Reflections on Risk-Taking Mission and Service

We begin by asking, “What is mission and service?” Mission and service are projects and on-going efforts that seek to address human needs, to ease suffering and bring healing and wholeness. And this care is offered to people whether or not the people helped will become members of the church. They are helped because they are in need and we can help them. There is no other agenda save alleviating suffering.
By “risk-taking,” we mean addressing the needs of people we don’t know or who are very different from us in the way they look and act, or who perhaps live in communities where we are uncomfortable being in, or who have needs that strain our capacity to meet them. By reaching out to these who are suffering requires more from us than we would find convenient or safe.
So, what is “risk-taking mission and service?” It is reaching out to people we normally do not associate with or whose needs are substantial in order to alleviate their suffering in the name of Christ. A congregation that practices risk-taking mission and service is a fruitful congregation. And like all the other practices we have discussed, the motivation for doing this practice comes from the heart. It comes from a heart that loves God and God’s creation deeply and longs to increase in love.
Perhaps no other congregational practice stretches us in our discipleship. The increase in amount of risk taken on to meet the needs of others, this is where the rubber really meets the road and our faith is proved by our deeds. As Bishop Schnase writes, “The stretch of Christian discipleship is to love those for whom it is not automatic, easy, common, or accepted.” It is our capacity to take risks in reaching out to those who are suffering that reveals how far we are willing to go to love our neighbor.
And who is our neighbor? That’s the question that Jesus answers in one of his best known and loved parables, the story of the good Samaritan. As you may remember, Samaritans were to Jews as the Taliban would be to one of us. They mutually despised each other. And in this story, you have a Samaritan crossing over well-defined boundaries in order to tend to the need of his neighbor, who happens to be a Jew. Just so, we are challenged by Jesus to cross over boundaries if need be in order to tend to the needs of our neighbors. Every person is our neighbor, whether this person is across the street or on the other side of the world.
Jesus also teaches us that we will be held to account for our refusal to care for those around us who are in need. We recall Jesus describing the final judgment, the separation of the sheep and the goats, and the measure of that judgment being whether or not one cared for “the least of these.” It is no surprise to us that as followers of Christ, lovers of God and of God’s creation, that we are called forth to care for those who are suffering, whoever they are and wherever they are. We know we need to do this. But it is not easy for us.
It is not easy because most of us are risk-adverse. Especially when one gets older, the tendency is to conserve because one doesn’t have as much time to recover from mistakes. It’s expected to be risky when you are young and have your whole life ahead of you. The older you get, or, when you have more, either more responsibility or more wealth, the tendency is to conserve and play it safe. We also value the capacity to not be conned or taken advantage of. Plus, let’s face it; when going through economic challenges, everyone tends to hold back and preserve what you have out of fear of not having enough in the future to maintain your standard of living. Prudence reigns supreme and the more immediate response when made aware of the needs of others is, “I can’t help. I have my own bills. I have to take care of my own needs and the needs of my family.” Knowing what we should do, and actually stretching ourselves in order to respond to the need is a real challenge for most of us.
I’m not going to talk too much more about money. That’s next week’s sermon. The focus today is on how far we are willing to go to help people who make us uncomfortable or who live in places that are deemed “unsafe.” Are we willing to take the risk of being misunderstood as a result of helping certain people? For example, are we willing to respond to the needs of illegal immigrants among us? By caring for illegal immigrants, this could bring some controversy our way. But is that a risk we would be willing to take if we are presented with a need from that community that we can address? What if we had the opportunity to meet the needs of prostitutes? Drug users? Pedophiles? People who are trans-gendered? White-supremacists? Who will we risk associating with in order to alleviate suffering? How far are we willing to go to follow the example of Christ, who ate with sinners? Please remember, Jesus did not condone sin. But He did break bread with sinners. He came to heal the sick, to proclaim good news to the poor, to set at liberty the oppressed. And Jesus’ actions stirred up controversy because of who he was willing to touch and heal. How far can we go in following His example?
This is a tough practice. To practice the risk-taking mission and service that Jesus patterns for us requires much from us. It requires first a profound love for God and all people who are made in the image and likeness of God, including prostitutes and pedophiles. To care for people like this also requires a heavy dose of humility and the willingness to be misunderstood and criticized by good, Christian people.
But there are rewards. One is the experience of building relationships with people that we do not understand, and, frankly, are afraid of. Another potential reward is seeing the lives of people redeemed and transformed, of sick people being made well because of what God is able to do through us. Think about it. God wants to heal those who are sick, like prostitutes and pedophiles. But in God’s wisdom, this healing does not happen out of thin air but must flow through the hands of real people. Would it not be a great joy to know that God used you and me to bring healing into the life of someone that society has cast off as a degenerate?
Of all the fruitful practices we have looked at so far, this is the one in which we are in desperate need of grace. There is great need around us. But for many reasons we fail to respond. Are we even willing to respond? We need to ask God to give the grace to respond. We need to ask God to forgive us of our hardened hearts and our tendency to look past the need around us. We need to ask God to give us greater capacity to be self-sacrificial, humble, and courageous in our response to the needs of others, whoever they might be. A church that is practicing risk-taking mission and service is a church that is fruitful because it is extending the ministry of Christ to the downcast and fallen. By the grace of God, may we all grow in our capacity to take risks in service to our neighbors, especially to those for whom loving them is not “automatic, easy, common, or accepted.”
Let us pray. God of love, grace, and mercy, who desires that the whole world might be saved; forgive us for our hardness of heart. Forgive us when we divert our eyes, close our ears, or turn our backs on people who are sick and need healing. Give us grace to separate the condition of a person from who they are as human beings, made in Your image and likeness. Your heart breaks with the suffering that ravages the world. Let our hearts break as well. As Jesus wept over Jerusalem, help us to weep over Cincinnati. As Jesus touched and healed the leper, enable us to touch the modern-day leper. As Jesus was condemned for eating with sinners, let us be willing to be condemned as a consequence of eating with sinners. Finally, O God, make us humble and acknowledge that we too are sinners and in need of healing. We ask this, our Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ our Healer, through the Holy Spirit our Comforter. Amen.