July 1, 2007 - "Showing Up"

5 Pentecost, Year C

1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21
Galatians 5:1, 13025
Luke 9:51-62


It was a weekday afternoon and I received a call from the Mission Personnel Office in the Episcopal Church Center. This is the office responsible for sending foreign missionaries all over the world. The voice on the other end told me that they had a placement for me, "Cairo, EGYPT."

About a month prior to this phone call, I had a meeting with a representative from their office. I was very clear that I wanted to go to sub-Saharan Africa. I had romantic notions of living in a hut. After all, that is what missionaries do, right?

Cairo? I thought, "What is in Cairo? This is not what I had in mind." Don't you hate it when God does not comply with your plans? I told the Mission Personnel Office that I would have to think about and I would get back to them.

I could think of one thousand excuses NOT to go to Cairo. After my initial reaction, I found out I would be working with Sudanese refugees. I talked to some of my friends about my placement. I read about the civil war in Sudan. I began to re-orientate myself towards Cairo or rather God began to re-orientate me toward God's mission and not my own. A few days later I called the Mission Personnel Office and accepted my placement towards Cairo.

Sometimes the most difficult thing we can do as Christians is be willing to go where God leads us, willing to re-orientate ourselves towards God. It is not something that I always do.

In today's Gospel, Jesus had a mission. The lens through which we must view today's Gospel is easy to overlook. "He set his face to go to Jerusalem" This is the beginning of a journey, the eminent journey of Christ's suffering and death and then resurrection and ascension.

We are called to some places we may not want to go. God has a way of turning our sight to places we may not want to go or to be. Following God means that may find yourself in some pretty strange places. God is up to something and is inviting us all to join.

One important lesson I continue to learn in mission is that I am not in charge. It is God who extends the invitation and God who is in charge of the mission. Being open to God's mission means discerning where God is leading us, without our own expectations getting in the way. With this re-orientation, our mission is not a to-do list to remedy all the world's problems but rather begins with discernment on what God is calling us to do. We realize we are part of something beyond ourselves and we leave behind the delusion that this is dependent upon our performance. Our call to mission does not come from a sense of duty, rather from a sense of wondrous anticipation about what God has in store for us.

We realize we are NOT called to solve all the world's problems. We are called to participate in God's mission. For some this may mean burying your father AND following Jesus. We are called to constantly incorporate mission into our lives. This means not single-handedly ending hunger, but it may mean buying something for our food collection on Sundays. We are not responsible for clothing all the naked, but our mission may be to bring in clothes for one of our Southern Sudanese parishioners to take to Sudan. Mission work takes many forms.

After a few months in Cairo, I told my supervisor that I did not feel much like a missionary. I spent a lot of time talking to Sudanese refugees and drinking tea with them. My supervisor told me that is where mission work happens. It is the engaging with one another, in being present and sharing each other's stories. A large part of mission work is having tea.

I believe we are all called to be missionaries, whether in Cairo or at the corner of Temple and Chapel Streets. In mission work, it is not so much what we do, it is more about being present and open to where God is leading us. We are willing to show up and allow God to use us in whatever He sees we fit.

Woody Allen once said that 90% of life is showing up. I would say that at least 90% of mission work is showing up. My experience with most Episcopal churches is that we are moving farther away from our incarnational theology; that is that Jesus was in relation with us so we are called to be in relation with the world.

We are called not to be in relation through emails, text messages, iPhones, or even sending money. All are good things but cannot match physically engaging a problem.

The bishop of Haiti once told a group of Americans. "If you have $2,000, spend $1000 to come to Haiti and give $1000. If you have $1000, come to Haiti."

Not everyone is called to serve as a foreign missionary. The more difficult call is to serve as a domestic missionary. Wherever we go, we are called to be on the lookout for God.

God is up to something. Open your eyes to see God at work in the world. Open your ears to hear God calling. Discern what God is doing, then join God in that mission.

Amen.