In Mission

Mark 1: 1 – 20

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 01 Aug, 2004

IT IS the 117th anniversary of Marrickville Baptist, and the fifth anniversary of Silver Street Mission. It time to reflect on what it means to be in mission, and whether we are in mission.

Jesus came into Galilee preaching that the time had come, that the Kingdom of God was at hand, and that the appropriate response is to believe that good news.
In other words, the very beginning of Jesus’ work was mission. He had come on a mission from God, and we, like the Blues Brothers, are also on a mission from God. The question we have to ask is, “Are we fulfilling that mission?”

  Marrickville Baptist Church came into existence as a result of mission. Baptists from Petersham saw that this was a boom area, and they made a conscious effort to reach out here to the new settlers. They began a Sunday School. They set up a church with 13 members. They associated with other Baptists in mission in South Western Sydney.
  In the period soon after World War I, they had a great growth in Youth ministry, and had a pastor who had expertise in that area.
  During the Depression, the pastor was a leader in local welfare as well as a pretty good preacher. At one time, all the deacons were converts under his ministry. One of the members was the deputy editor of the Communist newspaper, The Tribune, who came to a service to mock and left a believer.
  After the war, J B Wilson came, and had a reputation as quite an evangelist.

Through the 50s and 60s we had many effective ministries. Even around 1972 or 73 we had Australia’s largest All Age Sunday School.
Mission was always part of what we were about.

But Marrickville Baptist Church was never the same after the war as it had been before the war. People were still coming in, but people were also going out. Membership remained static and then began a slow decline.

  By the early 1980s, the church had decided to close down, and was only turned from that path by a concerted effort by a very small few.
  We had deaths. We had sicknesses. We had conflicts. We had departures. Some went because they disliked us, some went because they were following work. Some went because they got a good price on their house and they could go upmarket.
  We made efforts at mission, but they were unfocused. We wasted energy in areas where we had little hope of success and ignored the possibilities right in front of us.

We had members who believed that the age of response to the gospel was past. One even told me that the successes of the church in other places was because it was no longer preaching the true gospel there, and was picking up people who liked what they were hearing!
There was a loss of vision. Hope faded. We began to die.

It is the 117th anniversary of Marrickville Baptist, and the fifth anniversary of Silver Street Mission. It time to reflect on what it means to be in mission, and whether we are in mission.
How do we measure up today to the model and the message of Jesus?

Five years ago, we decided to change. We determined to become a Mission, to leave our past behind. We determined to pursue ministry and outreach. We determined never to become a club for superannuated Baptists, a rest home for those who had grown weary in well-doing.

I don’t want to go into everything we did. You remember the times we had Youth With a Mission teams here, and the encouragement we felt from that. You remember the positive things we heard about ourselves from some of those people.
But then disaster upon disaster struck. We had people sick. We had people distressed. We had people move away, no longer available to help us. The load of just keeping the doors open became heavier and heavier. My work situation increasingly kept me away. We closed down the Drop In and the Evening Service. Things went downhill rather than uphill.

Where are we now? What are the issues? How do we stand as the Christian Mission God has placed in Silver Street?

Look at Jesus. He is the measure. Understand what he says to us today. Hear and respond: be doers of the Word, not just hearers.

Today’s passage shows us Jesus coming into Galilee. We read,

9At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
12At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, 13and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
14After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15"The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Jesus was initiated into ministry, he went through testing, and then he arrived with a message. The time is here. The Kingdom of God is within reach. It’s imperative to turn to God and trust the message.

I’m reminded of 1972, when a tall, arrogant politician arrived on the scene with a similar message. The slogan was, “It’s time!”

It was time. Australia had had the same government for 23 years. As someone said on TV this week, “In Australia you could go to sleep for 20 years and wake up to find the same Government still in power.” From 1949 to 1966, we'd had Menzies as Prime Minister. He had his faults. He was a shrewd political player. But there was a basic decency to him, a desire that ordinary people could get on with life given some encouragement.

But he had never allowed the really competent men to rise to power, because he never wanted a challenge. After him came Harold Holt, who was a better swimmer than he was a political leader. He was the one who drowned.

After Holt, we had John Gorton, one of the most decent leaders we’ve ever had. He had the decency to vote himself out of office when he had the casting vote in a cabinet split. No other leader has ever done that.

And the last two years of Liberal Government were under the leadership of the Roger Rabbit of Australian politics, Sir William McMahon, whose two greatest assets were said to be his ears. He was married to the Jessica Rabbit of Australian politics, Sonia, whose most talked-about assets were her legs.

People were ready for change. What worked for post–War reconstruction in 1949, when I was three, was useless when I was 26. Australia had had two wars and several insurgencies since Menzies was first elected. People my age had been sent to fight in Vietnam before they were even allowed to vote. Australia wanted change. We were sick of being a colony, where the British Government could overturn a decision of the Australian Courts. We were tired of being dragged into wars to defend British colonialism.

  Two words — they resonated within us. Two words: “It’s time!” It was time for a change, time to do things differently. It was time for women, for the people stuck out on the fringes of Australian cities, lacking basic services. It was time to rethink our Australianism.
  And the unthinkable happened. The Coalition was swept away in a landslide for Labor.
  Whatever we might think of how Labor handled the situation, Australia had changed forever. What we are today could not have happened without what took place in 1972.

  And Jesus came declaring, “It’s time!” That’s what he means when he says, “The time has come.” It is time for change.
  Here is hope. The people who walked in darkness saw a great light. Israel was a colony, dominated by Roman overlords. It’s leadership was corrupt, High Priests who got the job by murder and marriage. The Sanhedrin was stacked. Business was more important than righteousness. There were terrorist killings, paybacks, extortions. The people who held themselves out as spiritual saviours were obsessed with petty regulations because they were easier to deal with than the big issues were.
  “It’s time!” said Jesus — and the people sat up and listened.
  If we can’t declare to our society that it is God’s time, we will not have a credible impact on how people think or live.
  But we need to understand what that time is about. Jesus said,

God’s Kingdom is at hand.

That expression is often misunderstood. Many interpreters suggest that it means that God’s kingdom is not far away, but still out of reach. But that isn’t what the English would mean, and it’s certainly not what the Greek says. When someone says “Help is at hand,” they don’t mean, “In a couple of years someone will come by to get you out of your burning house — if you can survive that long.” They mean, “Here it comes! It’s coming round the curve, it’s loosened all its steam and brakes and straining every nerve” — just like the Gospel Train itself. When help is at hand, it's here. It just hasn't inflated the liferaft yet.

  When I was young and heavily into cars, I used to read the car magazines. They sometimes described a car as having a gear lever or a handbrake that was designed to FETH. That means, it was designed to Fall Easily To Hand. It was where you would reach for it when you needed it.
  That’s how God’s Kingdom is. The Greek means the same thing. It’s now in reach, it’s now pulling into the station. It’’s arrived!
  The Jews understood what the Kingdom of God is about. Luke recorded the extended version of Jesus’campaign speech, where he said,

18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Luke wanted to make it plain for us Gentiles that Jesus was talking about a time for a better deal for the poor, for emptying the prisons, for healing and liberty and grace.
That is our message, too. God is breaking into the world to set things right once more. It’s a rightness ranging from that spiritual one–on–one relationship with God through Jesus the saviour, all the way to healing and social justice.

If our ministry is not something like that, if it does not follow those guidelines, however feebly, then it is not mission in the truly Christian sense.
But we must always issue a call to action. Jesus had a “Therefore” attached to his declaration.

  Gough Whitlam declared, “It is time”, and gave hope to people whose hope had faded. His “Therefore” was this: “Vote Labor this election.” The call worked.
  Jesus came declaring, “It is time!” And his “Therefore” was, “Repent and believe the Gospel.”
  When we declare good news, we also have to call on people to respond to it, to change their minds and their wills and their affections and believe that these things are so.
  There is no point in hearing a message and doing nothing about it.

  So our challenge today is in two parts.
  The first relates to ourselves.
  Are we truly Kingdom people in all that we do in this area? Answering for myself, I have to say that I have become rather weary in well–doing through the years that I have been here. So many things have failed to take off. So many conflicts — major and minor — have interrupted our projects. We have had a vision of reaching to those who have needs. But we have failed to agree among ourselves about how to do it. We have focused on some needs to the exclusion of others. And the struggle has worn us out.
  The message in today passage is very clear. It is time! God has brought his Kingdom into the world. Everything is becoming new. God’s Messiah has come to put it all right.
  This is a message of enormous hope. Some of us are in bondage — in bondage to a sense of duty, in bondage to conflicting demands. Some of us are blind to what God is really doing. Some of us are walking in darkness.
  Jesus has come to change it all.
  We have a simple challenge to meet, and that is to repent, to let go of what binds us, to turn away from it and to turn to God — repent and believe the gospel, the good news. God’s time has come!

  The second part is about our mission.
  We have tried, but we are giving up. We have tried, but are we really declaring and living the good news? Are we making it clear in word and in deed, that God is doing something new through Jesus, that salvation, that healing, that deliverance, are now here, ready for us to grasp and live by?
  Many have offered to help us, and have backed out. Why? I think it is because they don’t see that we are ready to do it ourselves.
  When we begin doing it, then the blessing will follow. Harvesters will follow when we begin sowing. God will bless when we are faithful.

  We haven’t done well so far: we can resolve to do better. We haven’t begun growing again, but we will when we respond to God’s call.
  Today, I acknowledge my fault.
  Today, I repent, because the Kingdom is here and it’s time.
  Today, I believe, because Jesus commands me to.
  Here I stand; I can do nothing else;
  God help me -- and bless us all in our resolve, AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2004. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)