1 Oct 2017 - mission field

Today's Readings

He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, 'but did not go.

Here is another gospel about the danger, among other things, of writing a blog about the gospels. There is always the danger that we say one thing and do another. The danger arises because our stake in this is more immediately about self-image than anything. How others see us is the most direct feedback many of us get about our Christian walk. It isn't so much that we're trying to be deceptive as that we begin to say what we wish were true. Instead we need to learn self-honesty. In this Jesus is the ultimate teacher. He is able to completely set aside how others see him for the sake of the mission.

Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.

Setting aside self-image and pride may seem like a net loss. It may seem like one fewer positive reinforcement mechanism by which we can motivate ourselves. But it isn't. It's a net gain, because it doesn't really have to do with what we actually do. It only has to do with how we are seen. So it is bad motivation. Plus, it chains us to expectations, our own and those of others. We have told them that we won't go out into the field and so perhaps now we feel like we can't. But we can. These expectations need not hold us back.

He came to the first and said,
'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'
He said in reply, 'I will not, '
but afterwards changed his mind and went.

So even if the world sees us one way, that need not imprison us. We can still turn at any time and follow the LORD. His ways are right and just and he welcomes us to turn more and more toward him. 

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! (see Luke 6:22)

If we pursue God's will in spite of what people think, in spite, perhaps, of what we tell ourselves about who we are and of what we're capable, blessed are we.

But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed,
and does what is right and just,
he shall preserve his life;
since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed,
he shall surely live, he shall not die.