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Conclusions

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              Hey, we made it all the way, from Ash Wednesday to Easter! We’ve given the 7 Central Things of Worship a look with fresh eyes. We’ve engaged with scripture, reflected on some ideas and authors and the world as it is; I’ve offered some preliminary maxims about these aspects of Christian practice, and we’ve prayed.               As I finish up this 17,000 some word devotional, I am aware of its inadequacies, and more so still my own. None the less, I hope I have pointed to God, who is gracious and faithful, who meets us in worship and in the world, who loves each one of us so very deeply. I hope this message can be heard in a world that can be indifferent and overwhelming, where idleness, isolation, and individualism can drown out the Spirit’s message. I hope these reflections deepen your Christian practices: meeting Jesus in word and sacrament, re-membering community, discerning reconciliation, habits of gratitude, and joyfully witnessing to your neighbor in action and
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Send us Lord!

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                God who so loves the world that you sent your own Son, let us follow him. Let us be present with and for the world in ways that echo and point to Jesus. Deliver us from prejudice and a lack of love, help us to love our neighbor and share your love with them. In the name by which we are sent to baptize, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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It is good to be sent

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  Sarang, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons It is not good to attempt to spread the Gospel in ways that are manipulative or insincere, incurious, or closed off from those with whom you seek to share the Good News. A spirit of judgment is surely asking for failure and is unfaithful to the whole venture. It is not good to travel thousands of miles away to share the Gospel, without considering your own context. Separating the good news of Jesus Christ from your roles, relationships, and responsibilities is irresponsible.   It is good to be sent out to serve our neighbors near and far—siblings and strangers, and witness to what God is up to in the world. We are called to accompany, be with, people on their journey with Jesus. This ministry of presence will draw us deeper into the world around us, its joys and flaws, where the Spirit is at work and where folk are in bondage to Sin. We ought to be curious enough about those to
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Sent into a 3D world

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  Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons               As I did in the Thanksgiving section, I’ll be pulling some questions from my handy chart of 21 questions in this reflection. Decentralization—Where and how are we sent when we are already dispersed?               This is a vocation question. We have all kinds of roles, relationships, and responsibilities that we are already present in. Ask yourself, how can I be present in them in ways that point to the Good News? It can really be that simple, ongoing intentional reflection on those three Rs.   Demographic Shift— How are we sent differently to the changing demographics in which we live? After all, we’ve been called to all nations since the start, how might we do so effectively? Communicating and embodying the Gospel in a relevant way across demographic divisions, be they racial, ethnic, generational, or class based, is an awesom
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“Keep them from evil”

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              “Open yourself to all that is human and you will find that every vain desire to escape from the world disappears. Be present to your age; adapt yourself to the conditions of the moment. Father, I pray you not to take them out of the world, but to keep them from evil.”—Father Roger               It may seem a little funny that I quote the head of a monastery as an example of sending, but the attitude expressed in the above quote exemplifies a faithful way to exist for our neighbors, whoever they are. Be present with them, in the time and place that we find ourselves in. Learn to understand and even love the world, not to rescue it and drag it away to some far-off place where a pure, unsoiled life can be lived, but to be salt and light—to preserve what is good, season it to be what it is, and to heal what needs the disinfecting that sunlight brings—here!               And you should see the fruits of the Taizé community Father Roger led. Not only has it produced a son
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Sent Out in Song

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                The Hymn “The Canticle of the Turning” is a favorite among a whole generation of Lutherans, probably all for vaguely the same reason, it was sung at an especially powerful moment in their life. For me it was sung before my cohort of Young Adults in Global Mission left the Lutheran Center in Chicago to our particular destinations around the world. A one-man band sent us off; if I remember correctly, he was simultaneously playing bagpipes, a harmonica, and drums. He played as all of us excited and anxious young people sang Mary’s song about the transformation of the whole world on account of her son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. It was the song that sent us out into the world to join in that mission. In my case that song sent me to an 850-year-old English abbey converted into a retreat centre where I cleaned rooms, taught kids archery, and served booze to Anglican Bishops.               I think that song was sung in LTSP’s chapel the night I and 11 other seminarians found ou
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Sent out by Jesus: Matthew 28:19-20 & Acts 1:8

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Bavarian State Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons               The above pieces of scripture are two charges to the church, that almost form a call and response, with each other. Matthew: Go to all nations! Make them disciples! Acts: Begin here in Jerusalem, but know that this new thing the Spirit is doing ripples out, to Judea where you’re from, but then Samaria, where you insist very heavily that you are not from. Point to what God has done in Jesus Christ among your people, and among those who you consider “those people.” In embracing the familiar and the other, the ripple in the pond will become a tsunami, splashing upon all the earth. Matthew: That is your calling. Baptizing them, teaching them everything about Jesus’ way of life. Jesus who is so very present with us, even as we leave Galilee. He will be with us, always! Acts: Truly, he is present! The Spirit, his Spirit, attests to who he is and what he has done. Who he is and who we are becoming by f
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