The Trinity mini-series (part two)
“Why the Trinity Matters”
Small group devotion
The purpose of this discussion is to talk more deeply about what Mission is, and what our role is in Mission.
Mission is a pretty broad idea. Brainstorm the many different ways that the term “Mission” is used both in the church and in secular society. Which images/ideas of mission do you find helpful? Why? (Check Leader’s notes for ideas)
Jordan talked about a “pocket-Jesus” approach to mission — that we take Jesus to the world. What do you like about this image? What are its shortcomings?
What are some of the prejudices that your non-Christian friends/colleagues have toward Christianity, evangelism and mission? Are these prejudices justified? What is the underlying understanding of mission here? (If you like, you can use the bobble-head Jesus as a way to craft and direct the discussion for a “pocket-Jesus” approach to mission in a secular world)
Read Matthew 3:13-17
Instead of a “pocket-Jesus” approach to mission (where we take Jesus to humanity), here we have a different view where Jesus himself comes to humanity. How might this influence how we understand mission?
On Sunday Arpana and Prasanna talked about their missionary work in India. What might mission at home in Hornby, West Melton, Rolleston look like?
Read Matthew 28:18-20
This is the famous Great Commission of the disciples. How do you react to this Commission? Do you embrace it with zeal — or want to run and hide? Or somewhere in between?
Challenge yourselves in the group — what missional activity can you be doing (big or small) in your life this week? Either as individuals or maybe as a group!
Leader’s notes:
- Different uses of “mission”:
- Mission as overseas mission in “the mission field” — the role of missionaries
- Missionaries — people with a particular ministry for sharing the gospel with the world
- Mission as local mission at home — activities of the church and individuals in the community
- Mission of God, missio dei, as God’s ministry in the world, through Christ by the Spirit to reconcile and redeem all things back to God
- The Mission of the Church to join with God and to witness to Christ in the world
- Mission planning — strategic direction of a church community
- Colloquial slang “what a mission” — that’s hard work
- “Mission impossible” the movie
- “Mission” as a military task
- The “Bobble-head Jesus” is a good metaphor I think for describing how many often engage in mission. From the Christian perspective, we try to make the gospel appealing, light, fun, easy to accept. It becomes like a little pocket-Jesus that we try to give to others. From a secular perspective, there’s this “allergy” against being sold Jesus. The gospel is negatively seen as a product being imposed on people — a product that some buy-in to but is ultimately superfluous to everyday living.
- Below is the script to Sunday’s sermon about the Matthew 3 passage. Hopefully this will help you to direct discussion around the nature of mission:
Pocket Jesus
You know the song “Photograph” by Ed Sheeran?
The chorus goes:
“So you can keep me
inside the pocket of your ripped jeans
Holdin’ me closer
‘til our eyes meet.
You won’t ever be alone.”
— which totally doesn’t make sense —
When you hear that, does anyone else imagine
a tiny Ed Sheeran bouncing around in your pocket?
And you have to be careful to sit on one cheek
so you don’t squash him?
No?
Well — moving right along…
Here’s a question for us to consider.
When we talk about mission —
do we take Jesus to others,
or does Jesus take us to others?
Both sound quite plausible.
And it’s possibly a bit of both/and.
But I reckon we can tend to have
a bit of a “pocket-Jesus” approach to mission.
We go to church and we pick our little pocket Jesus.
And that pocket Jesus goes with us into the week
helping us when we’re down,
letting us know that we’re never alone.
And when we come across someone
who doesn’t have a pocket Jesus,
we give our little pocket Jesus to them.
I admit it’s quite a nice image.
But it also implies a few things.
Firstly that we need to go to church
to pick up our pocket Jesus.
So God is found in a particular place
— church on Sunday morning —
and we take Jesus out into the world
spreading the good news
and encouraging others to come to church
so they can meet Jesus too.
Secondly, it implies that God is dependent on us
to do God’s mission.
If we don’t take pocket Jesus into the world
then the church is just going
to become a warehouse of little pocket Jesus’ (Jesi?).
It sounds ridiculous but I think we do often have that assumption —
that God isn’t out there,
and if we don’t bring God to the people out there,
then God’s kingdom will not grow.
Thirdly, it implies that we contain Jesus,
rather than being contained in the love of God.
Mission is something we do,
handing out our little inanimate pocket Jesus
— the good news of the gospel to others.
Which maybe suggests why most people in New Zealand
don’t trust the church.
It’s like we’ve got something to sell.
Let it be so now
But I think our passage today
suggests quite a different picture of mission.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus got baptised?
The baptism was for repentance and the forgiveness of sin.
So if Jesus was perfect —
then why get baptised?
Jesus’ answer, like many of his answers,
is frustratingly cryptic:
Let it be so now.
It is proper for us to do this
to fulfill all righteousness.
What did he mean by that?
It’s often talked about in this way:
that people — we — were so broken, so sinful,
that Jesus was baptised on our behalf.
He was baptised not for his own sin,
but for ours.
And his baptism was a kind of foretelling
of his death and resurrection.
I think that’s definitely part of it.
But there’s also another way to look at it.
That our being right with God
has never been about us climbing to God.
We constantly think it is
and try time and again
to prove ourselves, to make ourselves worthy.
But actually that’s never the way that God has worked.
God comes to us.
You can understand John’s surprise —
this seems entirely improper that God’s representative
should come to be baptised.
But Jesus is saying —
don’t you get it?!
That’s the way it’s always worked.
God comes to us.
God loves us.
God commits to us.
And in order to seal the deal
to fulfill all righteousness —
God sends his Son, Jesus, into the depths of
human suffering and despair,
human loneliness and anguish,
human selfishness and pride.
And there where Jesus is —
in the pits, the worst place you can imagine,
there the Spirit descends on him like a dove
and makes that place holy.
Where are the worst places we can imagine?
The living situation of some of the poorest in Hornby?
The loneliness of our own bedroom
lying awake at night?
The Goulding Ave playground
where a dead body was found last week?
What does it mean that even in those places
Jesus is sent by God
and by the Spirit is redeeming them,
making those places holy?
This reshapes how we understand mission I think.
Mission is not so much about us taking pocket-Jesus to the heathen.
Rather Mission is the Mission of God through Christ by the Spirit
who has been sent and is constantly being sent
into the darkest and worst places of our world.
Let me finish with a question
that will hopefully flow into our interview.
If that’s where God is
— in the darkest and worst places of our world —
and if God is working to make those places holy —
then what does that mean for us as Christ-followers,
called to join in with God’s work in the world?
Do you come to us, Lord?
And Jesus says: Let it be so.
Let is be so.
Amen.