A missionary? Me? How incompatible with my own character and lifestyle such a designation seems. But the fact remains that, though I may never venture beyond the boundaries of my hometown, though I may never engage in any socialization outside of the workplace or home, though the words I speak and the tasks I undertake never amount to much at all, I am, by a single act of redemption, an honest-to-goodness missionary.
The word missionary is, not surprisingly, derived from the noun mission, which, in turn is from the Latin missionem "an act of sending, dispatching; a release, a setting at liberty". It is a noun of action from the past participle stem of mittere "to send", and was used originally in reference to the Jesuits who were responsible for evangelizing to approximately one hundred and twelve countries on six continents. In English, the word mission can be a noun referring to an undertaking or assignment of some import, to a vocation generally associated with a religious calling, or to body of persons (i.e. ministry) serving a distinct and unified purpose, namely the propagation of an affiliated ideology. As a Christian, and therefore a missionary, one fulfills, I believe, each of these roles. As a Christian, I cannot help but do so:
Following His resurrection and during His reunion with the disciples, Christ made clear their role as His ambassadors. In John 20:21, He relates their injunction to the Father's own act of sending Christ into the world; just as Christ was sent to declare the Word of God, which was salvation to mankind, so it now fell upon the disciples--His representatives--to declare the same Good News to all creation:
I would like to briefly anatomize the primary verbs of this verse, if you will bear with me: the emphasis here is upon the active imperative verb kerusso (preach, proclaim, herald, declare), not upon the passive participle poreuthentes (go). For example, "Go wash the car" really cannot be said to emphasize the verb 'go', for it would have little to no meaning if the one to whom this task was assigned paid more attention to it than to the actual washing of the car. Go do what? Wash the car! Go preach the Gospel. Go do what? Preach the Gospel! It's a grammatical issue that has been converted into an unnecessary semantic misunderstanding. I am sorry, but I do not possess the scholarship or talent for expressing myself better. I have known too many, including myself, who have wasted time browbeating themselves because they were not going out into the deserts and jungles, and diverse places to preach the message of Christ. Our lives are to be a reflection, our words a declaration of the hope that is in us. Going is a secondary act to proclaiming. Indeed, it is a useless one in the absence of the other.
As Jesus' disciples, we inherently assume the responsibility of proclaiming the Good News of salvation provided by Him, which is the offer of forgiveness of sins and of eternal life. Yes, we must necessarily make some physical effort to move ourselves from where we are to where those who have not heard are located, but unless we preach, the going is for nought. Whereas, we may preach without going anywhere, particularly in this age of technology. I might never leave my basement, but, with a proper Wifi signal, I am without any sort of excuse for failing to fulfill Christ's commission. Therefore, I am a missionary.
I want to return to the definition I gave of the word missionem, specifically to "a setting at liberty". Two images come to my mind when I read this, the first being that of a heard of animals being released from a cage and let loose upon the world outside. The second to that of both being discharged of a terrible burden and of being unfettered from chains. As a former graduate student, I have I am well acquainted with the reality of shouldering debt that is both inescapable and, at times, suffocating. I am not free to do many things, including making donations to those in more dire straits. I am not free to share what I do not possess. I am in debt. I am a debtor. I cannot give what I do not have. Salvation, on the other hand, I do have, and with it, a mission. I have been set free of my sins so that I may proclaim that same freedom--or the possibility of it--to others who are still debtors. I was dead, but now am alive. A dead man cannot proclaim life to other dead men. A living man--a man in possession of life--can. He bears the responsibility. When Christ died for, rose for me, called me by name, and thereby commissioned me, He set me free--at liberty--He set me loose upon the the world, cast off my chains and my burdens so that I might declare freedom to the captives. I need not venture beyond the confines of my neighborhood or, indeed, my own room in order to preach to a global audience. But I proclaim I must. That is my mission.
This blog is audacious, I believe. I am moody, melancholy, and bordering on bipolar, but I am also ransomed, redeemed, and reconciled. The latter trio trumps the former, though, as a current itinerant of a fallen world, all six must unfortunately coexist for the time being.
I will be journeying to Southeast Asia for a grand total of nine weeks at the beginning of next month. I find myself simultaneously serene, indifferent, and terrified. The intended purpose of this blog is to chronicle happenings of dubious import. This post is meant to serve as a preamble to whatever I choose to write during the expedition, and also to superficially illuminate (and hopefully warn any hopeful or unsuspecting readers) the sort of person I am. What I hope to underline more than any other transitory and ultimately meaningless quality my self possesses or displays is the permanent, meaningful, and universal fact that Christ is everything.
And here we go...
The word missionary is, not surprisingly, derived from the noun mission, which, in turn is from the Latin missionem "an act of sending, dispatching; a release, a setting at liberty". It is a noun of action from the past participle stem of mittere "to send", and was used originally in reference to the Jesuits who were responsible for evangelizing to approximately one hundred and twelve countries on six continents. In English, the word mission can be a noun referring to an undertaking or assignment of some import, to a vocation generally associated with a religious calling, or to body of persons (i.e. ministry) serving a distinct and unified purpose, namely the propagation of an affiliated ideology. As a Christian, and therefore a missionary, one fulfills, I believe, each of these roles. As a Christian, I cannot help but do so:
Following His resurrection and during His reunion with the disciples, Christ made clear their role as His ambassadors. In John 20:21, He relates their injunction to the Father's own act of sending Christ into the world; just as Christ was sent to declare the Word of God, which was salvation to mankind, so it now fell upon the disciples--His representatives--to declare the same Good News to all creation:
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the Good News to every creature" (Mark 16:15)
I would like to briefly anatomize the primary verbs of this verse, if you will bear with me: the emphasis here is upon the active imperative verb kerusso (preach, proclaim, herald, declare), not upon the passive participle poreuthentes (go). For example, "Go wash the car" really cannot be said to emphasize the verb 'go', for it would have little to no meaning if the one to whom this task was assigned paid more attention to it than to the actual washing of the car. Go do what? Wash the car! Go preach the Gospel. Go do what? Preach the Gospel! It's a grammatical issue that has been converted into an unnecessary semantic misunderstanding. I am sorry, but I do not possess the scholarship or talent for expressing myself better. I have known too many, including myself, who have wasted time browbeating themselves because they were not going out into the deserts and jungles, and diverse places to preach the message of Christ. Our lives are to be a reflection, our words a declaration of the hope that is in us. Going is a secondary act to proclaiming. Indeed, it is a useless one in the absence of the other.
As Jesus' disciples, we inherently assume the responsibility of proclaiming the Good News of salvation provided by Him, which is the offer of forgiveness of sins and of eternal life. Yes, we must necessarily make some physical effort to move ourselves from where we are to where those who have not heard are located, but unless we preach, the going is for nought. Whereas, we may preach without going anywhere, particularly in this age of technology. I might never leave my basement, but, with a proper Wifi signal, I am without any sort of excuse for failing to fulfill Christ's commission. Therefore, I am a missionary.
I want to return to the definition I gave of the word missionem, specifically to "a setting at liberty". Two images come to my mind when I read this, the first being that of a heard of animals being released from a cage and let loose upon the world outside. The second to that of both being discharged of a terrible burden and of being unfettered from chains. As a former graduate student, I have I am well acquainted with the reality of shouldering debt that is both inescapable and, at times, suffocating. I am not free to do many things, including making donations to those in more dire straits. I am not free to share what I do not possess. I am in debt. I am a debtor. I cannot give what I do not have. Salvation, on the other hand, I do have, and with it, a mission. I have been set free of my sins so that I may proclaim that same freedom--or the possibility of it--to others who are still debtors. I was dead, but now am alive. A dead man cannot proclaim life to other dead men. A living man--a man in possession of life--can. He bears the responsibility. When Christ died for, rose for me, called me by name, and thereby commissioned me, He set me free--at liberty--He set me loose upon the the world, cast off my chains and my burdens so that I might declare freedom to the captives. I need not venture beyond the confines of my neighborhood or, indeed, my own room in order to preach to a global audience. But I proclaim I must. That is my mission.
This blog is audacious, I believe. I am moody, melancholy, and bordering on bipolar, but I am also ransomed, redeemed, and reconciled. The latter trio trumps the former, though, as a current itinerant of a fallen world, all six must unfortunately coexist for the time being.
I will be journeying to Southeast Asia for a grand total of nine weeks at the beginning of next month. I find myself simultaneously serene, indifferent, and terrified. The intended purpose of this blog is to chronicle happenings of dubious import. This post is meant to serve as a preamble to whatever I choose to write during the expedition, and also to superficially illuminate (and hopefully warn any hopeful or unsuspecting readers) the sort of person I am. What I hope to underline more than any other transitory and ultimately meaningless quality my self possesses or displays is the permanent, meaningful, and universal fact that Christ is everything.
And here we go...
