in you,
keeping company with you - sharing bread,
participating in you as you participate in me,
right up to the right moment
and the true meaning of everything appears.