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The Missions Tradition
Sermon by the Reverend Dr. B.C. Paul
Director of Emmaus Ministries
Hyderabad, India
Text:
Delivered on Mission Sunday
May 29, 2005
at St.
in Donnelly, MN
Good Morning. I bring greetings from all the members of Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church in India, which is the sister church of the ELCA.
I also bring greetings from my family and all the members of our mission in the villages with whom we always share about your congregation and all the people here.
It is my privilege to be here this morning participating in the worship service and sharing the Word of God with you on this Mission Sunday. I want to thank you all and Pastor Johnson, for giving me this opportunity.
As you are celebrating this Mission Sunday, I wish to express my deep appreciation and my thanks to God because I am the product of this great tradition of the missionary movement. By celebrating this Mission Sunday, you are expressing your commitment to the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, I have had the privilege of participating in such Mission Sundays in the past when we were in Chicago, 20-25 years back, and these were the occasions when many missionaries were on furlough and were invited by their congregations to share about their mission work, to share about the people, the culture among whom they are serving, and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ was being proclaimed, how the churches are planted, and the great sacrifices and achievements of the missionaries. These were the occasions when they were sharing about all these things. These were also the occasions to pray about the missions and all the people around and share the great concerns of Lord Jesus Christ in saving all these people.
Well, while sharing all these things, the missionaries used to tell about the works, the sacrifices, the difficulties they were facing. And for the churches, it was an occasion to give thanks to God that the great sacrifices of these missionaries, and also the sacrifices of the sending churches, the congregations, praying churches, were not going to waste as the churches are being planted. Well, it is true, the Gospel which is preached in other parts of the world was not going in waste; in vain.
Millions of peoples’ lives have been enlightened and transformed through the preaching of the Gospel. Not only the individual lives, but also the structures, the sociopolitical and economical structures, the moral values, and the ethical systems of the people were also being transformed in many parts of the world. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has such a great power to transform these things. There might be an opportunity for me to share some of these great achievements of the missionaries afterwards. These Mission Sundays were also, not only the occasions to hear about the reports of the mission work, but these are also the occasions to remind the churches and God’s people about their missionary obligations. And these are the occasions to rededicate themselves for this great cause. This is the primary purpose of these Mission Sundays.
Well, today’s Gospel lesson and the related passages talk about the reason for the existence of the church are the tasks of the church. What is the church for? What is the primary purpose of the church? Why Jesus Christ wanted the church to be planted on this earth?
Well, Jesus himself talks about the reason for the existence of the church in unmistakable terms and we are all aware of the great missionary passage in the scripture, the great commission of Jesus Christ in Matthew’s Gospel. The great commission of Jesus Christ has always been a motivational force behind the missionary movement in all the churches. Let me read this passage. “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”
Well, in this passage there are three things: (1.) There is a great claim, (2.) there is Great Commission, and (3.) the great promise of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 18, Jesus says, “All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This is the great claim. All
authority on human lives belongs to God. His authority, his rule and his
kingdom have to be established. It is human sin that rejects and rebels against
God’s will and his rule. A person defines sin like this: Sin is an attempt to
establish a parallel kingdom to the Kingdom of God. Man is disobedient to the
will of God, rejecting his authority, his moral and ethical standards and
seeking to realize the supremacy of his or her ego and self. That is sin, it is
true. And this sinful and selfish nature of humans is the root cause of all
problems and evil in this world. This egoistic and selfish nature is the root
cause of all inequalities, oppressive, and exploitative systems in society.
Man’s salvation lies in the total surrender and obedience to God’s will and
authority. St. Paul says in
In this Great Commission in verse 19, Jesus says “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Well, Jesus Christ himself further extends this great commission and explains in Luke’s Gospel, as we read in Luke’s Gospel chapter 24:49, let me read this, what Jesus further explains about this commission, “Thus, it is written, it is in the words of Jesus Christ, that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, that is what Jesus is telling. That repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name.”
As we noticed, it is human sin that rejects God’s authority and causes man’s downfall and man’s salvation lies in his reconciliation and fellowship with God.
So, the church’s task involves preaching,
proclamation of the repentance and forgiveness. Every man and woman needs to
repent of sins and be forgiven by God. Well, the scripture explains the human
nature. No one is righteous the Bible says, all are born dead in trespasses and
sins, says
Well, the church has to proclaim this message, for it is very difficult and it is not an easy task to preach to the people that you are sinners. It is easy to go and tell them that God loves you, but it is not easy to go and tell people that you are sinners and you need to repent, especially in [an] Indian context it is more difficult for us because Indian scriptures, Hindu religions, do not accept that humans are sinners.
The great preacher of Hindu religion, Swami Vivekananda, he also came to Chicago and spoke in the Parliament of World Religions sometime back. He says it is sin to call a person a sinner. “How can you call a person a sinner when he is created by God?” he is asking. Well, he says it is ignorance out of which he commits mistakes but not of sinful nature. That is the Hindu argument: How can we preach about this sinful nature of human persons?
But, if we are faithful to the commission of Jesus Christ and the scriptures, we have to preach because it is the scripture which explains the human nature. Paul is explaining in Romans, the seventh chapter: It is not out of ignorance that man commits wrong things, but out of sinful nature. What Paul is saying, he did not yet do the good he wanted to do, nor did he refrain from doing what he did not want to do. In other words, he is explaining that there is a law, a principle, working in human beings. It is the law of sin and death,” he termed it.
So, people should be told, whether they like it or not, if we are faithful to this Great Commission that they are sinful by nature and the end is eternal damnation. The sin when you proclaim about the human nature, sinful nature, what is the result of sin? The eternal damnation, people should be taught about that. They should also be told that there is a way out of this eternal damnation. If they repent of their sins and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, who died for their sins, their sins will be forgiven and they will be saved. I think this is the crux of the matter in the mission fields and missionary work. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, in essence, is related to the matters of sin and eternal death and salvation, the redemption from the bondage of sin and eternal salvation.
It is not simply about helping the people. If Christ’s mission is only to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and heal the sick, He need not have died on the cross. His mission is more than feeding the hungry people. That is why the great commission involves preaching of repentance and forgiveness. No one needs to repent to receive food and clothing from the people.
Well, we face so many arguments about this preaching of the gospel and proclamation of Jesus Christ and many churches found the easy way of doing social ministry and avoiding preaching about the cross and about Jesus Christ, that was the easy way because of the changing situations, of course.
We know, no doubt, the social/political situations in the world are fast changing. There is an increasing and organized opposition to the preaching of the Gospel these days. Fulfilling the great commission invites much threats and opposition. Foreign missionaries are not allowed enter into some countries. Special laws were enacted to ban conversions in some of the states in our country; this is banned by law; conversions are prohibited. There is much opposition and persecution faced by preachers.
However, the one who claims all authority on earth and in heaven gave the great commission, the one who gives the great commission to go out and preach and baptize and make disciples. He is not unaware of these difficulties and opposition. That is why He gave the great promise to the disciples and to the church. In Matthew, in the great commission, there is also great promise. Jesus says, “and surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.” He who made this promise will never forget. This promise is made in the context of the great commission. The commission and promise go together. The obligation of following and fulfilling His commission and the privilege of His presence and protection go together.
Some people have seen it on TV and other programs, they always talk about the promise of Christ, but they seldom talk about the responsibilities and especially the responsibility of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are still millions of people who have no opportunity to hear His good news of salvation. There are persecutions; there are problems. But, the promise of His presence is real. In our mission work, in our day-to-day activities in the mission field, we face so much persecution. We face so much opposition. But, the one who made this great promise is faithful to His promise. The promise of His presence is real. He has been with us in all our struggles, in all our endeavors to preach the gospel in all the difficult situations which we are going through. He has been with our evangelists when they go to unknown and unwelcome situations; when they walk in the hot sun and dead of the night from village to village when they were being persecuted by the anti-Christian forces.
But, God has been with us. And, this is the same promise He has fulfilled in the lives of many great missionaries in the past, the great missionaries who are sent out from these countries, from these churches. They always face these kinds of problems but, still, God has been faithful and he fulfilled this great promise and their work was successful and there are so many churches established that God’s kingdom is being established.
Well, the celebration of Mission Sunday is also an occasion to rededicate to this cause. As long as these churches are alive to this great commission, as long as they are committed, there is hope for the world, there is hope for the Gospel to be preached. If the churches close down, their chapters, their programs, the mission work—where is the hope? Because there are millions of people who are yet to hear the Word of God. So, these are the Mission Sundays, the great tradition introduced by the wise men of the church, the great church, and we have to keep these traditions.
Once again, I want to thank all of you and the pastor for giving me this opportunity and to share some of our concerns about the mission work because I come from the other side of the world; we have received the Gospel proclaimed by these churches and the blessings we share.
Thank you very much and God bless you.
The Reverend Dr. Paul Bandlamudi C. received
a Ph. D. in Church History from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago (LSTC);
a Bachelor of Divinity from Gurukul Lutheran Theological Seminary, Madras, India;
and a Master of Theology from United Theological College, Bangalore, India
