missio Dei

The dna of missio Dei
In Romans 14:17, Paul gives a succinct definition of the Kingdom of God. He says that “the kingdom is not about what we can and cannot eat or drink, rather it is about righteousness(justice) , peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

This has become our compass. Whatever decisions we need to make in life , big or small, this compass serves as guide to aligning them to the values and rhythms of God’s coming Kingdom. “Will this create, righteousness, justice, peace and joy in the world, or won’t it?” To quote Leunig, “it is as simple, and as difficult as that”.

One afternoon, we even tried to come up with working definitions of each of those terms. Here’s the fruit of that labour:

Righteousness
Just like the woman caught in adultery, we have been let off the hook. We have an opportunity to start again, knowing that God accepts us unconditionally. It is an opportunity to live by a different set of values, the values of Jesus and his Kingdom. However, it does not stop there! We are called to participate with God in acts that effectively let others off the hook in exactly the same way. Righteousness is not a substance, but an act. Jesus put his reputation and body on the line to give us a new start, go and do likewise!

Justice

When someone says “justice”, it is a reasonable to assume that they mean “vengeance”. God’s justice is not about punishing the guilty, rather it is about creating equity. We deserve nothing from God, yet because he *is* love, he responds to us with grace, mercy and compassion. Justice is the world as it should be, if we all behaved in a righteous way. Imagine if everyone treated those around them based on their inherent worth as an individual made by God in his image? Imagine the quality of relationship, community and life? This is justice! Righteous acts, create a just society and world. Take action, rather than believing in a concept. Stand up for and help the disadvantaged, speak out on behalf of those who can’t.

Peace
Peace is not a feeling or an emotional state. Peace means restoring the thing that has been broken, back to its original condition. It is an active work of patiently gathering the shattered pieces of the whole, tenderly binding them together and making them one again. This is what God is all about, in our individual lives, and in the midst of his shattered creation. We are invited to participate with God as he creates his perfection in all things, social, political, physical and economic.

Joy
The feeling that comes from knowing and being connected to the bigger picture and a certainty in our hearts that one day, God will once again restore this incredible creation.

The Practices of missio Dei
We have a compass, and we know where we are going. So how do we get there? The following are the “how” of our journey as the people of God. We hope that by practicing observable behaviors, we can participate in the missio Dei.

Prayer
We reflect all of the time. We reflect the values, beliefs and practices of either the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdoms of this Earth. The challenge is to know the difference. When we talk about prayer and reflection, it is about inviting God and His word to be our mirror, so that we can see with clarity the things that we are reflecting. The beauty is when we contemplate before God, and he shows us just how much we don’t reflect the values of the Kingdom, his grace is present to help us to change.

Our commitment to prayer is a commitment to trying to develop a habit or praying by ourselves and with others, on a regular basis.

The Practice: 1 hour of listening prayer and prayer with at least one other person each week.

Engaging the Scriptures
The bible is not a handbook filled with tips for living. It is not an encyclopedia, or a love letter from God to you. It is a story. It is a story about people from all walks of life, rich, poor, powerful, powerless and everything in between. It is the many stories of people in all sorts of circumstances as they encounter and engage an extraordinary God.

Our commitment to the bible is a commitment to reading it as a story, both individually and collectively. As we read it, the intent is that we find ourselves in the many different stories and hopefully the story will read us, leading us to a place where we can creatively be the people of God in this time and place.

The Practice: Read a set number of chapters each week, noting your insights and questions to be discussed when we gather.

Inner Transformation
Peter asks Jesus, “How many times should I forgive my brother? Seven times?” Jesus answers “Seventy times seven.” Jesus want’s us to be perfect when it comes to forgiveness. He want’s us to be perfect lovers, perfect givers of grace. Richard Rohr says that Christianity is the only religion where we are invited into a place of constant movement towards perfection with the promise that we will never achieve it in this lifetime. When can we stop loving, forgiving, being gracious? When have we arrived? The answer is when we see Jesus face to face.

Our commitment to inner transformation is not a commitment to a destination, but a commitment to a journey.

The Practice: When we gather for accountability, we ask each other the question, “how have you offended and how have you brought pleasure to God this month”? We then proceed to answer honestly.

Outer Transformation
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he instructed them to pray “thy Kingdom come, and thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. A commitment to outer transformation is a commitment to ordering our lives around God’s transforming dream. It involves personal and collective acts of:

• Reconciliation, Advocacy and Social Justice
• Evangelism and the telling of the Jesus story in word and deed.
• Care for God’s creation that he has entrusted to us.
• A commitment to trying to let God’s Kingdom agenda order our vocation and our working lives.

The Practice: One act of outward transformation (social justice, evangelism, ecological concern or vocation alignment) and then time to reflect on the action, each week.

Stuff
Sociologists tell us that the most powerful and pervading religion in the world today is the religion of consumerism. We live in the midst of a culture that tells us that we are defined by what we wear the things we own and the place where we live. Our commitment to Stewardship is an attempt to acknowledge that our wealth and resources are gifts from God, and that we have a responsibility to offer them back to Him, using them in ways that please him and dignify others locally and globally.

The Practice: One act of stewardship, choosing from (a) giving something away or (b) eating with someone at your expense, each week.