February 21, 2021
In the gospel of Mark, first chapter, Jesus starts his ministry, and everything is upside down. First, John the Baptist says, “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” The real spiritual powerhouse is coming. He is talking about Jesus.
Then Jesus comes. John has said Jesus is the one filled with the Holy spirit. Jesus will baptize, and it will be the real deal, with the Holy Spirit. John can’t do that. But then it turns out John is the one who baptizes Jesus. The less powerful guy, John the Baptist, baptizes the spiritual powerhouse: Jesus. It is upside down. It’s a sign that God’s way, is upside down. The student becomes the teacher.
John baptizes Jesus and verses 11 and 12 say: And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness,”
God is so pleased with Jesus, that he sends him into the desert for 40 days to be tempted by Satan! That makes no sense. A father that his please with his son, gives him a real gift, not a 40 trip to the wilderness with no food! But God’s way is upside down. You have to be willing to suffer, to follow God.
Finally verses 14 and 15 say, 14 After 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 has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
John is in prison, and Jesus is starting his teaching, saying the kingdom of God is very close. It’s good news!
It’s an upside-down kingdom. Where, despite prison for John, there is good news. It is a kingdom of humility and suffering, where there is bad news with the good news, but God is here!
In a world where we are tempted to do selfish things, Jesus came in an upside-down way, an unselfish way. Jesus taught in Matthew 16:24-27: 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
If we act selfishly, we risk losing our soul. If we act selflessly, we will find true life in God, we will get a reward.
Today is our annual congregational meeting. It’s a time to think about our church, how do we do what God wants and follow the upside-down way of God’s kingdom? What does it mean for our church to take up our cross and follow Jesus?
We have a purpose statement: “Connect with God, Connect with Others, Connect Others with God.” We enjoy getting together and talking to each other. You go to Ladies’ Aid, and you’ll see we like to talk and enjoy food together. The knitters connect. We connect with God and each other in our Bible study, we connect in Sunday school. We’re connected with God and each other “through the prayer chain. We have a nice spirit in worship. We’re connected with God and each other.
So, our purpose is Connect with God, Connect with Others, Connect Others with God.
Our next step is to come up with a mission objective. What is a mission objective? And how is it different from our purpose?
Our Purpose is pretty general. We will never be able to check our purpose off as done: We can’t say, hey, we connected with each other, and we connected with all the other people in the world, and we got them all connected to God. We’re done! No purpose is something we’ll never finish. Purpose is general and forever. But mission is different. Our mission is specific and now.
An example of this is NASA. Their purpose is basically, “We’re exploring space.” And their purpose is never really accomplished. They will never say, “Hey, we’ve been all through space and explored everything there is to explore.” But if you asked them “What’s your mission?” They could say, “To get rovers to Mars.” or “To send people to Mars.” They have a lot of work to do on that, but one day they will check that off their list, mission accomplished, and ask, “What’s next?” “What’s our mission now?”
The mission gives NASA focus. A mission for us would give us focus. What does St. Peter’s want to accomplish in the next year or two, that would be inspiring, but we actually could do it?
NASA has its mission. If someone walks in one day and says, “I have a better idea. Let’s go to Pluto!” Everyone’s going to say, “No, that’s not our mission now. We’re going to Mars!” Mission gets everybody in church on the same page. And when we all work together, things really start happening. Mission has specific numbers and a due date, so you know how far you have to go, and when you want to finish.
One church came up with this mission: to have 80% of their average worship attendance connected in a group or team by Dec. 31. Hopefully on Jan. 1, they walk into church and celebrate: “We did it! Now we need a new mission to work on!”
So what mission do you think God wants us to take on? What’s most important for us to do in the next year or two? After we accomplish it, we’ll make a different mission objective.
We need to hear from you: What are your ideas? You have great ideas. Let’s put our heads together, and come up with what really fits, what we are inspired to do. Let’s start thinking and praying and see what God has in mind for us.
On this insert there is the question: “What do you think is most important for St. Peter’s to do in the next two years?” Let us know your answer.
Then there are examples of mission objectives:
- Have 80% of average worship attendance connected in a group, class or team.
- Have 35 people or more attending worship by Dec 31, 2022.
- Do good deeds that impact 100 families with children.
- Grow younger as a church.
- 25 church members will develop relationships with and bless 4 of their neighbors by Dec. 31, 2022.
Then there is space for you to write your own ideas.
We plan to get this out to people who aren’t worshipping here today as well. I believe together we will come up with a Holy Spirit inspired mission objective.
You can turn it in now. Or you can take it with you if you need time to think, just be sure to give your ideas.
Jesus started his ministry in an upside-down way. John the Baptist, the lesser man, baptized the Spirit filled Jesus. God loved Jesus so much he sent him out with no food to be tempted! Jesus taught us to lose our lives for Him in order to find them. Together as a church, let’s get on a mission, let us serve the world, and help build God’s wonderful, upside-down kingdom. Amen.
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